In recent years, English instruction has emphasized the importance of listening comprehension; however, playing CDs in class is still the most widely used approach to practicing English listening skills in Taiwan. It is obvious that this training approach cannot satisfy individual needs, thus reducing the effect of promoting English listening…

This article presents a protocol for utilizing conferring strategies for reading conferences with English Language Learners (ELLs) as a means to support their reading comprehension skills and develop content area vocabulary in middle level education. The Conferring with English Language Learners (CELL) Protocol emphasizes ELLs' conversational…

Many recent articles have focused on reading instruction in kindergarten, but few have solicited the beliefs of the experts--kindergarten teachers. This study examined California teachers' perceptions of teaching reading to kindergarten students. Kindergarten teachers from northern to southern California were surveyed (N = 103). Teachers reported…

In EFL context of higher education, reading comprehension is considered one of the most indispensable skills to learn. The aim of the present was to explores the perceptions of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) with regard to the role of Bandura's four hypothesized sources for reading self-efficacy in reading comprehension. A…

This article reviews research findings involving visual input in speech processing in the form of facial cues and co-speech gestures for second-language (L2) learners, and provides pedagogical implications for the teaching of listening and speaking. It traces the foundations of auditory-visual speech research and explores the role of a speaker's…

Reading comprehension expectations in content areas have increased for students during the past decade. Many secondary students, including students with learning disabilities, improve their reading proficiency of grade-level text when they receive explicit instruction. The authors propose a self-questioning strategy routine designed to enhance…

In this study, middle school language arts teachers engaged in focus group interviews and shared their perceptions of content literacy, experiential learning, assessment data, and refined practice prior to and after participating in a sustained content literacy professional development. Findings based on these perceptions demonstrate a need for…

Purpose: This study examined whether monolingual German-speaking preschool children with developmental language disorder (DLD) were facilitated by the presence of case-marking cues in their interpretation of German subject and object "welcher" ("which")-questions, as reported for their typically developing peers. We also…

It is common in intervention research to use measures of working memory either as an explanatory or a control variable. This study examines the contribution of cognitive abilities, including verbal working memory (WM) and attention, to language performance in first- and second-grade children. We assessed children (N = 414) on two forms of verbal…

Using authentic audio-visual material in early language classes has become commonplace, but little prior empirical research has been published regarding why this pedagogical technique is effective for some students, and not others. This study examines the process of engagement and transportation of beginning foreign language learners into an…

We investigated the word-reading development of adult second-language learners of English. A sample of 70 (Mandarin or Cantonese) Chinese-speaking students enrolled in a university-level English bridging program at a Canadian university silently read passages of text at the beginning and end of the program while their eye movements were recorded.…

Previous studies mostly examined the role of orthographic knowledge in basic reading processing (i.e., word-reading), however, regarding higher reading processing (i.e., sentence- and text-comprehension), mixed results were reported. In addition, previous research in transparent languages, such as German, focused mostly on typically skilled…

This study reports on the use of Moodle as a platform for incorporating the online reciprocal teaching (RT) application into a freshman English Reading course in Taiwan. Data on the 53 students' perceptions and experiences of Moodle-based RT application were collected using a questionnaire, and their actual reading comprehension was measured via a…

Despite decades of research on the close link between eye movements and human cognitive processes, the exact nature of the link between eye movements and deliberative thinking in problem-solving remains unknown. Thus, this study explored the critical eye-movement indicators of deliberative thinking and investigated whether visual behaviors could…

The aim of this study is to investigate the academic success, self-efficacy and psychological resilience of sixth-grade students who started primary school in different age groups and who were followed up longitudinally. The study group of this research consisted of a total of 485 students, 73 of whom were longitudinally trained in the sixth…