Background: Syntax is a language skill purported to support children's reading comprehension. However, researchers who have examined whether children with average and below-average reading comprehension score significantly different on spoken-syntax assessments report inconsistent results. Aims: To determine if differences in how syntax is…

Sighted speakers of different languages vary systematically in how they package and order components of a motion event in speech. These differences influence how semantic elements are organized in gesture, but only when those gestures are produced with speech (co-speech gesture), not without speech (silent gesture). We ask whether the…

Since its beginning, the education of deaf and hard of hearing individuals has been steeped in a debate around language, as professionals have clashed in a debate on whether signed or spoken language should be used as the primary language of instruction and communication with deaf and hard of hearing individuals. This has created a condition in…

The ability to clearly disseminate scientific knowledge is a skill that is necessary for any undergraduate student within the sciences. Traditionally, this is accomplished through the instruction of scientific presentation or writing with a focus on peer-to-peer communication at the expense of teaching communication aimed at a nonscientific…

This article provides an overview and evaluation of the uses--actual and potential--of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken dialogue systems (SDS), related technologies that can be applied to second language speaking assessment, given particular definitions of the construct. Both technologies have only gradually moved in the direction of…

Perceptual grouping is fundamental to many auditory processes. The Iambic-Trochaic Law (ITL) is a default grouping strategy, where rhythmic alternations of duration are perceived iambically (weak-strong), while alternations of intensity are perceived trochaically (strong-weak). Some argue that the ITL is experience dependent. For instance, French…

In Iran the age of learning English as a foreign language is decreasing yearly. It is obvious that learning English at a very early age is a most appropriate time to start. The investigation in this study is focused on the speech act of request. Instructional effects of learning request strategies are assessed in preschoolers who received…

We meta-analyzed the effectiveness of incidental second language word learning from spoken input. Our sample contained 105 effect sizes from 32 primary studies employing meaning-focused word-learning activities with 1,964 participants with typical cognitive functioning. The random-effects meta-analysis yielded a mean effect size of g = 1.05,…

The study examined the role of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in concurrent and subsequent oral vocabulary among Chinese-English bilingual children who learned Chinese as their heritage language and English as their societal language. Ninety-one Chinese-English bilingual children in kindergarten and Grade 1 who were recruited…

Children are known to use different types of referential gestures (e.g., deictic, iconic) from a very young age. In contrast, their use of non-referential gestures is not well established. This study investigated the use of "stroke-defined non-referential" 'beat' gestures in a story-retelling and an exposition task by twelve 6-year-olds,…

This study examined the relations between and predictive power of three important subcomponents skills of reading comprehension: decoding, listening comprehension, and reading fluency. Through a series of structural equation models, we examine the relations within a full sample of first grade students at the beginning of the year (N = 290). Next,…

The purpose of this study is to find out if there is a correlation between the anxiety of a foreign language in nursing students and their performance in an oral examination, and if it exists, how strong is that correlation. It also aims to examine the effect that different levels of anxiety have on students' oral test scores and how students feel…

It is well known that information from spoken language is integrated into reading processes, but the nature of these links and how they are acquired is less well understood. Recent evidence has suggested that predictions about the written form of newly learned spoken words are already generated prior to print exposure. We extend this work to…

This study examined responses from a questionnaire administered to 98 second- and third-generation Rohingya refugees living in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Questions concerned participants' self-reported language proficiency levels in the Rohingya heritage language and Arabic and patterns of language use in various domains. Findings demonstrate that the…

This study examined low-proficiency Iranian EFL students' affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement with oral corrective feedback (OCF) on interdental fricative errors: /?/and/ð/. The data were collected from 27 learners with favorable and unfavorable perceptions about OCF. After receiving OCF on 30 tested and 30 untested lexical items in…