The recently published article "English Proficiency Tests and Communication Skills Training for Overseas-Qualified Health Professionals in Australia and New Zealand" (Wette, 2011) aims to address perceived problems and misconceptions associated with the testing of English language skills and professional communicative competence of…

Dyslexia is hard to diagnose in a second language. Poor performance on a test of reading may be caused by poor language proficiency in the second language or by limited schooling rather than by poor reading ability per se. This confound was supported in a study of 88 adult second language learners and 65 native language speakers. The incidence of…

In this study, repeated measures item response data from an English language proficiency (ELP) test administered over 2 years were analyzed by item response theory-based approaches to model change over time. First, change over time was modeled by an item side change approach where change was parameterized at the item level. Second, more…

There is a correlation between language proficiency and achievement in mathematics (Riordain & O'Donoghue, 2009), and this is particularly evident for children who speak English as an additional language or dialect. More effort needs to be made in mathematics classrooms to develop cognitive competencies, including the ability to decode and…

Since speaking well in English is crucial for English language literature undergraduates, the present study aimed at describing difficulties that may be encountered at an EFL setting. The sample was stratified random as drawn from six Jordanian public universities. Survey questionnaires as well as semi-structured interviews were constructed. 64…

This study aimed at investigating the impact of extensive reading on improving reading proficiency. The study tried to find the effect of ER on EFL student's reading, vocabulary and grammar. The researcher designed two instruments; a program based on the extensive reading strategy and general test. Forty-one university students who study English…

This study examines how the English officialization policy of higher education in an EFL context interplays with administrative workers' motivational orientations towards English learning. The data consisted of questionnaire responses of 117 administrative members with undergraduate degrees and qualitative interviews with 9 who answered the…

The effects of "transitional-bilingual" and "dual-language" educational models on proficiency in students' home language (Spanish) were examined in a study of English language learners in the first and second grades in a large urban elementary school. In each grade, students were taught with either a transitional-bilingual…

This paper presents the results of a study that compared the French as a second official achievement of three groups of students: (1) Canadian-born English speaking (CBE), (2) Canadian-born multilingual (CBM), and (3) immigrant multilinguals (IMM) as determined by multiskills test results. ANOVAs and subsequent post hoc tests revealed that the…

This article explores a number of key issues that emerged during the panel discussion that followed the General Language Proficiency Symposium at the Language Testing Forum (LTF) 2010, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the LTF. The key issues that emerged during the discussion should be of interest to a wider audience, as they express current…

The authors investigate the information content of two commonly used admission tests, namely the Graduate Management Admission Test and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The analysis extends prior research by investigating the incremental information content of individual components from one admission test conditional on the…

The predictive validity and accuracy of an oral reading fluency (ORF) measure for a statewide assessment in English language arts was examined for second-grade native English speakers (NESs) and English learners (ELs) with varying levels of English proficiency. In addition to comparing ELs with native English speakers, the impact of English…

A common predictor of language gains during study abroad (SA) is amount of language use. Yet little attention has been given to determining what factors influence the extent of language use while abroad. Studies in this area have mainly been case studies of learners in single locations. In this larger study, we seek to determine variables…

This study investigates acquisition of second language (L2) vocabulary from reading a connected authentic text. Advanced and upper-intermediate L2 (English) participants read a long expository text for general understanding, with embedded critical vocabulary items (pseudowords). Explicit knowledge of the critical items was examined using a meaning…

The present study is a large-scale quantitative analysis of intra-individual variation (linked to type of interlocutor) and inter-individual variation (linked to multilingualism, sociobiographical variables and three personality traits) in self-reported frequency of code-switching (CS) among 2116 multilinguals. We found a significant effect of…