Purpose: In this study, we examined syntactic complexity in the spoken language samples of young adults. Its purpose was to contribute to the expanding knowledge base in later language development and to begin building a normative database of language samples that potentially could be used to evaluate young adults with known or suspected language…

Students need opportunities to be creative and express themselves while learning a new language, during both classroom activities and tests at the end of a term or unit. The focus of the author's practice when assessing students' knowledge is to use creative dialogue techniques as a way to prevent students from simply repeating a given dialogue…

This study examines the contribution of print exposure to oral language (expressive vocabulary and listening comprehension) and reading (word reading and reading comprehension) in first and second grade in Chile, and tests whether the contribution of print exposure to reading comprehension is mediated by language and word reading skills.…

This study investigates how the use of discourse markers reflects speaking fluency in Chinese learners. In this study, 220 min of online Chinese courses were transcribed, with 17 Chinese learners and 5 native Chinese teachers as participants. Half of the transcribed data were drawn from students living in Taipei, Taiwan, a Chinese-speaking…

This dissertation investigates the lexical f[subscript 0] control in Mandarin within the framework of Articulatory Phonology (AP) in two experiments: an imitation study (Experiment 1) and an Electromagnetic Articulography production study (Experiment 2). Empirical results are accounted for by making reference to a gestural model of f[subscript o]…

Children with limited oral language due to developmental and language delays have difficulty with communication in their everyday lives. Their trouble with speech and/or language impacts their ability to socialize with peers and learn in the school setting. Most of the research on alternative and augmentative communication systems and oral…

Knowledge about preschool predictors of later reading comprehension is valuable for several reasons. On a general level, longitudinal studies can aid in generating understanding and causal hypotheses about language and literacy development, both of which are crucial processes in child development. A better understanding of these developmental…

This study investigates the preferences of EFL learners for oral corrective feedback in relation to their learning styles in order to determine whether there exists a relationship between the two. The sample consisted of 348 preparatory class students studying English as a Foreign Language at a state university in Turkey. A questionnaire was…

Obtaining oral communication competency is an important skill for engineering students to prepare them for interacting and working in any professional setting. For engineers, it is also important to be able to present technical information to non-technical audiences. To ensure oral competency, a non-graded formative assessment approach using video…

Teaching and learning in the 21st century is dealt with challenges and novelties. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between 21st century skills, EFL learners' speaking and writing skills. The participants comprised 122 EFL learners from three private language institutes of Mashhad. Their selection was based on convenience…

Research on multilingual acquisition has investigated various combinations of languages to identify the factors determining how learners express motion. Our research examines the semantics of motion expression in learners whose first language (L1) exhibits more variation than their foreign language (L2/L3). The present study compares upward motion…

This paper focuses on the acquisition of locative prepositional phrases in L1 Norwegian. We report on two production experiments with children acquiring Norwegian as their first language and compare the results to similar experiments conducted with Russian children. The results of the experiments show that Norwegian children at age 2 regularly…

Studies on oral corrective feedback have been mainly directed towards cognitive factors. Practical aspects of error correction have been ignored to a large extent. The present study attempted to fill this gap by investigating teachers' practice and beliefs about oral error correction and the priorities they set for themselves and comparing the…

The ability to interact with others has gained recognition as part of the L2 speaking construct in the assessment literature and in high- and low-stakes speaking assessments. This paper first presents a review of the literature on interactional competence (IC) in L2 learning and assessment. It then discusses a particular feature--"producing…

This paper describes the development of preschool literacy education in Slovakia, beginning with the communist era, when the country was isolated from broader international academic discourse and early literacy research, then the period after the fall of the totalitarian regime up to the present day. It describes how the traditional approach to…