Task-based planning can be conceptualized as the opportunity to work out task performance before the actual performance. It allows learners to process the content and language of their planned production at a deeper and more meaningful level. In the face of the wide range of research conducted on the effects of pre-task planning on L2 production,…

This article aims to find out the validity of rhythm measurements to capture the rhythmic features of Chinese English. Besides, the reliability of the valid rhythm measurements applied in automatically scoring the English rhythm proficiency of Chinese EFL learners is also explored. Thus, two experiments were carried out. First, thirty students of…

A national study on demand for early childhood care and development programs in Bhutan found strong support for development of a new early childhood care and development (ECCD) sector. A wide range of stakeholders participating in the study, including ministries of education and health, post-secondary institutions, private preschool providers,…

This study takes a dynamic view of transfer as reusing and reshaping previous knowledge in new writing contexts to investigate how novice Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) writers draw on knowledge across languages to construct L1 and L2 texts. We analyzed L1 English and L2 Japanese argumentation essays by the same JFL writers (N = 19) and L1…

Achievement of advanced literacy as a goal of foreign language (FL) study within the available amount of time requires that FL departments construct a well-articulated program and optimize student learning at each stage of the curriculum. One essential element of such optimization is the development of assessment procedures to place students into…

This research explored the congruence and disparity between teachers' and students' attitudes towards French as a second language (L2) teaching strategies in a non-target language classroom context in the USA. The findings suggest students' and teachers' attitudes towards the direct and indirect teaching strategies were generally consistent, but…

Bilinguals are often not fully monolingual-like in either language. With respect to the lexicon, recent research demonstrates that their naming patterns for common household objects tend to converge on a common pattern for the two languages. The present study investigates the developmental trajectory of naming of common household objects in…

This study seeks to explore the cognitive processes involved as bilinguals wrote English and Spanish Facebook status updates. Three phases of data collection were employed: individual interviews, examination of participants' Facebook status updates and a group interview. The findings suggested that regardless of the language in which participants…

In this interview, JD Brown reflects on language testing/assessment. He suggests that language testing can be seen as a continuum with hard core positivist approaches at one end and post modernist interpretive perspectives at the other, and also argues that norm referencing (be it proficiency, placement, or aptitude testing) and criterion…

The Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) has a longstanding history as a model of reading comprehension, but it has mostly been applied to native English speakers. The SVR posits reading comprehension is a function of the interaction between word-level reading skills and oral language skills. It has been…

Among the new and multiple demands from contemporary society, framed in a global context of constant changes and advances, one of the most outstanding needs in recent years is the early acquisition of a second language. It is commonly known that, when starting the process of learning a second language or L2 being in adulthood, the results are not…

Studies on proficient readers showed that speech processing is affected by knowledge of the orthographic code. Yet, the automaticity of the orthographic influence depends on task demand. Here, we addressed this automaticity issue in normal and dyslexic adult readers by comparing the orthographic effects obtained in two speech processing tasks that…

This study outlines a linguistic profile of two subgroups of Italian English circumstantial bilinguals - one dominant in English and the other dominant in Italian--by exploring for the first time their linguistic repertoire through the Gradient Bilingual Dominance Scale (Dunn & Fox Tree, 2009). The scale takes into account language…

The effects of study abroad on students' language proficiency have been analyzed using a number of measures such as surveys, questionnaires and oral proficiency exams (Collentine, 2004; Freed, 1995; Segalowitz, & Freed, 2004). Furthermore, researchers have sought to determine the proficiency gains of study abroad (SA) students by comparing…

The methods to measure vocabulary size vary across disciplines. This heterogeneity hinders direct comparisons between studies and slows down the understanding of research findings. A quick, free and efficient test of English language proficiency, LexTALE, was recently developed to remedy this problem. LexTALE has been validated and shown to be an…