The present study was conducted at Parsayan Language Institute in Isfahan, Iran. The students in pre-intermediate and intermediate classes were examined to investigate the relationship between degrees of learner autonomy, use of strategies for coping with speaking problems and the learners' success in their speaking classes. To determine the…

International students pursuing graduate education in U.S. institutes have been rapidly increasing in recent years. Students from all over the world remarkably contribute to the advancement of U.S. economy and technology. This article addresses the challenges and opportunities international students face during and after graduate education. The…

With the trend toward globalization and the continual change of the ethnic composition of the U.S. population, there is increasing awareness in the U.S. that not every child is raised in an English-only family. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationships among heritage language proficiency, ethnic identity, and self-esteem in the…

There are important cultural differences in attitudes towards and use of electronic text communication. Consistent with Hall's high-context/low-context conceptualization of culture, electronic inter-cultural communication, just as verbal inter-cultural communication, is affected by the culturally-specific assumptions and preferences of message…

Implementing assessment reform can be challenging. Proposed new assessments must be seen by stakeholders to be fit for purpose, and sometimes the perceptions of key stakeholders, such as teachers and students, may differ from the assessment developers. This article considers the recent introduction of a new high-stakes assessment of spoken…

Self-assessment has been used to assess second language proficiency; however, as sources of measurement errors vary, they may threaten the validity and reliability of the tools. The present paper investigated the role of experiences in using Japanese as a second language in the naturalistic acquisition context on the accuracy of the…

Synchronous written chat and instant messaging are tools which have been used and explored in online language learning settings for at least two decades. Research literature has shown that such tools give second language (L2) learners opportunities for language learning, e.g. , the interaction in real time with peers and native speakers, the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the reading behavior of young proficient Chinese readers at preschool age. Especially, the roles of phonetic skill and Chinese Character recognition in reading comprehension were explored. 10 kindergartens were recruited to participate in the study. Subjects were 72-98 kindergarten children. Instruments…

Many scholars have described the various challenges international students face in Western developed countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Some of the challenges include differences in culture, language barriers, adjustment problems, medical concerns, pedagogical challenges, housing issues, lack of support…

The ever growing interest in the development of foreign or second (L2) oral proficiency in a computer-mediated communication (CMC) classroom has resulted in a large body of studies looking at both the direct and indirect effects of CMC interventions on the acquisition of oral competences. The present study employed a quantitative meta-analytic…

This study aims to investigate the acquisition of English verb morphology by learners of two typologically different L1s and the role of L1 transfer in the acquisition pattern, a cross-sectional study (n = 180) carried with Chinese and Mongolian college students learning English at two proficiency levels, using the cloze passage and composition.…

The current study unites multiple theories (i.e., the orthographic depth hypothesis and linguistic grain size theory, the simple view of reading, and the common underlying proficiency model) to explore differences in how 113 fourth-grade Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) approached reading in their native language of Spanish, which is…

Numerous studies have shown that bilinguals presented with words in one of their languages spontaneously and automatically activate lexical representations from their other language. However, such effects, found in varied experimental contexts, both in behavioural and psychophysiological investigations, have been essentially limited to the…

This study focuses on variation within a group of learners of Spanish (N = 253) who produced requests and complaints via a written discourse completion task. It examines the effects of learner and situational variables on production--the effect of proficiency and addressee-gender on speech-act choice and the effect of perception of imposition on…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate what miscue analysis, a method described as a "window" into the reading process, can reveal about first and second language reading. Two participants, native English speakers proficient in Spanish, read and retold two folktales: one in English and one in Spanish. The researcher performed…