Second language (L2) listening comprehension is a function of many variables. We focused on metacognitive awareness, which we measured using the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ; Vandergrift et al., 2006), and meta-analyzed (a) the factor structure of the MALQ and (b) the relationship between metacognitive awareness and L2…

Background: Reading and listening comprehension are essential for accessing the school curriculum. Inference-making is integral to successful comprehension and involves integrating information between clauses (local coherence) and integrating information with background knowledge (global coherence). We require appropriate methods to assess…

College students enrolled in a reading support course were asked to (a) read a short text, (b) listen to a second text, and (c) read + listen to a third text and answer multiple-choice comprehension questions about each text. Each condition employed a self-study format allowing for constant availability of text input and extra time to revisit text…

Writing an integrated essay based on multiple-documents requires students to both comprehend the documents and integrate the documents into a coherent essay. In the current study, we examined the effects of summarization as a potential reading strategy to enhance participants' multiple-document comprehension and integrated essay writing.…

The present study examines the impact of implementing video captioning and subtitles on listening comprehension with special reference to the speaker's speed. A total of 64 undergraduate Saudi EFL learners were assigned into six groups: fast speaker with full captioning, fast speaker with subtitles, fast speaker with no captioning nor subtitles,…

The current study investigated the effects of a novel, research-informed intervention on listening comprehension skills of students identified as English Language Learners and the parental self-efficacy of their parental learning partner. Twenty-six student-parent dyads were split into two groups; one that participated in sixteen listening lessons…

Dictation is a traditional technique for both teaching and testing overall language ability and listening comprehension. In a dictation, a passage is read aloud by the teacher and examinees write down what they hear. Due to the peculiar form of dictations, psychometric analysis of dictations is challenging. In a dictation, there is no clear…

In response to the calls for making key stakeholders' perspectives relevant in the test validation process, the study discussed in this report sought test-taker feedback as part of collecting validity evidence and supporting the ongoing field testing efforts of the new "TOEFL ITP"® Speaking section. Specifically, I aimed to investigate…

Engaging in explanation while studying expository science texts can improve comprehension. The present study varied the timing of explanation activities and restudy opportunities before taking final comprehension tests on a set of 6 topics studied as part of a course in Introduction to Psychology. When students had the opportunity to restudy in…

This report documents the norming study procedure used to produce the achievement and growth user norms for English MAP Reading Fluency Foundational Skills. It also provides snapshots of the achievement and growth norms for each grade and domain.

This is the first study to investigate the effects of test methods (while-listening performance and post-listening performance) and gender on measured listening ability and brain activation under test conditions. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to examine three brain regions associated with listening comprehension: the…

Reading comprehension is measured differently between classroom and more formal approaches to assessment. Traditional reading comprehension assessments often prompt students to read a multi-paragraph passage prior to displaying a set of questions that are related to the passage; however, this approach is not utilized during classroom practices.…

Using standardized tests such as paper-based TOEFL with three subtests for classroom assessment is restricted by the length of the test, which is usually longer than the class duration. Therefore, it is significant to be able to predict other subtests by conducting only one subtest. Therefore, the current study aimed to calculate prediction…

How does conceptual structure of external representations contribute to learning? This investigation considered the influence of generative concept sorting and of external structure information moderated by perceived difficulty. In Study 1, undergraduate students completed a perceived difficulty survey and comprehension pretest, then a sorting…

In sociolinguistic contexts where standardized languages coexist with regional dialects, the study of differential item functioning is a valuable tool for examining certain linguistic uses or varieties as threats to score validity. From an ecological perspective, this paper describes three stages in the study of differential item functioning…