Little is known about what academics focus on when providing assessment feedback to international students for whom English is an additional language (EAL). This study examines written assessment feedback provided to 11 EAL-speaking international students throughout a two-year Master of Social Work programme and investigates their perspectives of…

The University English Centres of Australia (UECA) 'Assessment Symposium: Assessment Practice in a Changing World' at Southern Cross University in October 2022 highlighted the growing interest in integrated assessment in Australian university direct entry programs (DEPs) for English as Additional Language (EAL) students. In keynote presentations,…

This study investigates the effect of personal investment in the form of learner-generated content (LGC) on the lexical recall of beginning-level learners of Chinese. The study employed a 2 x 2 repeated-measures design with content at two levels -- teacher-generated content or TGC, and learner-generated content or LGC -- and time at two levels…

Chinese universities are actively pursuing cross-border collaborations in the form of transnational higher education programmes. Our study captures the experiences of Chinese students to illuminate how they navigate their learning journeys in a China-Australia articulation programme. To communicate the complexity of learning in modern…

To address the demands from their courses, students with insufficient language proficiency who cannot attend the standard subject-specific academic language development program are directed to an alternative discipline-specific program -- the Language Development Tutorial in Block mode, at the University of Technology Sydney. This practice report…

Student characteristics, their attitude to school and classroom climate can influence teacher-student relationships and adjustment to school. Poor early school experiences are associated with school avoidance, disruptive behaviour, teacher conflict, and suspension and exclusion. The focus, however, remains on the behaviour of individual children,…

Effective test preparation for high-stakes English language tests is crucial for candidates whose futures depend on attaining a particular score. An increasing number of studies have investigated the role of test preparation; however, these studies have been exclusively conducted in individual contexts and countries around the world. This study…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the intelligibility and attitude towards four English varieties to Korean-speaking learners (KSLs) of English, who have been exposed mainly to General American (or Korean-accented English) in their English language learning classrooms throughout the primary and secondary schools. A total of 105 Korean…

The use of integrated tasks to test English-speaking skills raises questions about the impact of comprehension on test score outcomes, and the impact of stimulus materials on test-taker strategic behaviours. This study analysed speaking performances and verbal report data to examine the strategies used by test takers at different levels of…

This study looks at the Chinese-learning experiences of six classroom learners who continued to the end of secondary school in Victoria, Australia, through in-depth interviews. Various systemic deterrents to continued Chinese language study are identified by the participants, including: (1) the schooling journey, including transition between…

Globalized English proficiency tests such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are increasingly playing the role of gatekeepers in a globalizing world. Although the use of the IELTS as a "policy tool" for making decisions in the areas of study, work and migration impacts on test-takers' lives and life chances, not…

This study investigates the impact that study in Australia has on the lexical knowledge of Saudi Arabian students. It focuses on: 1) the effects that the length of study in Australia has on the acquisition of lexical collocations, as reflected by lexical knowledge tests, and 2) whether there is a significant gender difference in the acquisition of…

Students entering English-medium universities frequently struggle to cope with the language demands of their degree programmes, despite having met the English language entry conditions stipulated by their receiving institutions. This can have significant repercussions for the teaching-learning process, for the student experience and for…

Courtroom interpreting requires a high level of accuracy due to the strategic use of language in such an institutional setting. It is generally agreed among interpreting scholars that quality interpreting in court should accurately relay both propositional content and illocutionary force of the original utterances. This high standard of accuracy…

This article addresses the suitability of the CEFR as the basis for decisions about the readiness of individuals to engage in academic writing tasks in undergraduate university courses, and as a guide to progress. The CEFR offers potentially relevant general scales and subscales, but also more specific subscales for writing in the academic…