Since 2010, both universities in which the authors teach have integrated pc-based e-learning or mobile learning programs into several English courses. Students' online performances are evaluated and used in determining the grades for each course. The data accumulated over the years indicates both changing and unchanged e-learning habits among…

Cloze tests have been the subject of numerous studies regarding their function and use in both first language and second language contexts (e.g., Jonz & Oller, 1994; Watanabe & Koyama, 2008). From a validity standpoint, one area of investigation has been the extent to which cloze tests measure reading ability beyond the sentence level.…

National cultural distance is considered to be a strong predictor of language learners' pragmatic competence. To test the actual effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely, the current study was conducted on two groups of undergraduate…

Feedback, or information given to learners regarding their performance, is found to facilitate second language (L2) learning. Research also suggests that the timing of feedback (whether it is provided immediately or after a delay) may affect learning. The purpose of the present study was to identify the optimal feedback timing for L2 vocabulary…

The current study longitudinally examined the influence of aptitude on second language (L2) pronunciation development when 40 first-year Japanese university students engaged in practice activities inside and outside English-as-a-Foreign-Language classrooms over one academic year. Spontaneous speech samples were elicited at the beginning, middle,…

Background: This study investigated the consequential validity of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic exam, specifically focusing on washback upon learners' test preparation strategies and score gain, and the mediating factors influencing washback when learners in an EFL context are not enrolled in test preparation…

This study investigates the effects of cognacy on vocabulary learning. The research expands on earlier designs by measuring learning of English-Japanese cognates with both decontextualized and contextualized tests, scoring responses at two levels of sensitivity, and examining learning in a more ecologically valid setting. The results indicated…

The present study investigated the effects of instruction on the use of the definite article "the" by Japanese learners of English by implementing two instructional treatments that varied in the extent to which they emphasized identifiability and accessibility. One instructional treatment, referred to as the traditional (TR) treatment,…

A list number recall test in English (L2) was administered to both Japanese (L1) students with beginning-level English proficiency who attended evening high school and Japanese college students with intermediate-level English proficiency. The major findings were that, only for the high school group, the small numbers 1 and 2 in middle positions of…

The present study addressed the role of speed as a factor in tests of second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge, presupposing that speed of performance is important in actual language use. Research questions were: (a) Do learners with a larger vocabulary size answer faster on an L2 vocabulary breadth test than smaller vocabulary sized learners?;…

This exploratory study investigated the effect of assessing both process and product compared to assessing written products alone. Two groups of students received teacher feedback over a one-year period. One group was assessed on their revisions in addition to the quality of final drafts, while a second group was assessed on the quality of final…

The purpose of this paper is to compare the efficiency of the core schema-based instruction (SBI) in learning English prepositions between two groups that were placed depending on learners' level of English proficiency. The SBI in the present study refers to a way of teaching in which the schematic core meaning of a given lexical item is provided.…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effective use of the core schema-based instruction (SBI) in a classroom setting. The core schema is a schematic representation of the common underlying meaning of a given lexical item, and was first proposed on the basis of the cognitive linguistic perspectives by the Japanese applied linguists Tanaka,…

This case study investigated the characteristics of computer-mediated synchronous corrective feedback (SCF, provided while students wrote) and asynchronous corrective feedback (ACF, provided after students had finished writing) in an EFL writing task. The task, designed to elicit the use of the hypothetical conditional, was completed by two…

This study investigates the effect of using digital flashcards on L2 vocabulary learning compared to using paper flashcards, at different levels of English proficiency. Although flashcards are generally believed to be one of the most efficient vocabulary study techniques available, little empirical data is available in terms of the comparative…