The purpose of this study is to measure the comprehensibility of the Expanding Circle nations' citizens, namely Burmese, Cambodians, Indonesians, Laotians, Thais and Vietnamese towards the Outer Circle Englishes, namely Bruneian English, Malaysian English. Philippine English and Singaporean English. Ten universities in the Expanding Circle that…

The current study aims to investigate form, composition, distribution of acknowledgement and agreement/assessment signals in upper intermediate/advanced Italian as L2 speakers. Data are video-transcribed computer mediated conversations for mutual language learning (Teletandem) during which two female volunteer university students (L1: English and…

This paper focuses on meaning making as a process that can transform English learners' participation in mathematics. Using selected video transcripts from a one year long project in a fourth grade bilingual classroom, the paper documents the development of participation along a continuum of meaning making, from preparing students to transform…

The purpose of this study was to analyze how participants' levels of hemoglobin as they performed mathematics fluency and reading fluency (reading comprehension) compare. We used Optical Topography (OT, helmet type brain-scanning system, also known as Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy or fNIRS) to measure levels of brain activity. A central…

The purpose of this study was to generate an understanding of the experiences of mathematics teachers examining recommendations for Reasoning and Sense Making (NCTM, 2009) and investigating them in their practice. Narrative inquiry incorporates the voices of teachers and illustrates the phenomenon studied through narratives of participants'…

This paper describes methods for an alignment study and psychometric analyses of a formative assessment system, Diagnoser Tools for physics. Diagnoser Tools begin with facet clusters as the interpretive framework for designing questions and instructional activities. Thus each question in the diagnostic assessments includes distractors that…

For the past few decades, instructional materials enriched with multimedia elements have enjoyed increasing popularity. Multimedia-based instruction incorporating stimulating visuals, authentic audios, and interactive animated graphs of different kinds all provide additional and valuable opportunities for students to learn beyond what conventional…

In the current study, it was examined whether successful learning is related to using different types of media. We compared the comprehension of an economic concept in novices (N = 82) under three conditions: a Wikipedia article, a funny, and a serious YouTube video. The media were presented in English which is a foreign language to most of the…

Reading in the content areas of science, social studies, and current events is a difficult task that is even more elusive to Spanish speaking English language learners. There is a huge increase in children transitioning from their L1 (e.g., Spanish) to L2 (e.g., English) in classrooms across the US. These ELs face challenges due to a lack of…

Saudi college students majoring in translation take 6 interpreting courses. In those courses, they practice listening to and interpreting authentic lectures in a variety of subject areas. Results of an interpreting pretest showed that college students majoring in an interpreting course have problems with media reports. They have difficulty…

Within the field of higher education, the majority of quantitative research focuses on college students. Given the limitations of institutional databases, surveys of college students have become one of the largest and most frequently used data sources. In addition, surveys of college students play an increasingly important role in evaluating…

Because idioms are omnipresent in the authentic language students are exposed to, to successfully comprehend and produce natural language, learners of a second or foreign language need to possess a good knowledge of idioms and competence in idiom use. This paper examines the approaches to teaching and learning idioms. A discussion of the…

This article is a report on the findings of a case study that focuses on a first grade teacher's noticing of children's understanding of linear measurement along a learning trajectory, extending Jacobs and her colleagues' framework (Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp, 2010). It documents what the teacher noticed in terms of attending to and interpreting…

Although ubiquitous learning enhances students' access to learning materials, it is crucial to find out which media delivery modes produce the best results for English listening comprehension. The present study examined the effect of media delivery mode (sound and text vs. sound) on English listening comprehension and cognitive load. Participants…

This study investigated whether integrating cognitive-motivational strategies into multimedia-based English instruction could improve low-achievers' academic performance in grammar comprehension and reading comprehension. Forty-four students participated in this study for five weeks. They were all in the same class and under the same instruction…