The extent to which L2 television is viewed by foreign language learners will depend on the degree to which it is understood. The addition of captions has been shown to support comprehension (e.g., Birulés-Muntané & Soto-Faraco, 2016; Montero-Perez, Peters, & Desmet, 2014), especially when proficiency is low (e.g., Lavaur & Bairstow,…

The inclusion of students with disabilities in the education system results in content or assessment accommodations to suit the students' special needs and to ensure they have acquired the objectives listed in the curriculum. In this paper, we aim at proposing different ways to accommodate a university English language test to a partially blind…

Computer based testing has become a prevailing tendency in education. Each year, a large number of students take online language tests everywhere in the world. In fact, there is a tendency to make these tests more and more used due to their low cost of delivery. However, many students are forced to take them despite their interests, feelings and…

The present investigation explores Cognitive Test Anxiety (CTA) in a high-stake oral examination, taking into consideration how face-to-face and computer-based examination formats affect test-takers' anxiety and consequently language performance. Two speaking tests -- face-to-face and computer-based -- were developed for a Spanish university's…

It is essential for foreign language learners to have adequate opportunities for speaking in order to enhance the acquisition of oral communicative competence. Although research over the last few years has dealt with the potential of podcasting for the development of oral competencies, little has been done towards its application in the…

Repeated viewing of the same video is a common strategy among autonomous language learners as well as a much used pedagogical strategy among foreign language (FL) teachers. Learners may watch the same video more than once, to increase global comprehension of the target language or to focus their attention on linguistic aspects, such as new…

Most language proficiency exams in Europe are presently developed so that reported scores can be related to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (CEFR; (Council of Europe. 2001. "Common European framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.).…

The requirement of holding a diploma which certifies proficiency level in a foreign language is constantly increasing in academic and working environments. Computer-based testing has become a prevailing tendency for these and other educational purposes. Each year large numbers of students take online language tests everywhere in the world. In…

Despite institutional and national focus on the importance of study abroad (SA) in U.S. higher education, the number of students of color abroad is still disproportionately low (Institute of International Education, 2017). Moreover, there is limited literature examining how race and ethnicity shapes experiences abroad, despite SA research…

This paper contributes towards a framework for analysing the effect of teaching Economics through a foreign language, in order to discover best practices that foster key content and language skills for Higher Education institutions following language bilingual programmes. The first part of the paper deals with the benefits and problems of…

In this paper, we explore the extent to which a stay abroad in a Danish university in which English is a frequent medium of instruction can be a very suitable context for students to increase their language proficiency and to develop both awareness of their communicative skills and their confidence in them. The data analysed come from (i) a pre-…

Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing.…

There is a lack of research on the impact of study abroad (SA) on the development of L2 English when students study in non-anglophone countries. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap by examining 39 Catalan/Spanish students who, as part of an Erasmus exchange, spent a term at universities in non-English-speaking European countries. In…

This article attempts to shed some light on the possible learning benefits for language acquisition and intercultural development of authentic social interaction with expert peers through computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. The environments used in this study are video communication and the 3D virtual world "Second Life." For…

Language learning has been increasingly influenced by technology over the last decades thanks to its positive effects on language acquisition. It is thanks to the technology's supportive role towards language learning that an increasing number of online foreign language courses have appeared. Besides, foreign language courses are more and more…