This study examined number marking comprehension among Japanese learners of second language (L2) English, whose first language (L1) does not have an obligatory number marking system. The study conducted an online sentence comprehension experiment with 96 L1-Japanese learners and 32 native speakers of English, wherein participants engaged in a…

This study examined how L2 English speakers interpreted the notion of native English speakers (NESs) and nonnative English speakers (NNESs) and whether nativeness would influence their self-perception and speech production. It aimed at filling the following research gaps. First, limited studies have explored how L2 English speakers view the other…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the intelligibility of English consonants and vowels produced by Chinese-native (CN), and Korean-native (KN) students enrolled in American universities. Method: 16 English-native (EN), 32 CN, and 32 KN speakers participated in this study. The intelligibility of 16 American English consonants and 16…

This study compares how the native speakers of Thai (TTs) and American (AEs) as well as the Thai learners of English as a foreign language with high exposure to English (TEHs) and those with the low exposure (TELs) perform the speech acts of compliments (Cs) by taking the context of age into their consideration. The data were collected by means of…

This study investigated students' perceptions towards Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) and Non-Native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs). Three research questions were asked: (1) What are Chinese EFL students' perceptions towards NESTs and NNESTs?, (2) Are NESTs' and NNESTs' teaching behaviors different according to Chinese EFL students'…

The article explores "culture talk" at the outset of first-time encounters between teachers and students of English as a foreign language in the conversation lounge of a Japanese university. It analyses the interactional procedures by which the foreign place of origin of the teacher becomes the topic of conversation following his or her…

The current study investigated how recasts can promote the L2 pronunciation development of word-initial /?/ by Japanese learners of English in relation to two developmental stages of English /?/ acquisition (i.e. change in second formant [F2] ? change in third formant [F3]) as well as four affecting variables (i.e. the amount of recasts and…

Previous research within the field of argumentation has established that argumentation plays an important role in a variety of professions. Written argumentation has been extensively explored and investigated to examine its various aspects, including argument structures and schemes, argumentative strength, the role of audience, the evaluation of…

This study investigated the effect of language immersion in an English-speaking environment on the production of intonational features in L2 English sentences. It was hypothesized that the Korean group who had been immersed in the English language as children would have intonation patterns more similar to native English speakers than a nonimmersed…

As the population of international--and particularly Chinese--students grows in US academic institutions, it is critical that writing center tutors be able to address these students' needs. However, whereas writing tutors at the author's institution are often taught to be indirect and focus on higher order concerns, such strategies are not always…

Background: While English is becoming as a tool of communication and interaction with people from different countries in the global society of the twenty-first century due to the trend toward globalization and internationalization, those who study abroad and immerse themselves in the host culture may experience intercultural learning naturally…

This paper reported findings on a contrastive analysis of epistemic expressions in argumentative essays between NS and NNS Chinese L2 writers. Based on an examination of a NS corpus and a NNS learner corpus across four proficiency levels, the study shows there is great similarity in the total number of epistemic devices used per thousand words…

This mix-methods study examined the language anxiety levels that the Chinese international students perceived in second language (L2) academic context at four universities in the northeastern region of the United States of America; it explored the impact of language anxiety that these students perceived on their academic learning; it also…

Researches in language anxiety have focused on the level of language anxiety so far. This study instead, hypothesizes that the interpretation of anxiety and the recognition of failure have an impact on learning and investigates how language anxiety and intrinsic motivation affect the use of learning strategies through the recognition of failure.…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the instructor's accent influences the students' learning outcome, as well as how a student's accent perceptions may affect their learning. Unlike native voices, accented voices are not natural to the native speakers; therefore, it requires more cognitive resources for processing the information,…