This study attempts to investigate how four groups of participants at Tra Vinh University perceive oral fluency. This study is conducted in the hope to obtain more perceptions of oral fluency so future rubrics can be developed based on such perceptions. The study used a set of items stating what oral fluency should be like, which was developed…

This study aims to investigate the level and the sources of Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA). To achieve this aim, a mixed-method approach was used by implementing a questionnaire and interviews. Eighty-five female Saudi EFL university students completed the questionnaire. Six of the most highly anxious students were identified according…

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and spoken performances of non-English major university students in Indonesia. The study found that learners experienced various degrees of FLA with the mean score 93.07 (SD = 17.69, N = 119). This study also found a statistically significant, negative…

This study investigated the comparative effects of strategic and unpressured within-task planning on second language (L2) Chinese oral production and the role of working memory in mediating the effects of the two types of planning. Twenty-nine L2 Chinese learners at a large New Zealand university performed a narrative task after watching a…

Flow represents a state of complete involvement and heightened intensity that leads to improved performance on a task (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, 1990). The notion of flow has the potential to provide worthwhile insights into the area of task engagement, yet the construct has received relatively little empirical attention by second language…

This study investigates the effect of social evaluation on Public Speaking Anxiety of English foreign language learners at Omar Al-Mukhtar University in Libya. A random sample of 111 students was used in the study. To analyse the collected data, means, standard deviations, a three-way ANOVA analysis, and the correlation coefficients were used with…

This article analyzes the effect of working with the abridged version of some novels in order to promote students' communication in English. Two fourth semester English courses, from a private university, were randomly chosen to develop the different activities during one semester. The data was collected through students' written papers, the…

This article examines the intervention, through the design and pedagogical implementation of two rubrics based on theory from the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, to assess the oral competences in English of a group of sophomores in a content subject. The data collection and subsequent analysis included both quantitative…

This study examines test-takers' views on a computer-delivered speaking test in order to investigate the aspects they consider most relevant in technology-based oral assessment, and to explore the main advantages and disadvantages computer-based tests may offer as compared to face-to-face speaking tests. A small-scale open questionnaire was…

Lexical sound symbolism in language appears to exploit the feature associations embedded in cross-sensory correspondences. For example, words incorporating relatively high acoustic frequencies (i.e., front/close rather than back/open vowels) are deemed more appropriate as names for concepts associated with brightness, lightness in weight,…

Oral presentation skills are considered one of the most important proficiencies needed for higher education and future careers. Thus, the present study is interested in eliciting English as a Foreign Language (EFL) college students' perceptions of the difficulties they face in oral presentation as a form of assessment. Participants were 500 female…

A major issue in English language teaching in Turkey and other monolingual countries is the teaching of spoken English. This article reports the initial and final stages of an action research study which used student negotiation to enhance student engagement in speaking classes. The research was conducted in the English Language Teaching…

Through an in-depth analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, this article offers a case study of the advantages and challenges in the application of the flipped learning approach in the instruction of Chinese as a foreign language at the beginning level. Data were collected from two first-year Chinese classes (one in traditional and the…

This article reports on an exploratory study investigating mobile-assisted oral feedback in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). It is aimed at exploring the characteristics of mobile-assisted feedback on oral production with the smartphone social communication app WeChat as a case in point and examining learners' perceptions of…

This study compares the effect of using corpus-based materials and activities for the instruction of pragmatic routines under two conditions: implementing direct corpus searches by learners during classroom instruction and working with teacher-developed corpus-based materials. The outcome is compared to a repeated-test control group. Pragmatic…