This study applies Activity Theory to describe and analyze an out-of-school project in which eight Chinese university students utilized a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) to learn English. Based on data collected through questionnaires, gaming journals, gaming recordings and interviews, thematic analysis was performed to identify the…

The present study investigated the effects of different types of form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of French grammatical gender attribution. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 140 participants in six intact French as a second language (L2) classes. The classes received six 80-minute instructional sessions consisting of…

This study reports on how project-based language learning in which L1 Japanese EFL learners created short videos affected L2 oral proficiency. Students took short speaking tests before and after the class, and the fluency, complexity and accuracy of the pre- and posttests were measured to see which, if any, of these three aspects of proficiency…

This article reports a qualitative case study about the implementation of a translanguaging strategy with EFL learners belonging to the Language Learning Support programs at a private university, who struggled when speaking in English. In order to address this problem, this strategy aim to help participants to reflect and self-direct their oral…

Foreign language teachers and researchers face a major challenge enabling students' learning. Not only must they provide training in the target language, but they must also find ways to optimise class time and enhance students' communication skills in the target language. How does technology intersect with English teaching in ways that benefit…

Since it is a productive skill, writing is considered one of the most crucial abilities in communication; nonetheless, EFL learners have difficulty composing texts which are both communicatively and linguistically competent. This study intends to explore the benefits of using authentic materials in EFL learners, with an emphasis on writing skills.…

Symbolic competence (Kramsch, 2009, 2011) has been proposed as a crucial addition to world language learning, as it enables a language learner to negotiate the complex symbolism of words, expressions, and discursive events from the target culture in order to reference them effectively and in the appropriate contexts. However, fostering symbolic…

The aim of the study was to investigate how raters come to their decisions when judging spoken vocabulary. Segmental rating was introduced to quantify raters' decision-making process. It is hoped that this simulated study brings fresh insight to future methodological considerations with spoken data. Twenty trainee raters assessed five Chinese…

This research study analyzes the target needs of EFL female Saudi students to choose EFL as their specialization. The population of the research is the female students enrolled in Bachelors in English program, at the Department of English Language and Translation, Qassim University Saudi Arabia. Adapting the Hutchinson and Waters model of Needs…

Assessing speaking skills is regarded as a complex and hard process compared with the other language skills. Considering the idiosyncratic characteristics of EFL learners, oral proficiency assessment issue becomes even more important. Keeping this situation in mind, judgements and reliability of raters need to be consistent with each other. This…

This study investigates the benefits of Mobile Mediated Communication (MMC) to develop oral skills in second-language learners. A total of 80 Spanish students taking a B1 English course at the University of Almería were studied in this research. According to treatment type, subjects were divided in two groups, experimental and control. A…

Chinese EFL learners may have difficulty in speaking fluent and accurate English, for their speaking competence are likely to be influenced by cognitive, linguistic and affective factors. With the aim to enhance those learners' oral proficiency, this paper first discusses three effective models of teaching English speaking, and then proposes a…

This paper details the use of a free and access-controlled wiki as the learning management system for a four-week teaching module designed to improve the oral communication skills of Japanese university EFL students. Students engaged in repeated experiential learning cycles of planning, doing, observing, and evaluating their performance of a role…

The simple view of reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) proposes that listening comprehension and decoding, properly measured, can account for all of the variance in reading comprehension. We assessed the simple view in community college students. In addition to listening comprehension and decoding, we included measures of oral vocabulary, nonverbal…

A spoken language eye-tracking methodology was used to evaluate the effects of sentence context and proficiency on parallel language activation during spoken language comprehension. Nonnative speakers with varying proficiency levels viewed visual displays while listening to French sentences (e.g., "Marie va decrire la poule" [Marie will…