The aim of the present study was to investigate the outcomes of using multiplayer online computer games for the development of English as a foreign language (EFL) skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). For this purpose, the study employed a repeated measures design. The study was conducted with 13 multiplayer online gamer EFL learners…

Study abroad destinations for Japanese students, particularly those aiming to improve their English language skills, tend to focus on the "Inner Circle" (Kachru, 1992) of English-speaking countries. However, over the last two decades, Korean and Japanese-owned English language schools in the Philippines started to appear, leading to over…

Integrated speaking test tasks (integrated tasks) provide reading and/or listening input to serve as the basis for test-takers to formulate their oral responses. This study examined the influence of topical knowledge on integrated speaking test performance and compared independent speaking test performance and integrated speaking test performance…

Concepts of second language proficiency and how proficiency may be assessed have changed considerably over the last 20 years. New notions of validity with respect to the interpretation and uses of test scores have begun to shape discussions about test validity and quality assurance in college world language departments, in government, and in…

This article examines the test-taking strategies of high- and low-scoring Chinese-speaking participants when they answer English multiple-choice reading comprehension questions. Thirty-two participants took a TOEIC reading test, provided think-aloud protocols, and joined a post-task interview. The data come primarily from qualitative analysis and…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the constraints on implementing task-based language teaching (TBLT) and strategies that make TBLT feasible with novice second language (L2) learners in college. When the researcher (a bilingual teacher) struggled to implement tasks into traditional English courses with almost 210 novice undergraduates…

This paper discusses the commonly realised social speech act of refusal strategies in English among university students in the Southern part of Thailand, in explaining how they say 'no' to request and the effects of this speech act on the hearer's face. Using Discourse Completion Test (DCT) to collect oral data in naturally-occurring situations,…

The study was conducted to investigate the L2 acquisition of English generics by L1 Arabic speakers. The present study considered the two types of genericity (NP-level vs. sentence-level). Since generics in Arabic are always definite, the study investigated whether L1 Arabic speakers perform similarly in both types. The study recruited 43…

The Turkish history has a very rich content in literary context as well as political and administrative achievements. The Turkish language, which dates back to B.C., has become one of the great languages that continues its existence until modern day, leaving priceless reference guide behind. The purpose of this research is to investigate the…

This study assessed whether L1 (English as first language), L2 (English as second language, recent transition to the United States), and Generation 1.5 (English as second language, years of United States--based education) students are able to grow and perform similarly in a public speaking course on measures of public speaking anxiety, information…

This study compared the effectiveness of deductive instruction and guided inductive instruction for developing semantic radical knowledge of Chinese characters. The evaluation was conducted through a quasi-experimental 3-week intervention involving 46 intermediate learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). The results indicated that guided…

The present study was an attempt to investigate the differential effect/s of three different planning time scenarios (i.e. 0 min, 10 min, & 20 min), as well as three task conditions of (1) topic given, (2) topic and ideas given, and (3) topic, ideas and macrostructure given on EFL learners L2 writing complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF).…

The current research examined how Arabic diglossia affects verbal learning memory. Thirty native Arab college students were tested using auditory verbal memory test that was adapted according to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and developed in three versions: Pure spoken language version (SL), pure standard language version (SA), and…

The aim of this study is to determine the relationships of Turkish-English Language Teaching (ELT) learners' perceptions of learner autonomy with ELT learner's proficiency level in language learning. Particularly, the study aimed at investigating to what extent ELT learners' autonomy perceptions are affected by proficiency level of learners.…

High frequency words have been suggested to benefit both speech segmentation and grammatical categorization of the words around them. Despite utilizing similar information, these tasks are usually investigated separately in studies examining learning. We determined whether including high frequency words in continuous speech could support…