This study investigated whether parent perceptions of their own and their child's levels of talkativeness were related to objective measures recorded via the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System. Parents of 258 children aged 7 to 60 months completed a questionnaire on which they rated how much they and their child talked. Six months…

This study was conducted to see the effectiveness of using Facebook for expressing opinions on given topics to improve students' oral proficiency and critical thinking skills in an English class at a private university. The participants were 80 students enrolled in a course which emphasized the use of English for expressing ideas. Three research…

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…

In this study we compare test takers' performance on the Speaking section of the TOEFL iBT™and their performances during their real-life academic studies. Thirty international graduate students from mixed language backgrounds in two different disciplines (Sciences and Social Sciences) responded to two independent and four integrated speaking tasks…

Despite the growing popularity of paired format speaking assessments, the effects of pre-task planning time on performance in these formats are not yet well understood. For example, some studies have revealed the benefits of planning but others have not. Using a multifaceted approach including analysis of the process of speaking performance, the…

Research has shown that code-switching (CS) between languages in spoken discourse is prevalent in multilingual contexts and is used for many purposes. More recently, it has become the subject of much concern in academic contexts in negatively affecting students' language use and learning. However, while the concern has been increasing, no rigorous…

Curent national curicula, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and EFL materials highlight the importance of the students' development of oral skils. This study stems from a cros-sectional survey of the teaching of oral skils in Secondary Education in a Spanish local context (Aragón) caried out in 2012 on both teachers and…

Linking adverbials not only perform connecting functions between units of discourse but also facilitate the logical flow of a presentation and significantly affect the ways meaning is organized and conveyed by speakers and interpreted by listeners. The study examined comparatively L1 (n = 16) and L2 (n = 16) student presenters' uses of linking…

In recent years, the emphasis in second language (L2) oral proficiency assessment has shifted from linguistic accuracy to discourse strategies such as the ability to initiate, respond, and negotiate meaning. This has resulted in a growing interest in the discourse analysis of students' performance in different oral proficiency assessment formats.…

Motivated by cognitive theories of graph comprehension, this study systematically manipulated characteristics of a line graph description task in a speaking test in ways to mitigate the influence of graph familiarity, a potential source of construct-irrelevant variance. It extends Xi (2005), which found that the differences in holistic scores on…

This study explores task-based, synchronous oral computer-mediated communication (CMC) among intermediate-level learners of Spanish. In particular, this paper examines (a) how learners in video and audio CMC groups negotiate for meaning during task-based interaction, (b) possible differences between both oral CMC modes and traditional face-to-face…

In an investigation into communicative behavior, Filipino-American students were studied during two student organization meetings and through subsequent surveys of their backgrounds and sense of ethnicity. Focus is on the communicative norms, notably the constant simultaneous talk. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/LB)

This article reports some outcomes from an exploratory study that compares children diagnosed with ADHD and without language impairment with typically developing children for aspects of language use. Discourse analysis based on a systemic functional linguistics approach is applied to spoken and written samples from three different text types that…

Investigates effect of task type on resultant candidate discourse and input of the interlocutor. The experimental design ensured an information gap in one of the interview tasks for prospective immigrants to Australia. Findings indicate that candidate discourse differs in quantity and quality between situations when an information gap exists and…

Describes a case study and a follow-up comparative study that focused on expert foreign language teachers' professional knowledge as it was reflected in their spoken and written discourse. Both studies provide evidence indicating that professional knowledge can develop via its verbalization in reflective-narrative discourse from personal…