The research problem for this study was teachers in grades 6-12 at a particular school district on the West Coast are not provided targeted professional development needed to support lower-performing English speakers of other languages (ESOL) students in their school districts. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore these teachers'…

This paper explores the impact of using Virginia Woolf's novel "To The Lighthouse" as a literary text in enhancing reading skills among second and foreign language learners through adopting Constructivist Learning Theory (CLT) as underpinning framework. CLT emphasizes the active role of learners in constructing their own understanding…

The current study examined self-reported first language (Spanish) language reading and writing ability and behavior and relationships with digit span and stroop task performance. A battery of assessments and questionnaires was administered to 81 sequential Spanish-English bilingual university students in the U.S., for whom the sole language of…

This study explored Thai EFL teachers' beliefs about teaching EFL reading regarding text-based and competency-based reading approaches and examined whether the teachers' demographic factors had an impact on their beliefs. The participants were 24 Thai EFL teachers from the Business English department in an international university in Thailand. The…

This mixed-method study aimed to determine Thai teachers' attitudes towards the emerging local variety of English in Thailand tentatively called Thailish (Thai English). Results of online surveys and semi-structured interviews with 60 Thai high school teachers in Bangkok revealed that they are highly aware of Thailand's emerging local variety of…

The article examines the influence of English movies, series and cartoons on students majoring in English at a university in Bangladesh. The objective of this study was to ascertain the potential impact of films, series, and cartoons on the acquisition of the English language and to determine the extent of their influence. This quantitative…

This study aimed to investigate the enhancements of Self Directed Learning (SDL) on tertiary-level students' English reading skills in a private university context and their perceptions towards it. Thirty-eight first-year English-major subjects participated in a 6-week experiment. A mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approaches was used…

Little research has been conducted to investigate relationships between students' community of inquiry (CoI) perceptions and their attitudes towards reading circles (ARC). To bridge the gap this quantitative research reports a cohort of Chinese students' perceptions of CoI and its prediction for their attitudes towards reading circles (RC) in…

Curriculum-based measurement is designed to predict students' future reading performance and identify children in need of early reading intervention. Although curriculum-based measures in reading are commonly implemented in schools throughout the United States, their use with children living overseas is restricted due to the disparity that exists…

One of the biggest challenges seasoned English language teacher Mina Gavell has faced in the classroom is how to liven up reading classes. Not only is reading inherently a quiet and solo task, but the standard skills teachers are trying to build in their students--skimming, scanning, making predictions and inferences, guessing vocabulary meaning…

The present study aimed to examine the relationships between reading and writing, and the role of L2 proficiency in moderating these relationships, among 8th and 11th graders in South Korea. A total of 257 eighth and 322 eleventh graders learning English as a foreign language participated in Study 1 and Study 2, respectively. The findings…

The role of parental literacy skills in cross-linguistic transfer, the phenomenon of the sharing of skills and competence from one language to another, is under-researched. The present study tested 147 Hong Kong Chinese children and their parents (76 boys; mean age = 7.16). Parental literacy skills significantly explained children's reading and…

The current study set out to investigate the effects of concurrent group dynamic assessment (GDA) and cumulative GDA on Iranian EFL learners' development of reading comprehension micro-skills. To this end, a convenience sample of 60 intermediate undergraduate EFL university students that were selected based on the results of a placement test and…

Understanding how second language proficiency and other key learner characteristics relate to language learning anxiety subcomponents can help inform the type and quantity of content instructors approach foreign language (FL) students with when teaching English. This study seeks to understand how FL proficiency (i.e., TOEIC reading, TOEIC…

Purpose: Students of mixed-ability learning together in one class is a challenge for all educators, especially in English as foreign language (EFL) contexts. Timed reading activity (TRA) is an activity that can help educators address the learning needs of students in such a context. The present study investigated the effectiveness of the TRA in…