Two assumptions of speaking proficiency tests are that the speech produced is spontaneous and the the scores on those tests predict what examinees can do in real-world communicative situations. Therefore, when examinees memorize scripts for their oral responses, the validity of the score interpretation is threatened. While the American Council on…

The current study examines the bilingual language development of twelve young children. We focus on the use of Spanish as a heritage language among the children while they learn English in an English-majority environment. Data was collected in English and Spanish four times over the first two years of formal schooling. The study focuses on oral…

Languages differ in their realization of the subject argument: non-null-subject languages, like English, require subjects to be phonologically overt; rather, null-subject languages, like Greek, allow the subject to be overt or null. This cross-linguistic difference can lead to the transfer of grammatical properties across languages during…

The shift of focus from a cognitive to social view has drawn the attention of second language assessment researchers to delve into interactional competence as an intriguing topic in paired oral tests. To fill the gap on how interactional patterns compare across L1 and L2 interactions this study was specifically set to explore and compare 45 paired…

E-learning opens a new horizon within educational contexts worldwide. Previous studies showed a dearth of research identifying EFL teachers' perceptions of EFL learners' hardships in speaking skills. Hence, this article investigates the Jordanian EFL teachers' perceptions of the current challenges of learning speaking skills EFL learners…

This article highlights the need for a new type of corpus that will combine both a learner and a pedagogic corpus. The need for such a type of corpus is underlined by the interaction between input and output and the expected impact of the former on the latter within all instructional settings. Such a corpus will allow us to collect data, including…

Eighty Japanese learners of English as a foreign language encountered 40 target words in one of four experimental conditions (three encounters, six encounters, three encounters with talker variability, and six encounters with talker variability). A picture-naming test was conducted three times (pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest)…

The current study examined the effects of task condition (TC; single vs. dual) and proficiency level (PL) on self-monitoring of second language (L2) speakers. Data were collected from sixty-six female L2 learners of English performing two speaking tasks under two task conditions. While performance in the single-task condition involved only…

Intelligibility is a critically important aspect for effective oral communication. This study explored salient (important) pronunciation errors and their relative roles in the intelligibility of nonnative speech based on listener judgments. Speech samples, collected from speakers with a Turkish as a native language (L1) background, were presented…

This study investigated the effects of L2 pronunciation instruction on speech intelligibility and fluency, the relationship between intelligibility and fluency, and the extent to which utterance fluency can predict perceived fluency. Participants were 30 beginning adult EFL learners who received either segmental or suprasegmental instruction. Oral…

This manuscript reports on a study carried out at a public university in southeast Mexico aimed to determine whether changes in the instructional design of an online English course benefit students' oral communicative competence. The research followed a quantitative quasi-experimental design that involved two groups of students. One of them took a…

This article reports on a longitudinal, quasi-experimental comparison of two English language development (ELD) models implemented from kindergarten through Grade 3 to support oral English language development among Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). Specifically, the study examined oral English language proficiency among students…

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of metacognitive methods in college general English classes to improve students' communication skills and metacognitive awareness. The approach involved structuring learning activities where students adapted movie dialogues, practiced roles, collaborated with peers, and received feedback on…

This study aims to analyze the representation of global competence in English textbooks for higher vocational education in China. A two-dimensional textbook theoretical framework based on global competence was developed, including four indicators of global competence (vertical) and 3 dimensions of textbook content (horizontal). Through a…

Task-based language teaching and interaction are facilitative contexts for instructed second language acquisition and include abundant opportunities for learners to receive authentic input, engage in negotiation for meaning and pushed output, and to receive feedback and direct attention to linguistic features (Goo, 2019, p. 247). Individual…