Inferencing skills uniquely contribute to the reading comprehension skills of older grade-school and college students. Evidence also suggests that children's reading component skills, such as decoding and language comprehension, differentially contribute to various reading comprehension assessments. However, additional research is needed to…

This research compared the contributions of lexical inferencing, decoding, and listening comprehension to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking learners of English as a second language (ESL) enrolled in university bridging programs in the U.S. and Chinese-speaking university learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in mainland China.…

Sharing the same theoretical basis of extensive reading, "extensive listening" refers to learner exposure to a great deal of comprehensible spoken input. While the effectiveness of extensive reading has been widely acknowledged in many countries, empirical support of extensive listening is limited. This small-scale study adopted a…

Listening comprehension is a real-time process, yet very little is known about the variables affecting real-time second language (L2) listening. The present study aimed at investigating the effects of syntactic complexity and word frequency on L2 listening. Furthermore, the role of the listener's working memory capacity in listening comprehension…

The present paper concentrates on a web-based inquiry in the synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) via Web 2.0 technologies of Talk and Write and Skype. It investigates EFL learners' socio-cognitive progress through dynamic assessment (DA), which follows Vygotsky's inclination for supportive interchange in the zone of proximal…

In early stages of classroom language learning, many adult second language (L2) learners communicate primarily with one another, yet we know little about which speech stream characteristics learners tune into or the extent to which they understand this lingua franca communication. In the current study, 25 native English speakers learning German as…

Through an analysis of students' reactions to transcription exercises, this exploratory study examined some of the differences between two forms of written help enhancing listening passages--second language (L2) captions and transcripts. This primarily qualitative analysis highlighted the role that student proficiency levels may have played in…

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 British woman recounts her difficulties in developing the ability to understand humorous French while living in France. (AM)

Discusses the importance of and the difficulties in teaching listening skills. Describes different types of listening exercises. (EKN)

Discusses in detail a technique, called LES (Listen, Enumerate, and Start), for developing the listening skills of adult ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Students listen to an utterance and then answer questions such as the number of words in a particular sentence, the number of unknown words, etc. (CFM)

A method was devised for interskill comparative evaluation of instructional programs, termed growth-referenced evaluation. The method focuses on comparative rate of improvement and provides empirical indication of areas for program intervention and reform. It is explained with reference to a sample of 485 adult EFL students in a baccalaureate…

This article describes an attempt at organizing a continuing, self-instructional language program designed at the request of a commercial enterprise. The program was to be over a three-year period, and was originally aimed at producing reading comprehension in English, but at the request of the students the program was expanded to add listening…

Over a three-year period, from 1971 to 1973, a series of three experimental intensive language sessions was held in Malta for university professors and researchers who wanted to improve their knowledge of English as a second language. Each session consisted of from 20 to 30 participants and lasted 2 weeks. The general objectives of these courses…

This investigation examined the acquisition of five complex English syntactic structures by Egyptian and Israeli adult learners at different levels of proficiency. Carol Chomsky's methodology, as adapted by d'Anglejan and Tucker, served to assess comprehension of these structures. The responses of the Egyptians and Israelis, which were similar to…