This qualitative study, using an open interview, set out to investigate the roles six factors, including age, university education, teachers of English Language institutes, teaching English, dictionary, and note-taking, played in improving English speaking fluency of seventeen fluent Iranian EFL speakers. The participants were chosen purposefully…

This paper presents the theoretical and empirical foundations of the "TOEFL Junior"® assessment and its development process. The TOEFL Junior test was developed to address the increasing need for objective measures of English language proficiency for young adolescent learners, who are being introduced to English as a second or foreign…

The starting age of foreign language learning has been a controversial issue since the second half of the 20th century. Despite this long time, definite answers have not been found regarding the different aspects of the age issue, i.e., its influence on rate, route and ultimate attainment. Many researchers have explored the influence of age on the…

This article presents a research study that analyses eighth and twelfth graders' knowledge of speaking strategies to communicate in English. The Oral Communication Strategy Inventory, developed by Nakatani in 2006, was applied to 108 students belonging to the public, semi-public and private educational sectors in Chile. The findings show that 8th…

Ten speaking and listening activities designed to improve the intercultural communication skills of intermediate and advanced learners of English are presented. The activities are based on seven goals of cultural instruction: (1) sense of culturally controlled behavior; (2) interaction of language and social variables such as gender, age, and…