This study tested the effects of hand-clapping to the rhythm of newly learned French words on the pronunciation of these words by 7- to 8-year-old Catalan children. In a short training experiment with a pre- and posttest design, 28 children either repeated cognate words in French (e.g. French "aspirateur," Catalan "aspirador"…

This paper describes teachers' practices and their perceptions regarding the teaching and learning of oral language in Catalan schools. We used the Assessment Scale for Oral Language Teaching in School Settings (EVALOE) instrument, created and validated with the aim of assessing teachers' practices for promoting the development of language skills…

The current era of globalization and emergence of English as an international language (EIL) has brought about new opportunities for L2 pragmatic learning and teaching. The common view of pragmatic learning as an approximation to native-likeness is changing towards conceiving pragmatic ability as a tool to interact with people of different…

This study attempts to reveal whether there is unintentional reverse transfer L2[right arrow]L1 (English-Spanish) in the oral L1 production of university learners in formal contexts. The languages used by learners influence each other, and this transfer may occur from the first to the second language ("direct transfer"), or from the…

It is essential for foreign language learners to have adequate opportunities for speaking in order to enhance the acquisition of oral communicative competence. Although research over the last few years has dealt with the potential of podcasting for the development of oral competencies, little has been done towards its application in the…

This paper is focused on the development of a didactic proposal for English students in the Basque Country. Specifically for students in the 1st year of "Bachillerato" with Spanish and Basque as their L1 and English as their L2 which aims to improve their communication skills, especially oral abilities and pronunciation, through the use…

Pronunciation is an essential aspect in the teaching of the English language, especially those aspects of pronunciation such as stress and vowel quality as they are crucial elements to ensure intelligibility in communication. The general objective of this study is to investigate whether the theoretical-practical instruction on pronunciation has a…

The research has the purpose of analyzing the experience of the students of the first course of the Early Childhood Education Degree on the methodology of the Dialogic Literary Circles. The aim is to examine the variables that influence the academic performance of the future teacher, as well as the conditions that have an impact on their…

This paper sets out to show how a trilingual teaching sequence delivered primarily in minority L2 Basque can foster not just development of oral presentation skills in Basque, but also in L1 Spanish and L3 English. We set out to show that such a trilingual teaching intervention, based on the principles of integrated teaching of languages and…

The implementation of educational programs that tackle specific contents and promote English skills is convenient, especially in areas where English skills are not properly developed at universities, such as Spain. Indeed, some subjects are currently presented in English for this purpose. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), where…

This paper reports the development and validation of a digital application (Assessment Scale of Oral Language at School -- Decision Support System, EVALOE-DSS) for the professional development of teachers aiming to improve their students' linguistic competence. We performed a multiple case study involving seven teachers and their students from…

A considerable body of research within the interaction framework (Long, 1996) has centred on the language-related episodes (LREs) which occur when learners topicalize a specific linguistic item while they are engaged in meaning-focused tasks. Several studies have shown that the production of LREs may be influenced by the proficiency level of the…

The implementation of the European Union's Erasmus Plus (E+) Program has resulted in the possibility of joint initiatives across-borders led by teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), who can bring classroom practice closer to education as a key area for employability and prepare students for work and communication in multicultural and…

The current study explores utilizing the ACTFL cultural framework to structure synchronous video-based speaking activities and subsequent class discussions. The study includes 39 students in two sections of an intermediate-level college Spanish course who engaged in five 30-minute conversations with native speakers of Spanish via Talk Abroad…

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has been one of the major innovations that has been implemented in Spain in the last decades and many questions have arisen in relation to its effectiveness. The aim of this article is to report primary teachers' perceptions of the most relevant aspects of CLIL teaching of Science and Social Science…