The number of studies that focus on the impact of Second Life (SL) as a virtual language learning tool on speaking achievements of EFL learners is quite limited. Thus, this paper aims to provide insight for SL's effect on Turkish EFL learners' speaking achievement levels. Forty-four EFL learners from Balikesir University participated in this…

New college and career ready standards (CCRS) have established more rigorous expectations of learning for all learners, including English learner (EL) students, than what was expected in previous standards. A common feature in these new content-area standards, such as the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics and the…

This study investigated the relationship between children's attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children's verbal ability…

This study investigated whether the application of video clips with small groups or with individual teaching-learning activities improved the speaking skills of young EFL learners the most; accordingly a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test design was done. The instrument used in this study was a test in the form of an oral test or…

Purpose: This prologue serves to introduce a research forum composed of studies that address the topic of stuttering in school-age children and adolescents. Researchers are encouraged to continue to build the knowledge base that sustains evidence-based practice in this area. Method: The nature of stuttering as it evolves from early childhood into…

Speaking is an important skill that needs to be mastered as it is the best way to communicate with other people in order to deliver opinions and express ideas, but the fact is that secondary school students' ability in speaking English is low in Malaysia. It is caused by several factors such as lack of vocabulary, poor pronunciation, weak grammar…

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…

This study evaluated whether core vocabulary intervention (CVT) improved single word speech accuracy, consistency and intelligibility in four 9-11-year-old children with profound sensori-neural deafness fitted with cochlear implants and/or digital hearing aids. Their speech was characterized by inconsistent production of different error forms for…

Purpose: Verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) skills predict speech and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants (CIs) even after conventional demographic, device, and medical factors are taken into account. However, prior research has focused on single end point outcomes as opposed to the longitudinal process of…

Real-time use of spoken language is a fundamentally interactive process involving speech perception, speech production, linguistic competence, motor control, neurocognitive abilities such as working memory, attention, and executive function, environmental noise, conversational context, and--critically--the communicative interaction between…

Purpose: The authors examined (a) whether dose frequency of milieu communication teaching (MCT) affects children's canonical syllabic communication and (b) whether the relation between early canonical syllabic communication and later spoken vocabulary is mediated by parental linguistic mapping in children with intellectual disabilities (ID).…

The present study explored the types and frequency of literate language features in children's narratives, and the relation of literate language and proper character introduction to children's oral language skills in a sample of 184 prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first grade students from high-poverty schools. Using hierarchical regression,…

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have traditionally been considered a lifelong condition; however, a subset of people makes such significant improvements that they no longer meet diagnostic criteria for an ASD. The current study examines whether these "optimal outcome" (OO) children and adolescents continue to have subtle pragmatic…

It is remarkable how often academic staff discover students' weaknesses in expressing their thoughts in written and oral contexts, and in team working. To examine these weaknesses, a study was conducted in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 of students taking an engineering course. Students self-reported an initial high level of weakness in both…

Middle school is a crucial transition period for adolescents; in addition to beginning to grapple with the academic literacy demands of college and career readiness, they are working to find their place in public life and developing opinions about civic issues. This article presents debate as a literacy practice that is uniquely suited to helping…