The shift to online instruction brought about by the novel coronavirus exacerbated language teaching and learning constraints already highlighted by foreign language (FL) research. However, it is important that FL courses keep preparing learners for global careers and interactions with native speakers--whether courses take place in-person,…

In the US K-12 public school settings, each state's annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment, as part of an educational accountability system, has tremendous impact on English learner (EL) students' academic paths and success. It is thus critical to establish a robust validation framework and empirical evidence to ensure that states'…

This study examines pragmatic resistance as a choice made by Chinese learners of Korean and the factors that contribute to this choice. Data were collected from 46 upper-intermediate Korean language learners through three different tools, including Discourse Completion Tasks, metapragmatic questionnaires, and retrospective interviews. Findings…

This study investigated English phonological awareness in adult native speakers of English (L1) and in relation to their phonological awareness skills and proficiency in their German (L2). Most research in L1 phonological awareness focuses on younger children, their phonological awareness development, the relationship between reading and…

The current study compared the model fit indices, skill mastery probabilities, and classification accuracy of six Diagnostic Classification Models (DCMs): a general model (G-DINA) against five specific models (LLM, RRUM, ACDM, DINA, and DINO). To do so, the response data to the grammar and vocabulary sections of a General English Achievement Test,…

The ubiquitous nature of metaphor in everyday life and its significance in second language learning has triggered plethoric research on the relationship between metaphor and language learning. To contribute to the still growing literature, the current study explore the effect of learner variables, namely gender and proficiency, on metaphor use in…

Previous studies on the academic achievement (AA) of students who pursue education in English-medium instruction settings indicate that standardised international language tests demonstrate low predictive power for study success. Consequently, there seems to be clear value in exploring alternative means of determining influential correlators…

Purpose: This study investigated the orthographic knowledge and how orthographic and phonological information could support children with developmental language disorder (DLD) to make more accurate spelling attempts. Method: Children with DLD (N = 37) were matched with chronological age-matched (CAM) children and language age-matched children.…

English language proficiency has long been recognised as important to the academic success of non-native English-speaking international students through the setting of minimum English language requirements as a condition of entry to Anglophone universities. The present study provides a historical account of the evolution in language entry standard…

The Common European Framework of Reference for language teaching, learning, and assessment (CEFR) provides a guideline for English teaching aids and curriculum development in language courses. It identifies and describes the specific skills that language learners must acquire to improve their English language proficiency for communication (CoE,…

Language assessment literacy (LAL) has recently gained substantial attention among language educators and other stakeholders. However, existing models focus almost exclusively on teachers, test developers, and administrators, and lack students' perspectives in their conceptualizations. To address this gap, with this exploratory study we aimed to…

This study aimed to evaluate the language skills of preschool children through narrative. The Turkish Test of Early Language Development (TEDIL) was used to evaluate the receptive and expressive verbal language skills of the children, and language samples were collected using the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (ENNI). The Mean Length of…

Children's oral language proficiency (OLP) is integral for developing literacy skills. Storytelling or retelling is often used by parents and educators to elicit children's OLP, yet it is less commonly used for assessment purposes. Leveraged by natural language processing and machine learning, this study examined the extent to which computational…

This paper outlines and describes the effectiveness of a virtual learning environment (VLE) as a grammar learning resource for first year students at a university in southern China over two academic years. The resource, named the Independent Grammar Study Scheme (IGSS), offered short grammar exercises that were completed over a 14-week period by…

The evaluation of sign language proficiency needs to be based on measures with well-established psychometric proprieties. To date, no valid and reliable test is available to assess Polish Sign Language ("Polski Jezyk Migowy," PJM) skills in deaf children. Hence, our aim with this study was to adapt the British Sign Language Receptive…