This study investigated whether intonation deficits were observed in 19 Cantonese-speaking adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) when compared to 19 matched neurotypical (NT) controls. This study also investigated the use of sentence-final particles (SFPs) and their relationship with intonation in both groups. Standard deviations…

Purpose: This study investigates the heritability of language, speech, and nonverbal cognitive development of twins at 4 and 6 years of age. Possible confounding effects of twinning and zygosity, evident at 2 years, were investigated among other possible predictors of outcomes. Method: The population-based twin sample included 627 twin pairs and 1…

The majority of patients with neurological impairment like Parkinson's Disease (PD) or stroke are affected by dysarthria. Dysarthria is a motor speech impairment which negatively affects speech dimensions such as articulation and loudness. This leads to reduced intelligibility, often hindering daily life communication. Intensive and prolonged…

Two studies were conducted of students with and without persisting Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs-WL) in Grades 4 to 9 (M = 11 years, 11 months) that supported the hypotheses that CELF 4 parent ratings for listening (language by ear), speaking (language by mouth), reading (language by eye), and writing (language by hand) were correlated with…

Some significant components are essential in teaching a language. Among these, textbooks are the most significant ones and must be considered seriously. Textbooks play an important role in EFL teaching and learning because they can provide ready-made materials to both teachers and students. Besides, if textbooks aren't used appropriately, they may…

This study aimed to investigate the beliefs of English as foreign language (EFL) learners about speaking in English and being a good speaker of English through metaphor analysis. A phenomenological approach was adopted and 60 EFL learners completed a questionnaire with demographic questions and two prompts focusing on the characteristics of a good…

Purpose: A number of studies with large sample sizes have reported lower prevalence of stuttering in children with significant hearing loss compared to children without hearing loss. This study used a parent questionnaire to investigate the characteristics of stuttering (e.g., incidence, prevalence, and age of onset) in children who are hard of…

Assessment is a critical part of teaching and learning so it is important that students are encouraged to engage positively with it. The Institution-Wide Language Programme (IWLP) at the University of Leeds redesigned its model of assessment for modules at upper-intermediate and advanced levels, broadly equivalent to the Common European Framework…

This article re-examines the classroom discourse context in early years settings and primary schools. It seeks to understand why such slow progress has been made in developing talk for learning in recent years. The article acknowledges that children are already expert language users by the time they start school and offers practitioners practical…

Courses: Public Speaking. Objectives: This semester-long service-learning activity examines access to affordable healthy food as a social justice issue, using critical ethnography as a framework to help students understand the link between activism and public speaking skills. After completing the project, students will be able to: (1) develop a…

The need to develop oral presentation skills with reference to students' specialized professional contexts has been well-recognised. Attempts have also been made to develop collaboration between engineering faculty and language teaching professionals. In this paper, we describe an experiment where students were given an opportunity to demonstrate…

This study assessed the status of te reo Maori, the indigenous language of New Zealand, in the context of New Zealand English. From a broadly representative sample of 6327 two-year-olds ("Growing Up in New Zealand"), 6090 mothers (96%) reported their children understood English, and 763 mothers (12%) reported their children understood…

ESP textbook plays an important role in facilitating students to develop their profession-related language skills. However, ESP textbooks published in China are less developed and often criticized as ignoring the training of language skills. This research aims to reveal the specific problems of China's ESP textbooks by conducting a multiple-case…

This study aims to investigate viewpoints of the adult learners about the effects of the recorded motivational videos. The study was applied to twelve adult learners between the months of March and May in spring semester of 2019, at Mugla Sitki Koçman University. As to the research design, explanatory mixed methods design was implemented. The…

Malaysians have long realised the importance of being competent in English as one of the success factors in attaining their future goals. However, English is taught as a second language in Malaysia, and it is not easy to teach under such a foreign context, because authentic input may not exist beyond the classroom, especially in Chinese private…