The Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) fulfills federal requirements for assessing the English language proficiency of English language learners (ELLs) in kindergarten through grade 12 in four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. TELPAS assesses students in alignment with the Texas English…

The purpose of this study was to investigate prospective teachers' experiences in utilizing "Second Life" for learning English, differentiating between personal use of the said virtual world for learning the English language and its potential use for teaching English in the future. The results showed that the students perceived the use…

For learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), fluency is one of the most difficult aspects to develop within the speaking skills. The Chilean teaching context has witnessed a gradual shift from the traditional grammar-translation approach to a more communicative one, thereby making it necessary to discover new strategies to develop…

Detailing the integration of Spanish language teaching in an authentic setting, this article contributes to empirical research on the positive value of community-engaged learning in foreign language pedagogy. "Reading to Play, Playing to Read" is an innovative model for community-engaged teaching that combines learning goals from…

Although written expression is a valuable tool for both teacher and student to assess learning, teachers must be mindful that writing skills are often delayed for many youth. Through brain research, educators have not only learned that reading and writing skills must be acquired, but even some advanced students have deficiencies in processing…

This study investigated the possibility that similar speech error patterns in children may arise from different patterns of underlying speech processing difficulties. Four Greek children (aged 4;7-5;6 years) with similar speech output difficulties were assessed with a range of experimental tasks with phonologically matched items in order to…

Most L2 instructors implement their curriculum with an eye to improving the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Absent in this vision of language are notions of pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and multicultural competencies. Although current linguistic theories posit a more complex, interactive, and integrated model of language,…

The authors explore the importance of talk and interaction for learning, particularly in relation to new K-12 standards and the prominent role of academic language in today's educational contexts. The article concludes with a detailed example of a Grade 6 teacher's use of content and language objectives to address the needs and strengths of all…

This article reports on how the use of peer-assessment and a corpus influence the development of the spontaneous interactive speaking of 14 adults with an A1 English level. The data, that were collected through video recordings, two peer-assessment forms, and a teacher's journal, evidenced the development of three enhancement strategies…

Phonology represents an important part of the English language; however, in the course of English language acquisition, it is rarely treated with proper attention. Connected speech is one of the aspects essential for successful communication, which comprises effective auditory perception and speech production. In this paper I explored phonemic…

Due to ever-increasing demands to acquire effective communicative abilities in the English language, increasing numbers of international students choose to study in Western tertiary institutions; however, they frequently encounter difficulties in performing satisfactorily in English. This study aims to identify specific challenges that Japanese…

In this study, we examined whether interpreters and interpreting trainees are better predisposed to respeaking than people with no interpreting skills. We tested 57 participants (22 interpreters, 23 translators and 12 controls) while respeaking 5-minute videos with two parameters: speech rate (fast/slow) and number of speakers (one/many). Having…

This study explores the use of video conferencing and social media technology in improving English speaking skills, which Thai students struggle the most. Data were collected from 6 participants who conversed with native and fluent speakers of English via a videoconferencing application with the use of a few other social media websites for a…

This quantitative study investigated the relationship between learners' online self-regulation and their self-efficacy in the context of learning English as a foreign language (EFL). We collected data from two surveys, the online self-regulated English learning (OSEL) and the English language self-efficacy (ELSE), among 424 university students in…

This study was focused on English for Specific Purposes to look into the teacher's and students' perceptions about teaching speaking for a Tourism Program. Eight males and females Tourism students and their English teacher in a private Vocational Secondary School in Surakarta were purposely selected as the participants of this study. They were…