Title of Document: THE INFLUENCES OF APTITUDE, LEARNING CONTEXT, AND LANGUAGE DIFFICULTY CATEGORIZATION ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY. Thomas R. Wagener, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Directed By: Dr. Steven J. Ross, Second Language Acquisition This research investigates the ability of predictive measures to differentiate level of language proficiency among learners across languages, language ca...

Findings Verbal communication is based on speech activity, which can be developed and applied during foreign language learning. Learning foreign languages is also associated with acquiring the knowledge of other cultures, which is impossible without practical speech communication. Necessary properties of online applications, which provide language communication practice are the possibility of a...

Citizenship Education and Foreign Language Learning: Deconstructing the Concept of Good Citizenship Embedded in Foreign Language Curricula in China and America

Researchers in the area of EFL learning have tried to put the way(s) by which EFL learners learnEnglish vocabulary into some frames and present them as strategies. This paper reviewsdescriptive research on vocabulary learning strategies in English as a foreign language. Thereview focuses on common strategies that learners use in vocabulary learning such as dictionarystrategies, note-taking stra...

This  paper  describes  how  English  as  a  Foreign  Language  (EFL)  teachers  can  bring  reliable, valid, user-friendly assessment into their classrooms, and thus improve the quality of learning that  occurs  there.  Based  on  the  experience  of  the  author  as  a  an  EFL  teacher  and  teacher-trainer, it is suggested that the promotion and development of autonomy, intrinsic motivation...

This paper explores male and female students' and teachers' perceptions of the role of grammar instruction and corrective feedback. A questionnaire, administered to 60 male and female intermediate EFL students (30 males and 30 females) and 40 teachers (20 males and 20 females), elicited student and teacher perceptions concerning the role of explicit grammar instruction and corrective feedback i...

In the later stages of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning, and foreign language learning in general, emphasis is put on approaching a native-like command of the target language. Native-like command of a language entails, besides using correct grammar and vocabulary, being able to use the language idiomatically. However, idiomaticity is not an easy concept to define, or as Yorio (1989)...

Adaptation to the user is of great importance in a language training system since the user, making unfamiliar, socially unacceptable sounds, must be made to feel self-confident in order to obtain best results. The Fluency project aims at creating a pronunciation trainer for foreign language learning. It uses automatic speech recognition (CMU’s SPHINX II) and is guided by basic principles in for...