Speaking is one important skill in language learning. EFL students are sometimes faced with problems, while speaking to their interlocutors due to the lack of sufficient linguistic knowledge, and they have to quit the conversation. This study examines the use of speaking strategies by some Iranian male and female EFL university students .The use of these strategies was examined in relation to t...

In this paper, the falling-rising tone in the English of very proficient non-native speakers is discussed. The speech data was collected in connection with MA thesis seminar sessions where the speakers, Finnish university students of English, discussed research methodology. Of the non-native speakers of English, only those who performed at high level of accuracy in a separate proficiency test w...

Elicited imitation (EI) is a testing method for learners’ oral language proficiency. One common criticism aimed at EI is that performance might not require linguistic knowledge, but mere rote memorization. This study explores the issue by administering two tests to the same group of students studying English as a second language: (1) a working memory test, and (2) an English EI test. Participan...

In John Godfrey Saxe’s famous poem The Blind Men and the Elephant, six men, all of whom are blind, disagree about what they are observing. One man argues that he is touching a wall; another, a snake; and the others, a spear, a tree trunk, a fan, and a rope, respectively. The moral of the story is straightforward. All of the men are in a sense correct in that they are accurately describing porti...

the purpose of this study was to see the role of english language proficiency level and sex on iranian students’ beliefs about language learning. this study also investigated the usefulness of the balli questionnaire (horwits, 1988), which checks learners’ beliefs, for the context of iranian english language learners through conducting an interview. a total of 171 iranian learners from safir in...