Since the advent of new technology for learning, innovative language instructors have been constantly seeking new pedagogy to match the potential of technology-enhanced instruction. While previous studies have supported the adoption of technologies to facilitate language teaching and learning, research into enhancing English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ oral proficiency by creating an ...

Twenty ten-minute oral presentations made by Swedish students speaking English have been analyzed with respect to the standard deviation of F0 over long stretches of speech. Values have been normalized by division with the mean. Results show a strong correlation between proficiency in English and pitch variation for male speakers but not for females. The results also identify monotone and disfl...

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...

Mainland Chinese graduate students in North America generally exhibit a common pattern of English proficiency: academic writing performance greatly exceeds oral performance. Many linguistic, cultural, and educational factors contribute to different aspects of this phenomenon. In this essay, the causalities, along with the main points of understanding and assumptions are analyzed through a liter...

We empirically evaluated three theoretical models—the threshold hypothesis, transfer theory, and time-on-task theory—for educatingEnglish language learners (ELLs), with a focus on the role of language factors in explaining achievement differences amongELLs. Participantswere 196 sixth graderswithSpanish languagebackgrounds who started learning English in kindergarten and then were continuously e...

SoHee Kim, Korea University Since online educational technology can support a ubiquitous language learning environment, there are many ways to develop English learners’ autonomy through selfaccess learning. This study investigates whether English as a second language (ESL) learners can improve their oral proficiency through independent study by using online self-study resources, online recordin...

university of tehran administers a test known as the university of tehran english proficiency test (the utept) to phd candidates on a yearly basis. by definition, the test can be considered a high-stakes one. the validity of high stakes tests needs to be known (roever, 2001). as mesick (1988) maintains, if the validity of high stakes tests are not known, it might have some undesirable consequen...