The strategies adopted by native speakers of Dutch and Chinese speakers with different levels of proficiency in Dutch in the realization of degrees of focus enhancement were significantly different on six variables. The participants with higher proficiency did not outperform the learners with lower proficiency. The Chinese subjects appear to abstain from phonetic enhancement rather than transfe...

This study employed an artificial language learning paradigm together with a combined behavioral/event-related potential (ERP) approach to examine the neurocognition of the processing of gender agreement, an aspect of inflectional morphology that is problematic in adult second language (L2) learning. Subjects learned to speak and comprehend an artificial language under either explicit (classroo...

This study investigated the effects of two perceptually-based training paradigms in both the perception and production of English /e/ and /æ/ by Cantonese ESL learners with high and low listening and oral proficiency levels. Sixty-four subjects participated in the study, in which 22 (9 with high proficiency, H-HV; 13 with low proficiency, L-HV) were trained under High Variability Phonetic Train...

Wedevelop aBayesian binary ItemResponseModel (IRM),whichwedenote as Test Anxiety Model (TAM), for estimating the proficiency scores when individuals might experience test anxiety. We consider order restricted item parameters conditionally to the examinees’ reported emotional state at the testing session.We consider three test anxiety levels: calm, anxious and very anxious. Using simulated data ...

How language teachers talk is a key factor in organizing and facilitating learning specifically in language classrooms where the medium of instruction is also the subject matter. This study aimed to examine the extent and ways of teacher talk adaptation to students’ proficiency levels in the Iranian EFL context. Two EFL teachers who were teaching three different proficiency levels were observed...

Despite the saliency of raising critical thinking not only in ELT but also in other aspects of life, there is still lack of studies in this regard that need to be filled. Previous studies dealt with Faiclough’s model not that of van Dijk, and besides, they weren’t concerned about CDA effects on different proficiency levels. The present study, however, examined the impact of critical discourse a...

The aim of the current study was to compare the influence of on-line planning and pre-task planning on the performance of EFL university students enjoying different levels of proficiency regarding accuracy, fluency and complexity. To this end a group of 134 EFL learners with different proficiency levels were asked to write narrative tasks under two planning conditions (Pre-task planning and on-...

Nowadays the notions “competence” and “competency” are strictly differentiatedin scientific literature but their use in methodological works is not always appropriate according to theiressence. The problem following: 1) some methodologists simply do want take into account thatcompetence something only proficiency of relevant knowledge, skills abilities, also possibility creative application by ...

Automaticity and real-time aspects of performance are directly relevant to L2 spoken language proficiency. This paper analyzes data from L2 speakers of English and Spanish spread over a range of proficiency levels as identified by traditional holistic, rubric-based human ratings. In spontaneous speech samples from these L2 populations, we studied timed measures of spoken fluency (linguistic uni...