this study intended to develop a model describing speaking strategies for efl learners by taking into account the effects of learners’ gender and proficiency on the application of strategies. accordingly, this study was planned to have two main analyses, namely qualitative and quantitative. in this respect, 30 efl learners' viewpoints were sought, and then, based on the elicited responses, a 21...

Over the recent years, the study of language learning strategies has received much attention worldwide in general, and in Iran in particular. Many scholars have tried to investigate the function of language learning strategies in EFL learning and teaching. Not enough attention, however, has been paid to language skills, especially speaking skill, in Iran. Therefore, the present study aimed at s...

This study investigated the effect of transactional and interactional strategies on developing Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ spoken language performance. First of all, to homogenize the participants, the researcher administered IELTS speaking tests to 50 participants as the pre-test in order to select the main sample of the study which were 30 students. That is, those participants whose sc...

Recently, in the language testing field, automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology has been used to automatically score speaking tests. This paper investigates the impact of audio quality on ASR-based automatic speaking assessment. Using the read speech data in the International English Speaking Test (IEST) practice test, we annotated audio quality and compared scores rated by humans, speec...

The purpose of this paper was to extend the use of the verbal Selective Reminding Test to the Spanish-speaking population. Since valid and reliable tests, with appropriate norms are essential for an adequate assessment of cognitive functioning, in this study we provide normative data collected from 329 Spanish-speaking individuals for a Spanish version of the test. Age, gender and education eff...

Previous studies have shown improved sensitivity to native-language contrasts and reduced sensitivity to non-native phonetic contrasts when comparing 6-8 and 10-12-month-old infants. This developmental pattern is interpreted as reflecting the onset of language-specific processing around the first birthday. However, generalization of this finding is limited by the fact that studies have yielded ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS While the oldest old are the fastest growing segment of the US population, normative neuropsychological data for nondemented oldest old Spanish speakers are nonexistent. This study sought to evaluate the neuropsychological performance of nondemented nonagenarians residing in Puerto Rico and to compare their results with those of a similar English-speaking sample from New York. ...

Speech timing at different speaking rates was studied for the Slovenian language and the results were applied for duration modelling in the Slovenian text-to-speech system S5 [1]. In order to enable the synthesiser to pronounce input text with several speaking rates, tests were made to study the impact of speaking rate on syllable duration and duration of individual phonemes and phoneme groups ...

Speech timing at different speaking rates was studied for the Slovenian language and the results were applied for duration modelling in the Slovenian text-to-speech system S5 [1]. In order to enable the synthesiser to pronounce input text with several speaking rates, tests were made to study the impact of speaking rate on syllable duration and duration of individual phonemes and phoneme groups ...