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...

The main purpose of the study reported in this paper was to examine the interrelationships between L2 risk-taking, English learning motivation, L2 speaking anxiety, linguistic confidence, and low-proficiency English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). A secondary purpose was to test whether task repetition can influence the level of the mentio...

PURPOSE To develop a reliable and valid questionnaire of bilingual language status with predictable relationships between self-reported and behavioral measures. METHOD In Study 1, the internal validity of the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) was established on the basis of self-reported data from 52 multilingual adult participants. In Study 2, criterion-based validit...

Second language (L2) learners tend to speak slower at every level of linguistic analysis, often in an uneven tempo, with longer pauses at the start and before some words and constructions, than is typical of native speech. As noted by Zhang & Elder [1], native listeners focus on phonological fluency in making judgments about L2 proficiency. Improved understanding of how fluency grows with progr...

Abstract We investigated age-related decline in adult learning of Dutch as an additional language (L n ) speaking, writing, listening, and reading proficiency test scores for 56,024 immigrants with 50 L1s who came to the Netherlands study or work. Performance all four skills turned out monotonically after age arrival about 25 years, similar developmental trajectories observed earlier aging rese...

After immersion in a foreign language, speakers often have difficulty retrieving native-language words and may experience a decrease in its proficiency, this phenomenon, in the non-pathological form, is known as first language attrition. Self-perception of this low native-language proficiency and apprehension occurring when speaking is expected and, may sometimes lead these people to a state of...

this research study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate the test takers’ perceptions and anx- iety in relation to an english language proficiency test called community english program (cep). this study also evaluated the direct and semi-direct modes for speaking module of this test. to this end, 300 eng- lish as foreign language (efl) students were recruited in the study as test ta...

This research study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate the test takers’ perceptions and anx- iety in relation to an English language proficiency test called Community English Program (CEP). This study also evaluated the direct and semi-direct modes for speaking module of this test. To this end, 300 Eng- lish as Foreign Language (EFL) students were recruited in the study as test ta...

Although lexis research (e.g., Lewis, 1997; Taguchi, 2008) has already evidenced the possibility of teaching formulaic sequences (FS), further research is still needed to examine the procedures or frameworks through which the approach can be applied and probe the second or foreign language (L2) areas where it demonstrates more relevance. This pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study aimed, fir...

Although the operational scoring of the TOEFL iBT speaking section features the overall judgment of an examinee's speaking ability, the evaluation of specific components of speech such as delivery (pace and clarity of speech) and language use (vocabulary and grammar use) may be a promising approach to providing diagnostic information to learners. This study used an evidence-centered design appr...