OBJECTIVE The number of individuals with limited English proficiency in the USA is large and rapidly growing. Consequently, addressing language barriers in access to medical care is becoming increasingly important. Previous studies have reported that individuals with limited English proficiency have more difficulty gaining access to care, compared to English-proficient individuals. We assessed ...

the purpose of this study was twofold. firstly, it attempted to investigate whether language learning strategies (llss) can predict foreign language (fl) proficiency. secondly, it examined what kind of llss iranian learners of english use more frequently in fl institutes. to do so, 112 intermediate iranian efl learners participated in the study. oxford’s strategy inventory for language learning...

abstract norton’s (1995) investment hypothesis in l2 learning that l2 learners who cherish and foresee a richer personality for themselves in their l2 context would thrive more diligently and consequently would both enrich their personality and achieve a higher proficiency in their new language was investigated in this study in the community of iranian efl students. the integration and mutual r...

Although attribution theory has been applied in many fields of education as a way of understanding individual differences, it has somewhat been neglected by professionals in ELT to date. This study has thus sought to investigate the role of EFL learners’ attributions for success and failure in learning a foreign language and their performance on placement tests. Three instruments, namely, the I...

Recent research has shown that extensive training in and exposure to a second language can modify the language organization in the brain by causing both structural and functional changes. However it is not yet known how these changes are manifested by the dynamic brain oscillations and synchronization patterns subserving the language networks. In search for synchronization correlates of profici...

Interpreting sentences spoken in a second language can be demanding and plagued with uncertainty, especially for lower proficiency listeners. While native language listeners use numerous information sources to anticipate upcoming words accurately, the pattern of anticipation may be different for second language users. We explore this issue in bilinguals with varying English proficiency by recor...

An enduring question in the study of second-language acquisition concerns the relative contributions of age of acquisition (AOA) and ultimate linguistic proficiency to neural organization for second-language processing. Several ERP and neuroimaging studies of second-language learners have found that neural organization for syntactic processing is sensitive to delays in second-language acquisiti...

The paper presents an analysis of speech rhythm development in second language. 51 German learners of English with varying degrees of proficiency were recorded producing 33 identical sentences of quasi-spontaneous speech. Durational characteristics of syllables, consonantal and vocalic intervals were calculated to allow for analysis of timing patterns on different proficiency levels. We found t...

& Lexical proficiency, as a cognitive construct, is poorly understood. However, lexical proficiency is an important element of language proficiency and fluency, especially for second language (L2) learners. For example, lexical errors are a common cause of L2 miscommunication (Ellis, 1995). Lexical proficiency is also an important attribute of L2 academic achievement (Daller, van Hout, & Treffe...

This study explored the relationship among EFL teachers’ self-efficacy, language proficiency, and classroom management. A total of 110 Iranian EFL teachers of different levels of high schools and private language schools in Tehran participated in this research. The data were collected through two questionnaires and one test: the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale and a sample TOEFL were administered i...