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...

BACKGROUND Language barrier is an important determinant of health care access and health. We examined the associations of English proficiency with type-2 diabetes (T2DM) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Asian Indians living in Singapore, an urban city where English is the predominant language of communication. METHODS This was a population-based, cross-sectional study. T2DM was defined as HbA...

Developing proficiency in the language(s) spoken any given society is crucial for inclusion and attainment of children that society. With an enrolment rate Norwegian early childhood education care (ECEC) 93.4% between age one five, ECEC constitutes important out-of-home learning environment Norway. In this study, we examine how quality language-learning environments toddler preschool groups pre...

Traditional assessments of public speaking skills rely on human scoring. We report a n initial study on the development of an automated scoring model for public speaking performances using multimodal technologies. Task design, rubric development, and human rating were conducted according to standards in educational assessment. An initial corpus of 17 speakers with four speaking tasks was collec...

Among many factors affecting learning a language, motivation is the most well- documented in theory and less operationalized in practice entity and it calls for consideration when it comes to learn speaking skill in English as Foreign Language (EFL) education ecology. This study investigates the effect of storytelling through puppets on 60 Iranian pre -intermediate EFL learners' Motivation and ...

This study investigates the factors influencing the oral communication strategies of technological university students in Taiwan. Ninety-eight sophomore students of Lunghwa University of Science and Technology participated in it. Nakatani’s Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) (2006), along with the demographics and English learning backgrounds of students, was used to collect data. Des...

BACKGROUND After emergency department (ED) discharge, Spanish-speaking patients with limited English proficiency are less likely than English-proficient patients to be adherent to medical recommendations and are more likely to be dissatisfied with their visit. OBJECTIVES To determine if integrating a longitudinal medical Spanish and cultural competency curriculum into emergency medicine resid...