BACKGROUND Chest X-ray (CXR) is a common imaging modality that could impact immediate decision-making for acute chest pathologies. We sought to examine the non-radiologists proficiency of diagnosing acute pathologies manifest on CXR. METHODS We selected 9 clinical vignettes, each associated with a CXR, wherein only a single acute chest pathology was manifest. We also added a low-risk vignette...

This study examined the interrelationships of first language (L1) literacy, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 reading comprehension with 246 Chinese college students learning English. L1 literacy and L2 proficiency were measured with college admission exams in Chinese and English. L2 reading comprehension was measured with the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL and a researcher-dev...

Investigating transfer of one’s pragmatic knowledge of first language to his second or foreign language has been one of the areas of interest for researchers. However, there are contradictory results even within the scarce studies which have addressed transferability. This study was an attempt to investigate perceived pragmatic transferability of L1 refusal strategies by Persian EFL learners. S...

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Virtually all of the extensive previous research investigating the effect of information systems proficiency on performance has been conducted at the individual level. Little research has investigated the relationship between IS proficiency and performance at the group level. In this paper, we argue that IS proficiency at the group level may be more than the simple sum or average of the IS prof...

This study examined the effect of language proficiency on repeated mention reduction in L2 English spontaneous speech by Korean native speakers. We found a significant effect of L2 proficiency on word duration in repeated mentions. Specifically, as with native English speakers (EN), Korean learners of English with high English proficiency (KH) reduced the duration of repeated words, while those...

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...

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...