this study was an effort towards examining the relationship between iranian efl learners’ language proficiency and their metaphorical competence. the were 120 iranian efl learners studying at sadr english language center within the 19-25 age range. the efl learners’ english proficiency from elementary to advanced which was determined by the opt. afterwards, the students were administered a rese...

The logographic nature of the Chinese writing system creates a huge hurdle for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners. Existing literature (e.g., Shen, 2010; Taft & Chung, 1999) suggests that radical knowledge facilitates character learning. In this project, we selected 48 compound characters in eight radical groups and examined how grouping characters based on their radicals affected the...

Casual speech processes, such as /t/-reduction, make word recognition harder. Additionally, word-recognition is also harder in a second language (L2). Combining these challenges, we investigated whether L2 learners have recourse to knowledge from their native language (L1) when dealing with casual-speech processes in their L2. In three experiments, production and perception of /t/-reduction was...

this study investigated language learning styles of iranian efl learners and their class achievement. to this end, sixty female ad- vanced learners of instruction and different ages (15-30), studying at a language institute in shiraz were asked to take part in the study. a 30- item language learning styles questionnaire developed by reid (1987) was employed to elicit information for the study. ...

An important question in the L2 acquisition of phonemic distinctions is whether learners have to perceive contrasts before they can successfully produce them. In this paper, data on both the perception and production of the English /s/-/š/ contrast were elicited from native speakers of Korean, a language in which [s] and [š] are allophones of the same phoneme. General principles of phonology pr...

the salient, and often ignored, role that out-of-class learning plays in second/foreign language (l2) learners’ development is overshadowed by classroom research. the main aim of this study is to problematize the role of out-of-class learning in the specific english-as-foreign-language (efl) context of iran by examination of the ways in which four learners attempted to revamp their english lang...

This paper presents the results of two high variability phonetic training regimes aimed at improving the perception of five English vowels, namely /æ, ʌ, ɪ, i, ɜː/ by Spanish/Catalan speakers learning English as a second language (L2). 60 learners of English as an L2 took part in a pretest/training/post-test study and were assigned to one of two training methods (forced-choice identification tr...

Over the last decade, most studies in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) have highlighted how online synchronous learning environments implement a new literacy related to multimodal communication. The environment used in our experiment is based on a synchronous audio-graphic conferencing tool. This study concerns false beginners in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course, presenting a ...

This paper discusses the relationship between the perception and the production of vowel contrasts in German learners of English. The underlying study investigates whether German subjects’ ability to distinguish between the English front vowels /e/ and /æ/ on the level of production improved after training only perception. The main hypothesis was that perception training would improve productio...