This study designed learning activities supported by a mobile learning system for students to develop listening and speaking skills in English as a foreign language (EFL). How students perceive learning activities and a mobile learning system were examined in this study. Additionally, how different practices relate to students’ language proficiency was also explored. It was found that students ...

As language learners scale up in terms of speaking proficiency, they expand the volume of expressions in the target language that they can use in a robust fashion, combining vocabulary and syntactic structures into novel constructions and transferring them to new contexts. In the ISLET Project, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), we have developed a strategy for allowing a dialog-r...

The study examined language learning anxiety factors, hindering EFL learners’ process of learning, particularly in speaking settings and recommended useful approaches to cope with it. Using the quantitative approach as well as a qualitative semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion method, this study tried to examine the factors behind language anxiety among Iranian language learners...

The study examined language learning anxiety factors, hindering EFL learners’ process of learning, particularly in speaking settings and recommended useful approaches to cope with it. Using the quantitative approach as well as a qualitative semi-structured interview and focus-group discussion method, this study tried to examine the factors behind language anxiety among Iranian language learners...

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...

Researchers have suggested that interactional feedback is associated with foreign/second language learning because it prompts learners to notice foreign/second language forms. Using Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and Long’s interaction hypothesis as conceptual frameworks, this study explores the use of systematic explicit feedback to undergraduates (N = 1180) at three assessment points...

A critical period for language learning is often defined as a sharp decline in learning outcomes with age. This study examines the relevance of the critical period for English-speaking proficiency among immigrants in the USA. It uses microdata from the 2000 US Census, a model of language acquisition and a flexible specification of an estimating equation based on 64 age-at-migration dichotomous ...

second-language (l2) acquisition is generally thought to be constrained by maturational factors that circumscribe a critical period for native-like attainment. consistent with the maturational view are age effects among learners who begin l2 acquisition prior to, but not after, closure of the putative critical period. some studies indicate that native-like acquisition of a second language by le...