In online environments, listening involves being able to pause or replay the recording as needed. Previous research indicates that control over the listening input could improve the measurement ...accuracy of listening assessment. Self-pacing also supports the second language (L2) comprehension processes of test-takers with specific learning difficulties (SpLDs) or, more specifically, of learners with reading-related learning difficulties who might have slower processing speed and limited working memory capacity. Our study examined how L1 literacy skills influence L2 listening performance in the standard single-listening and self-paced administration mode of the listening section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Junior Standard test. In a counterbalanced design, 139 Austrian learners of English completed 15 items in a standard single-listening condition and another 15 in a self-paced condition. L1 literacy skills were assessed via a standard reading, non-word reading, word-naming, and non-word repetition test. Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Modelling revealed that self-pacing had no statistically significant effect on listening scores nor did it boost the performance of test-takers with lower L1 literacy scores indicative of reading-related SpLDs. The results indicate that young test-takers might require training in self-pacing or that self-paced conditions may need to be carefully implemented when they are offered to candidates with SpLDs.
One of the special arrangements in testing contexts is to allow dyslexic students to listen to the text while they read. In our study, we investigated the effect of read-aloud assistance on young ...English learners’ language comprehension scores. We also examined whether students with dyslexia identification benefit from this assistance differently from their peers with no official identification of dyslexia.
Our research was conducted with young Slovenian learners of English who performed four language assessment tasks adapted from a standardized battery of Slovenian national English language tests. In a counter-balanced design, 233 students with no identified dyslexia and 47 students with dyslexia identification completed two language comprehension tasks in a reading-only condition, one task with read-aloud assistance and one task in listening-only mode. We used Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Modelling (GLMM) to estimate accurately the effects of the mode of administration, dyslexia status, and input text difficulty, while accounting for error variance owing to random differences between students, texts, and questions.
The results of our study revealed that young L2 learners with no dyslexia identification performed similarly in the three conditions. The read-aloud assistance, however, was found to increase the comprehension scores of dyslexic participants when reading difficult texts, allowing them to perform at the level of their non-dyslexic peers. Therefore, our study suggests that this modification of the test administration mode might assist dyslexic students in demonstrating their text comprehension abilities.
In order to understand the role of the factors that can predict the comprehension of health-related texts in a second language (L2), we conducted a study that examines whether allowing L2 users to ...listen to a health-related text while reading it affects understanding. We also investigated what role general and health-related vocabulary knowledge play in the comprehension of health-related texts in a silent-reading and reading-while-listening conditions. Our participants were 259 Sri Lankan L2 users who read two health-related texts silently and read two other texts while listening to the text being read out to them. They also completed an L2 vocabulary knowledge and a health-related vocabulary knowledge test. We used Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models to predict the effect of text presentation mode, L2 and health-related vocabulary knowledge on comprehension. The results showed no significant effect of text presentation mode. However, both L2 vocabulary knowledge and health-related vocabulary knowledge were found to play a substantial role in text comprehension. Our findings also revealed that Sri Lankan L2 users generally demonstrated inadequate comprehension of health-related texts. To promote a higher level of health-related text comprehension in an additional language, the general and health-specific L2 vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency of the population needs to be improved. Keywords: Read-aloud assistance, health-related vocabulary knowledge, health comprehension, second language
The current study examined the extent to which cognitive fluency (CF) contributes to utterance fluency (UF) at the level of constructs. A total of 128 Japanese-speaking learners of English completed ...four speaking tasks—argumentative task, picture narrative task, reading-to-speaking task, and reading-while-listening-to-speaking task—and a battery of linguistic knowledge tests, capturing vocabulary size, lexical retrieval speed, sentence construction skills, grammaticality judgments, and articulatory speed. Their speaking performance was analyzed in terms of speed, breakdown, and repair fluency (i.e., UF), and scores on linguistic knowledge tests were used to assess students’ L2 linguistic resources and processing skills (i.e., CF). Structural equation modeling revealed a complex interplay between the multidimensionality of CF and UF and speaking task types. L2 processing speed consistently contributed to all aspects of UF across speaking tasks, whereas the role of linguistic resources in speed and repair fluency varied, depending on task characteristics.
•The results show improvements in the lexical diversity of students’ writing.•Lower proficiency group developed in noun-phrase complexity.•Students’ writing exhibited more advanced repertoire of ...syntactic choices at the end of the course.
This study investigates how the lexical and syntactic characteristics of L2 learners’ academic writing change over the course of a one-month long intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme at a British university. The participants were asked to produce two argumentative essays, at the beginning and at the end of the EAP course, which were analyzed using measures that are theoretically motivated by previous research in corpus linguistics, systemic functional linguistics, and developmental child language acquisition. The results indicate improvements, with regard to lexical diversity, both for intermediate-level students who were preparing for undergraduate university studies in the UK and upper-intermediate level participants who were planning to continue their studies at postgraduate level. The academic argumentative texts of the students in the lower proficiency group also demonstrate development in noun-phrase complexity and in the use of genre-specific syntactic constructions. The findings suggest that despite no explicit focus on lexis and syntax in the EAP programme, by the end of the course the students’ writing exhibited a developmentally more advanced repertoire of lexical and syntactic choices that are characteristic of expository texts in academic contexts.
Building on initiatives to promote high quality methodologies and Open Science practices in the language sciences, Language Learning will request, as of January 1, 2020, that all submissions to the ...journal include, whenever possible, the full materials used in the study for peer review. This includes materials used to elicit and code primary and secondary data (such as questionnaires, language tests, interview or observation schedules, and coding schemas). These materials will be shared with reviewers to better inform the peer review process and ensure rigorous evaluation of the methods used. If the manuscript is accepted, authors will then be encouraged to make their materials available on an open, sustainable repository, though there is no requirement to do so. In this Editorial, we outline the benefits of this policy for the advancement of the language sciences and discuss some potential concerns that authors may have.
In this study we investigated whether language teachers' self-confidence, self-efficacy and attitudes to using inclusive educational practices with dyslexic students differ before and after ...participation in a massive open online course (MOOC). An online questionnaire survey, before (n = 1187) and after the course (n = 752), showed that the participants’ post-course attitudes were more positive, their self-efficacy beliefs higher and their concerns lower than at the beginning of the course. Participants who completed more tasks on the course demonstrated increased post-course self-efficacy beliefs and those who posted more comments reported lower levels of worry about the implementation of inclusive language teaching practices.
•Massive open online learning course increases teachers' self-efficacy for inclusion.•After the course language teachers' attitudes to inclusion were more positive.•Active course participation was linked to increased self-efficacy beliefs.
This article reviews current research findings on how specific learning difficulties (SLDs) impact on the processes of multilingual language development. The review includes studies of young language ...learners in instructed classroom settings, as well as of multilingual children in second language (L2) contexts. Starting with a definition of the concepts of disability and SLDs, it next discusses the interaction of cognitive factors with first language (L1) and L2 literacy development and L2 learning. Also outlined are possible ways in which SLDs can be identified in different L2 learning contexts. A detailed analysis of how cognitive factors influence the development of L2 skills of young learners with learning difficulties is given in the last part of the article.
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