Earticle

This study investigates the role of phonological knowledge in the reading development of learners and clarifies the relationships among phonological awareness (PA), prosodic skills (PS) and reading comprehension (RC). Sixteen English as a second language (ESL) lower achievers from a Hong Kong secondary school participated in the study. Three types of related measures (PA, PS and RC) were conducted. A passage was read aloud and an acoustic analysis was conducted. The results showed that the correct rate of RC was 38.16 %. Among the PA subtasks, rhyme detection was the easiest task, followed by alliteration detection, syllable segmentation, and non-word reading. In the PS subtasks, phrasal rhythm was the easiest task, followed by intonation sensitivity, and word stress tasks. The tasks that correlated highest with RC were non-word reading and word stress tasks, suggesting that these two indicators played a major role in RC. Amongst all of the tasks, rhythm detection and syllable segmentation, and phrasal rhythm and word stress were significantly and positively correlated. Detailed information about the participants’ responses and strategies on non-word reading, word stress, and intonation sensitivity tasks was described. Acoustic analyses of speed, pause and intonation were made, measured and calculated.

English Learners (ELs) are often viewed as a homogenous group of students, when in fact they are a diverse group with distinct generational differences among them. Common methods employing generation status fail to address the differences in a subgroup of ELs, namely, Generation 1.5. The purpose of this study was to investigate motivational variables related to language learning based on generational status. It aimed to find out whether there are differences in acculturation, motivational factors, language learning beliefs, self-efficacy, and language proficiency between Iranian first-generation immigrants and generation 1.5 Iranian ELs, investigate the relationships among these variables, and study possible gender differences in calculated correlation coefficients. Participants’ motivation, beliefs, self-efficacy, and acculturation patterns related to learning English were examined and quantitative methods were used to assess the differences among the groups. Results indicated that first generation ELs report higher levels of effort, desire, attitudes, and motivation to learn English, while generation 1.5 ELs report higher levels of US acculturation and identity. Implications for language teaching and learning are discussed.

This study sheds light on one of the most creative, thus challenging, grammatical classes of the English language, namely phrasal verbs (PV) in a corpus of Korean EFL students’ writing. This aims to contribute a further facet to the general understanding of Korean learners of English. Taking the perspective provided by a usage-based approach to language, a corpus was compiled from 257 Korean students’ essays from essay contests. The most frequent verbs and adverbial particles in PV constructions and PVs in the corpus were identified and then compared to the actual use of native speakers of English in the British National Corpus. It was found that the top 4 most frequent verbs (e.g. GO, COME) and adverbial particles (e.g. up, out) in both corpora were almost identical, and more than half of the top 20 verbs overlapped. The most frequent PV combinations in the BNC also often occurred in the student corpus, while less frequent combinations in the former rarely appeared in the latter. These findings can provide evidence indicating that Korean EFL students lack the formulaic competence of PVs. The implications of the findings for English language teaching and learning are also discussed.

Abstract BACKGROUND MODELING BEHAVIORS IN THE CLASSROOM RESEARCH QUESTIONS METHODS Participants & Setting Analyses RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AUTHORS REFERENCES

The present research explored the effect of Chinese university students’ oral test anxiety and speaking strategy use on their oral English performance. 1697 university students answered the 19-item Achievement Test Anxiety Scale and the 32-item Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) (speaking part) in study 1. In study 2, 493 university students answered the 25-item Oral English Test Anxiety Scale and the OCSI immediately after they had finished the oral English proficiency test. The major findings are: (1) although the respondents generally perceived test anxiety to be more facilitating than debilitating, oral test anxiety did exist during the oral English test and significantly debilitated their test performance, (2) more proficient students tended to be significantly less anxious during the oral test; (3) the participants used speaking strategies to varying degrees during the oral English test, and more proficient students tended to use more effective speaking strategies significantly more frequently; (4) speaking strategies both enhanced and debilitated students’ oral test performance; and (5) oral test anxiety was significantly correlated with the use of different categories of speaking strategies.