Although the TOEFL iBT Listening test is sometimes used for other purposes, it was designed primarily for use as a college entrance examination. Item difficulty in TOEFL iBT Listening tests is the product of interactions between two sets of complex relationships: 1) relationships among numerous item characteristics themselves, and 2) relationships…

This study sought to identify the challenges and needs of TOEFL iBT candidates in achieving C1 level scores in the speaking and writing sections of the exam. To this end, the researcher employed a mixed-method approach to collect data from a population of 46 students, both male and female, between the ages of 22 and 30. The participants were…

This study reports on the experiences of early career academics (ECAs) in a private Malaysian higher education (HE) institution and its impact on their academic identity. Through the use of a qualitative inquiry, the findings revealed that the ECAs' academic identity development was imbued with challenges and complexities, as they navigated…

The attributes of post-pandemic blended teaching (BT) will more closely resemble pre-Coronavirus conditions than the outbreak's emergency remote teaching. Thus, barriers and enablers for teachers transitioning to BT after emergency remote teaching will be similar to those of early BT adopters. K-12 research has identified external and internal…

Instructional coaching is a way to support classroom teachers in their efforts to provide high quality instruction across academic content areas. Because of beginner teachers' needs for extra support, many districts are now embracing instructional coaches to provide specific pedagogical feedback to their beginning teachers via job-embedded,…

Students of private universities in Bangladesh are often found to be less competent in spoken English. Since the universities have adopted EMI (English medium instruction) policy, the prevailing linguistic condition on the campus is an "English only environment." In this context, students are required to communicate in English both…

Black teachers (BTs) are significantly underrepresented in the US teaching profession, yet there is still little focus on how to best hire, support, and retain them. This collaborative autoethnography documents our work in an urban characteristic school district and university in the southeastern US and how we leveraged our interpersonal and…

This study investigated U.S. undergraduates' perceptions of non-native speakers' (NNS) speech which had received 100% proficiency scores on the TOEFL iBT test. Fifty-five U.S. undergraduates rated 20 speech samples for comprehensibility, accentedness, and acceptability. The speech samples were also analyzed for acoustic fluency. Descriptively,…

The present study investigates the efficacy of preparation time in four speaking tasks of TOEFL iBT. As the current pre-task planning time offered by ETS is very short, 15 to 30 seconds, we intended to explore how the test-takers' speaking quality would change if the preparation time was added to the response time, giving the respondents a…

Extensive and repeated language exposure is essential for second language learning. While not all learners can get such exposure routinely in face-to-face contexts, English language learners today create pathways to opportunities for learning English through participation in social media communities. The informal exposure to English they obtain…

This paper presents the findings of a study that intended to seek the content validity (CV) evidence of an instrument to measure the reading ability of university students in Sri Lanka. The reading passages and items were adapted from CEFR aligned Learning Resource Network (LRN) materials. The items were designed based on the cognitive processing…

There is an abundance of literature highlighting the need to focus on enhancing students' creativity in the classroom. This research aimed to determine the impact of the Mathematical Creative Approach (MCA) on mathematical creativity and mathematics achievement among students and to explore the relationship between mathematical creativity and…

The Focus of Practice (FoP) of this Participatory Action Research (PAR) project was to develop mentors' knowledge, skills, and dispositions to identify and implement equitable classroom practices through coaching conversations with beginning teachers. The study examined what happens when mentors shift from essential check-ins with beginning…

Several professional organizations, non-profit groups, and researchers have provided K-12 blended teaching (BT) competencies; however, few of these have connected competencies to concrete practices. This analysis used a set of research-based BT dispositions, technology skills, and competencies (i.e., proficiencies) to analyze a representative…

Admission in English-medium universities or institutions of higher education depends on the results obtained by candidates in large-scale proficiency tests including Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) internet-based test (iBT). The structure and administration procedure of the TOEFL iBT speaking test leaves no room for carrying out…