While reading circles have been utilized to promote extensive reading in many educational settings, studies on higher levels of reading engagement in under-researched, English-as-a-foreign-language contexts are still in their infancy. Therefore, the current study examines the factors that increase learners' levels of engagement in extensive…

Recent research has shown that reading and listening together can be helpful in developing EFL reading fluency, but learner-autonomous bimodal reading research remains scarce. The present study, in an intensive academic English program in Japan, was intended to explore whether reading rates and related reading skills might improve while…

This study investigates the vocabulary knowledge, beliefs, and practices of adult English as a second language (ESL) instructors. Thirty participants responded to an online survey designed to elicit information regarding their knowledge and beliefs; approaches to assessment; vocabulary teaching techniques and strategies; instructional practices…

This study investigates 62 EFL young adults' vocabulary learning rates immediately after reading ten graded readers, and their vocabulary decay rates after a three-month period. The participants were divided into two relative levels: higher (n = 31) and lower (n = 31). One hundred target words were semi-randomly selected from the reading texts and…

Compares advantages and disadvantages of most types of modern dictionaries from teachers' and researchers' as well as students' points of view. Shows that if clear distinctions are made between learning, test-taking, reading for pleasure, or extensive reading, each type dictionary can be used by itself or in combination with another dictionary,…

As teachers are probably the most invaluable source of field-based informants regarding (in)effective classroom practices, teacher-training should equip teachers with tools for classroom-based teacher-led research. More importantly, these tools should sustain trainees' research-eagerness as well as autonomous professional development beyond…

One challenge for many international teaching assistants (ITAs) is improving their spoken English fluency after arrival in the U.S.A. It may be argued that poor fluency, with its hallmarks of slow speech rate, false starts, and particularly pauses that violate phrasal boundaries, account for the failure of many ITAs to be certified by their…