Discourse markers can have various functions depending on the context in which they are used. Taking this into consideration, in this corpus-based research, we analyzed and unveiled quantitatively and qualitatively the functions of four discourse markers in academic spoken English. To this purpose, four discourse markers, i.e., "I mean,"…

Speaking English in a face-to-face classroom versus an online classroom may make EFL students feel uneasy in different ways, depending on a variety of factors. To help students reduce anxiety, teachers must understand the different levels of anxiety they experience in different situations. This study investigated the differences in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of online speaking tasks (OST) on the English communication ability of Thai EFL undergraduates. The study further examined students' perspectives toward online oral presentation tasks. A questionnaire translated into the participants' native language was utilized and distributed to…

Human raters and machine scoring systems potentially have complementary strengths in evaluating language ability; specifically, it has been suggested that automated systems might be used to make consistent measurements of specific linguistic phenomena, whilst humans evaluate more global aspects of performance. We report on an empirical study that…

This paper reports on the effectiveness of Interactive Reading Comprehension Teaching (IRCT) in improving the oral English communication ability of Prince of Songkla University (PSU) undergraduates. It is based on a preand post-test quasi-experimental study employing IRCT, composed of self-study reading assignments and a structured peer-teaching…

Course materials play a vital role in the foreign language classroom. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to analyzing the activities that foster oral interactional ability in course materials for English as a foreign language (EFL). For the purpose of this study, a coding scheme was designed that focuses specifically on the…

This six-week action research study explored the use of a media-based adaptation of a popular student-centered, extensive reading-based activity known as Literature Circles (LCs). Twenty Chinese students decided upon groups and assigned themselves specific roles before viewing episodes of a selected television series for homework. The prepared…

Language proficiency constitutes a crucial barrier for prospective international teaching assistants (ITAs). Many US universities administer screening tests to ensure that ITAs possess the required academic oral English proficiency for their TA duties. Such ITA screening tests often elicit a sample of spoken English, which is evaluated in terms of…

The results of our previous research on the pedagogical use of Speaking Robots (SRs) revealed positive effects on motivating students to practice their oral skills in a stress-free environment. However, our findings indicated that the SR was sometimes unable to understand students' foreign accented speech. In this paper, we report the results of a…

Suprasegmental features have received growing attention in the field of oral assessment. In this article we describe a set of computer algorithms that automatically scores the oral proficiency of non-native speakers using unconstrained English speech. The algorithms employ machine learning and 11 suprasegmental measures divided into four groups…

This study investigates the coordination of matrix and subordinate clauses within finite complement-clause constructions. The data come from diary and audio recordings which include the utterances produced by an American English-speaking child, L, between the ages 1;08 and 3;05. We extracted all the finite complement-clause constructions that L…

Previous studies have shown that infant-directed speech (IDS) differs from adult-directed speech (ADS) on a variety of dimensions. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether acoustic differences between IDS and ADS in English are modulated by prosodic structure. We compared vowels across the two registers (IDS, ADS) in both stressed…

This report is the fifth in a series concerning English language proficiency (ELP) assessments for English learners (ELs) in kindergarten through 12th grade in the United States. The series, produced by Educational Testing Service (ETS), is intended to provide theory and evidence-based principles and recommendations for improving next-generation…

This article reports on an action research study that assessed the influence of cognitive and metacognitive strategies-based feedback in the oral performance of a group of 6th grade students at a public school in Medellin, Colombia. Researchers analyzed students' oral performance through assessment and self-assessment rubrics, applied inventories…

The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between student engagement and achievement. The study sample was composed of 296 at Ufuk University in Ankara, Turkey. The participants were enrolled in the intensive English language program of the foreign language Preparatory School of the institution. Data collection was carried out with…