How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional.

PubMed

Costa, Albert; Santesteban, Mikel; Ivanova, Iva

2006-09-01

The authors report 4 experiments exploring the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals in a picture-naming task. In Experiment 1, they tested the impact of language similarity and age of 2nd language acquisition on the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 assessed the performance of highly proficient bilinguals in language-switching contexts involving (a) the 2nd language (L2) and the L3 of the bilinguals, (b) the L3 and the L4, and (c) the L1 and a recently learned new language. Highly proficient bilinguals showed symmetrical switching costs regardless of the age at which the L2 was learned and of the similarities of the 2 languages and asymmetrical switching costs when 1 of the languages involved in the switching task was very weak (an L4 or a recently learned language). The theoretical implications of these results for the attentional mechanisms used by highly proficient bilinguals to control their lexicalization process are discussed. Copyright 2006 APA

ERP Indicators of L2 Proficiency in Word-to-text Integration Processes.

PubMed

Yang, Chin Lung; Perfetti, Charles A; Tan, Li-Hai; Jiang, Ying

2018-06-04

Studies of bilingual proficiency have largely focused on word and sentence processing, whereas the text level has received relatively little attention. We examined on-line second language (L2) text comprehension in relation to L2 proficiency with ERPs recorded on critical words separated across a sentence boundary from their co-referential antecedents. The integration processes on the critical words were designed to reflect different levels of text representation: word-form, word-meaning, and situational levels (Kintsch, 1998). Across proficiency level, bilinguals showed biphasic N400/late positive component (LPC) effects related to word meaning integration (N400) and mental model updating (LPC) processes. More proficient bilinguals, compared with less proficient bilinguals, showed reduced amplitudes in both N400 and LPC when the integration depended on semantic and conceptual meanings. When the integration was based on word repetitions and inferences, both groups showed reduced N400 negativity while elevated LPC positivity. These effects reflect how memory mechanisms (processes and resources) support the tight coupling among word meaning, readers' memory of the text meaning and the referentially-specified meaning of the text. They further demonstrate the importance of L2 semantic and conceptual processing in modulating the L2 proficiency effect on L2 text integration processes. These results align with the assumption that word meaning processes are causal components in variations of comprehension ability for both monolinguals and bilinguals. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Interrelationship among First Language Writing Skills, Second Language Writing Skills, and Second Language Proficiency of EFL University Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ito, Fumihiko

2004-01-01

Background: Over the past twenty years, many investigations have been carried out to identify factors influencing second language (L2) learning. Specifically, investigations of the relationship among first language (L1) reading skills, L2 reading skills, and L2 proficiency have been variously conducted, to contribute to the overall growth of L1-L2…

Comments on Jeong-Won Lee and Diane Lemonnier Schallert's "The Relative Contribution of L2 Language Proficiency and L1 Reading Ability to L2 Reading Performance: A Test of the Threshold Hypothesis in an EFL Context."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bamford, Julian; Day, Richard R.; Schallert, Diane Lemonnier; Lee, Jeong-Won

1998-01-01

Provides reactions to an article, "The Relative Contribution of L2 Language Proficiency and L1 Reading Ability to L2 Reading Performance: A Test of the Threshold Hypothesis in an EFL Context" published in an earlier issue of this journal (v31 n4). The authors of the article respond to these reactions. (Author/VWL)

Assessing Second-Language Oral Proficiency for Research: The Spanish Elicited Imitation Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowden, Harriet Wood

2016-01-01

Proficiency is a key variable in late second language (L2) learning, but one that is undermeasured in current research. This study investigates whether L2 oral proficiency can be quickly and reliably assessed via the Spanish "elicited imitation task" (EIT; Ortega, Iwashita, Rabie, & Norris, 1999). Thirty-seven L2 learners of Spanish…

Hi-LAB: A New Measure of Aptitude for High-Level Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linck, Jared A.; Hughes, Meredith M.; Campbell, Susan G.; Silbert, Noah H.; Tare, Medha; Jackson, Scott R.; Smith, Benjamin K.; Bunting, Michael F.; Doughty, Catherine J.

2013-01-01

Few adult second language (L2) learners successfully attain high-level proficiency. Although decades of research on beginning to intermediate stages of L2 learning have identified a number of predictors of the rate of acquisition, little research has examined factors relevant to predicting very high levels of L2 proficiency. The current study,…

Processing subject-verb agreement in a second language depends on proficiency

PubMed Central

Hoshino, Noriko; Dussias, Paola E.; Kroll, Judith F.

2010-01-01

Subject-verb agreement is a computation that is often difficult to execute perfectly in the first language (L1) and even more difficult to produce skillfully in a second language (L2). In this study, we examined the way in which bilingual speakers complete sentence fragments in a manner that reflects access to both grammatical and conceptual number. In two experiments, we show that bilingual speakers are sensitive to both grammatical and conceptual number in the L1 and grammatical number agreement in the L2. However, only highly proficient bilinguals are also sensitive to conceptual number in the L2. The results suggest that the extent to which speakers are able to exploit conceptual information during speech planning depends on the level of language proficiency. PMID:20640178

Do L2 Writing Courses Affect the Improvement of L1 Writing Skills via Skills Transfer from L2 to L1?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonca, Altmisdort

2016-01-01

This study investigates the relationship of second language (L2) writing skills proficiency with the first language (L1) writing skills, in light of the language transfer. The study aims to analyze the positive effects of L2 writing proficiency on L1 writing proficiency. Forty native Turkish-speaking university students participated in the study.…

The Cognitive Contribution to the Development of Proficiency in a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Csapo, Beno; Nikolov, Marianne

2009-01-01

The present paper reports results of a longitudinal research project studying the contribution of cognitive skills and other factors to proficiency in a foreign language (L2) in the Hungarian educational context. The larger project aims to describe the levels of L2 proficiency of school-aged populations in order to explore the conditions and…

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners' Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, L. Quentin; Wu, Shuang; Daraghmeh, Ahlam

2012-01-01

Three common assumptions concerning bilingual children's language proficiency are: (1) their proficiency in two languages is usually unbalanced; (2) low socioeconomic status (SES) indicates low proficiency in both languages; and (3) encouraging parents to speak some societal language at home will promote its development. Examining the vocabulary…

Roles of Position, Stress, and Proficiency in L2 Children's Spelling: A Developmental Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Su Chin; Chen, Shu Hui

2011-01-01

This study investigated the roles of phoneme position, stress, and proficiency in L2 spelling development by Taiwanese students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), an alphabetic writing system typologically different from the learners' L1 logographic system. Structured nonword spelling tests were administered to EFL sixth-graders with…

Listening in a Multilingual World: The Challenges of Second Language (L2) Listening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rost, Michael

2014-01-01

Research into language acquisition and oral language use was examined in order to identify key factors that contribute to the successful acquisition of second language (L2) listening ability. The factors were grouped into three major domains: affective, cognitive, and interpersonal. It is claimed that in each domain, proficient L2 listeners have…

Predicting the Proficiency Level of Language Learners Using Lexical Indices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott A.; Salsbury, Tom; McNamara, Danielle S.

2012-01-01

This study explores how second language (L2) texts written by learners at various proficiency levels can be classified using computational indices that characterize lexical competence. For this study, 100 writing samples taken from 100 L2 learners were analyzed using lexical indices reported by the computational tool Coh-Metrix. The L2 writing…

The Effect of Sociolinguistic Factors and English Language Proficiency on the Development of French as a Third Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bérubé, Daniel; Marinova-Todd, Stefka H.

2014-01-01

The classroom demographics in French immersion (FI) programs across Canada are changing: There are a growing number of multilingual students who are learning English as a second language (L2) and French as a third language (L3). However, little is known about the development of French language proficiency and reading skills of multilingual…

Phonological awareness and oral language proficiency in learning to read English among Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Yeung, Susanna S; Chan, Carol K K

2013-12-01

Learning to read is very challenging for Hong Kong children who learn English as a second language (ESL), as they must acquire two very different writing systems, beginning at the age of three. Few studies have examined the role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels, oral language proficiency, and L1 tone awareness in L2 English reading among Hong Kong ESL kindergarteners. This study aims to investigate L1 and L2 phonological awareness and oral language proficiency as predictors of English reading among children with Chinese as L1. One hundred and sixty-one typically developing children with a mean age of 5.16 (SD=.35) selected from seven preschools in Hong Kong. Participants were assessed for English reading, English and Chinese phonological awareness at different levels, English oral language skills, and letter naming ability. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both oral language proficiency and phonological awareness measures significantly predicted L2 word reading, when statistically controlled for age and general intelligence. Among various phonological awareness units, L2 phonemic awareness was the best predictor of L2 word reading. Cross-language transfer was shown with L1 phonological awareness at the tone level, uniquely predicting L2 word reading. The present findings show the important role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels (rime and phoneme) and oral language proficiency in the course of L2 reading development in Chinese ESL learners. The significant contribution of L1 tone awareness to L2 reading suggests that phonological sensitivity is a general competence that ESL children need to acquire in early years. The findings have significant implications for understanding L2 reading development and curriculum development. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

A Study of Relationships between L1 Pragmatic Transfer and L2 Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bu, Jiemin

2012-01-01

Studies in interlanguage pragmatics have shown that L2 learners' proficiency has an influence on the occurrences of L1 pragmatic transfer. However, questions remain whether the relationship between L1 pragmatic transfer and L2 proficiency is positive or negative. This paper is designed to study L1 pragmatic transfer in requests made by Chinese…

High second-language proficiency protects against the effects of reverberation on listening comprehension

PubMed Central

Sörqvist, Patrik; Hurtig, Anders; Ljung, Robert; Rönnberg, Jerker

2014-01-01

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether classroom reverberation influences second-language (L2) listening comprehension. Moreover, we investigated whether individual differences in baseline L2 proficiency and in working memory capacity (WMC) modulate the effect of reverberation time on L2 listening comprehension. The results showed that L2 listening comprehension decreased as reverberation time increased. Participants with higher baseline L2 proficiency were less susceptible to this effect. WMC was also related to the effect of reverberation (although just barely significant), but the effect of WMC was eliminated when baseline L2 proficiency was statistically controlled. Taken together, the results suggest that top-down cognitive capabilities support listening in adverse conditions. Potential implications for the Swedish national tests in English are discussed. PMID:24646043

Effects of Verb Semantics and Proficiency in Second Language Use of Constructional Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hyunwoo; Rah, Yangon

2016-01-01

This study investigates the influence of the semantic heaviness of verbs (i.e., heavy or light verbs) and language proficiency on second language (L2) learners' use of constructional information in a sentence-sorting task and a corpus analysis. Previous studies employing a sentence-sorting task demonstrated that advanced L2 learners sorted English…

Spoken Language Activation Alters Subsequent Sign Language Activation in L2 Learners of American Sign Language.

PubMed

Williams, Joshua T; Newman, Sharlene D

2017-02-01

A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel language activation in M2L2 learners of sign language and to characterize the influence of spoken language and sign language neighborhood density on the activation of ASL signs. A priming paradigm was used in which the neighbors of the sign target were activated with a spoken English word and compared the activation of the targets in sparse and dense neighborhoods. Neighborhood density effects in auditory primed lexical decision task were then compared to previous reports of native deaf signers who were only processing sign language. Results indicated reversed neighborhood density effects in M2L2 learners relative to those in deaf signers such that there were inhibitory effects of handshape density and facilitatory effects of location density. Additionally, increased inhibition for signs in dense handshape neighborhoods was greater for high proficiency L2 learners. These findings support recent models of the hearing bimodal bilingual lexicon, which posit lateral links between spoken language and sign language lexical representations.

Highly Proficient Bilinguals Implement Inhibition: Evidence from N-2 Language Repetition Costs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Declerck, Mathieu; Thoma, Aniella M.; Koch, Iring; Philipp, Andrea M.

2015-01-01

Several, but not all, models of language control assume that highly proficient bilinguals implement little to no inhibition during bilingual language production. In the current study, we tested this assumption with a less equivocal marker of inhibition (i.e., n-2 language repetition costs) than previous language switching studies have. N-2…

High second-language proficiency protects against the effects of reverberation on listening comprehension.

PubMed

Sörqvist, Patrik; Hurtig, Anders; Ljung, Robert; Rönnberg, Jerker

2014-04-01

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether classroom reverberation influences second-language (L2) listening comprehension. Moreover, we investigated whether individual differences in baseline L2 proficiency and in working memory capacity (WMC) modulate the effect of reverberation time on L2 listening comprehension. The results showed that L2 listening comprehension decreased as reverberation time increased. Participants with higher baseline L2 proficiency were less susceptible to this effect. WMC was also related to the effect of reverberation (although just barely significant), but the effect of WMC was eliminated when baseline L2 proficiency was statistically controlled. Taken together, the results suggest that top-down cognitive capabilities support listening in adverse conditions. Potential implications for the Swedish national tests in English are discussed. © 2014 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Task Proficiency and L1 Private Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamada, Minako

2005-01-01

There is a growing volume of research on task-based language use; however, the nature of "task proficiency" has not yet been clearly defined. In order to gain new insights, this study examines the relationship between the process of communication in an L2 and a task outcome by analysing lexical density, as obtained from the pattern of a…

Language proficiency and nursing registration.

PubMed

Müller, Amanda

2016-02-01

This discussion paper focuses on English proficiency standards for nursing registration in Australia, how Australia has dealt with the issue of language proficiency, and the factors which have led to the establishment of the current language standards. Also, this paper will provide a comparison of the two language tests that are currently accepted in Australia (OET and IELTS), including the appropriateness of these tests and the minimum standards used. The paper will also examine the use of educational background as an indicator of language proficiency. Finally, communication-based complaints in the post-registration environment will be explored, and some discussion will be provided about why pre-registration measures might have failed to prevent such problematic situations from occurring. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Threshold to Transfer Writing Skills from L1 to L2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ito, Fumihiko

2009-01-01

Background: It has been hypothesized that L2 (second language) readers are not able to draw on their L1 (first language) reading skills for the successful development of L2 reading skills until they develop a certain proficiency in L2 because a lack of proficiency blocks transfer of L1 reading skills to the reading of L2 texts. This minimum degree…

Modeling the Development of L1 and EFL Writing Proficiency of Secondary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schoonen, Rob; van Gelderen, Amos; Stoel, Reinoud D.; Hulstijn, Jan; de Glopper, Kees

2011-01-01

This longitudinal study investigates the development of writing proficiency in English as a foreign language (EFL), in contrast to the development of first language (L1) writing proficiency in Dutch L1, in a sample of almost 400 secondary school students in the Netherlands. Students performed several writing tasks in both languages in three…

Language proficiency and metacognition as predictors of spontaneous rehearsal in children.

PubMed

Bebko, James M; McMorris, Carly A; Metcalfe, Alisa; Ricciuti, Christina; Goldstein, Gayle

2014-03-01

Despite decades of research on fundamental memory strategies such as verbal rehearsal, the potential underlying skills associated with the emergence of rehearsal are still not fully understood. Two studies examined the relative roles of language proficiency and metamemory in predicting rehearsal use, as well as the prediction of metamemory performance by language proficiency. In Study 1, 59 children, 5 to 8 years old, were administered a serial recall task, 2 language measures, a nonverbal cognitive measure, and a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task. Language proficiency, RAN, and age were significant individual predictors of rehearsal use. In hierarchical regression analyses, language proficiency mediated almost completely the age → rehearsal use relation. In addition, automatized naming was a strong but partial mediator of the contribution of language proficiency to rehearsal use. In Study 2, 54 children were administered a metamemory test, a language measure, and a serial recall task. Metamemory skills and, again, language proficiency significantly predicted rehearsal use in the task. The predictive strength of metamemory skills was mediated by the children's language proficiency. The mutually supportive roles of automatized naming, language, and metamemory in the emergence of spontaneous cumulative verbal rehearsal are discussed in the context of the resulting model, along with the minimal roles of age and aspects of intelligence.

Second Language Grammatical Proficiency and Third Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moghtadi, Laleh; Koosha, Mansour; Lotfi, Ahmad Reza

2014-01-01

The main concern of the present study was to investigate the probable correlation between the bilinguals' second language grammatical proficiency level and their third language grammatical proficiency level. The current study was implemented on selecting a total of 100 Iranian female high school students studying at second grade from two…

Neural convergence for language comprehension and grammatical class production in highly proficient bilinguals is independent of age of acquisition.

PubMed

Consonni, Monica; Cafiero, Riccardo; Marin, Dario; Tettamanti, Marco; Iadanza, Antonella; Fabbro, Franco; Perani, Daniela

2013-05-01

In bilinguals, native (L1) and second (L2) languages are processed by the same neural resources that can be modulated by age of second language acquisition (AOA), proficiency level, and daily language exposure and usage. AOA seems to particularly affect grammar processing, where a complete neural convergence has been shown only in bilinguals with parallel language acquisition from birth. Despite the fact that proficiency-related neuroanatomical differences have been well documented in language comprehension (LC) and production, few reports have addressed the influence of language exposure. A still unanswered question pertains to the role of AOA, when proficiency is comparably high across languages, with respect to its modulator effects both on LC and production. Here, we evaluated with fMRI during sentence comprehension and verb and noun production tasks, two groups of highly proficient bilinguals only differing in AOA. One group learned Italian and Friulian in parallel from birth, whereas the second group learned Italian between 3 and 6 years. All participants were highly exposed to both languages, but more to Italian than Friulian. The results indicate a complete overlap of neural activations for the comprehension of both languages, not only in bilinguals from birth, but also in late bilinguals. A slightly extra activation in the left thalamus for the less-exposed language confirms that exposure may affect language processing. Noteworthy, we report for the first time that, when proficiency and exposure are kept high, noun and verb production recruit the same neural networks for L1 and L2, independently of AOA. These results support the neural convergence hypothesis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development and validation of the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS).

PubMed

Smyk, Ekaterina; Restrepo, M Adelaida; Gorin, Joanna S; Gray, Shelley

2013-07-01

This study examined the development and validation of a criterion-referenced Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS) that was designed to assess the oral language skills of sequential bilingual children ages 4-8. This article reports results for the English proficiency portion of the scale. The SELPS assesses syntactic complexity, grammatical accuracy, verbal fluency, and lexical diversity based on 2 story retell tasks. In Study 1, 40 children were given 2 story retell tasks to evaluate the reliability of parallel forms. In Study 2, 76 children participated in the validation of the scale against language sample measures and teacher ratings of language proficiency. Study 1 indicated no significant differences between the SELPS scores on the 2 stories. Study 2 indicated that the SELPS scores correlated significantly with their counterpart language sample measures. Correlations between the SELPS and teacher ratings were moderate. The 2 story retells elicited comparable SELPS scores, providing a valuable tool for test-retest conditions in the assessment of language proficiency. Correlations between the SELPS scores and external variables indicated that these measures assessed the same language skills. Results provided empirical evidence regarding the validity of inferences about language proficiency based on the SELPS score.

Syntactic Complexity as a Predictor of Second Language Writing Proficiency and Writing Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Ji-Hyun

2017-01-01

Syntactic (i.e., grammatical) complexity refers to the range and the degree of sophistication of the forms that appear in language production (Ortega, 2003). This concept has long been regarded as an important construct of language proficiency and has been actively investigated in the field of second language (L2) writing. Syntactic complexity is…

Measuring Second Language Proficiency with EEG Synchronization: How Functional Cortical Networks and Hemispheric Involvement Differ as a Function of Proficiency Level in Second Language Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reiterer, Susanne; Pereda, Ernesto; Bhattacharya, Joydeep

2009-01-01

This article examines the question of whether university-based high-level foreign language and linguistic training can influence brain activation and whether different L2 proficiency groups have different brain activation in terms of lateralization and hemispheric involvement. The traditional and prevailing theory of hemispheric involvement in…

From Seeing Adverbs to Seeing Verbal Morphology: Language Experience and Adult Acquisition of L2 Tense

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sagarra, Nuria; Ellis, Nick C.

2013-01-01

Adult learners have persistent difficulty processing second language (L2) inflectional morphology. We investigate associative learning explanations that involve the blocking of later experienced cues by earlier learned ones in the first language (L1; i.e., transfer) and the L2 (i.e., proficiency). Sagarra (2008) and Ellis and Sagarra (2010b) found…

Translation norms for English and Spanish: The role of lexical variables, word class, and L2 proficiency in negotiating translation ambiguity

PubMed Central

Prior, Anat; MacWhinney, Brian; Kroll, Judith F.

2014-01-01

We present a set of translation norms for 670 English and 760 Spanish nouns, verbs and class ambiguous items that varied in their lexical properties in both languages, collected from 80 bilingual participants. Half of the words in each language received more than a single translation across participants. Cue word frequency and imageability were both negatively correlated with number of translations. Word class predicted number of translations: Nouns had fewer translations than did verbs, which had fewer translations than class-ambiguous items. The translation probability of specific responses was positively correlated with target word frequency and imageability, and with its form overlap with the cue word. Translation choice was modulated by L2 proficiency: Less proficient bilinguals tended to produce lower probability translations than more proficient bilinguals, but only in forward translation, from L1 to L2. These findings highlight the importance of translation ambiguity as a factor influencing bilingual representation and performance. The norms can also provide an important resource to assist researchers in the selection of experimental materials for studies of bilingual and monolingual language performance. These norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive. PMID:18183923

Relationships among L1 Print Exposure and Early L1 Literacy Skills, L2 Aptitude, and L2 Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Patton, Jon; Ganschow, Leonore; Humbach, Nancy

2012-01-01

Authors examined the relationship between individual differences in L1 print exposure and differences in early L1 skills and later L2 aptitude, L2 proficiency, and L2 classroom achievement. Participants were administered measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and listening…

Input-based structure-specific proficiency predicts the neural mechanism of adult L2 syntactic processing.

PubMed

Deng, Taiping; Zhou, Huixia; Bi, Hong-Yan; Chen, Baoguo

2015-06-12

This study used Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to explore the role of input-based structure-specific proficiency in L2 syntactic processing, using English subject-verb agreement structures as the stimuli. A pre-test/trainings/post-test paradigm of experimental and control groups was employed, and Chinese speakers who learned English as a second language (L2) participated in the experiment. At pre-test, no ERP component related to the subject-verb agreement structures violations was observed in either group. At training session, the experimental group learned the subject-verb agreement structures, while the control group learned other syntactic structures. After two continuously intensive input trainings, at post-test, a significant P600 component related to the subject-verb agreement structures violations was elicited in the experimental group, but not in the control group. These findings suggest that input training improves structure-specific proficiency, which is reflected in the neural mechanism of L2 syntactic processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessing Language Proficiency Levels: Oral Proficiency Testing, Pre- and Post-Soviet Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Robert L.

The importance of assessing language proficiency levels and the relationship of this priority to the teaching of Russian at the university level are discussed. Serious concerns about the value of language-specific proficiency guidelines are raised, and an argument is presented suggesting that language-specific guidelines may lead to undue emphasis…

An ERP study of second language learning after childhood: effects of proficiency.

PubMed

Ojima, Shiro; Nakata, Hiroki; Kakigi, Ryusuke

2005-08-01

Whether there is an absolute critical period for acquiring language is a matter of continuous debate. One approach to address this issue is to compare the processes of second language (L2) learning after childhood and those of first language (L1) learning during childhood. To study the cortical process of postchildhood L2 learning, we compared event-related brain potentials recorded from two groups of adult Japanese speakers who attained either high or intermediate proficiency in English after childhood (J-High and J-Low), and adult native English speakers (ENG). Semantic anomalies embedded in English sentences evoked a clear N400 component in all three groups, with only the time course of the brain activation varying among the groups. Syntactic violations elicited a left-lateralized negativity similar to the left anterior negativity in ENG and J-High, but not in J-Low. In ENG, a P600 component was additionally found. These results suggest that semantic processing is robust from early on in L2 learning, whereas the development of syntactic processing is more dependent on proficiency as evidenced by the lack of the left-lateralized negativity in J-Low. Because early maturation and stability of semantic processing as opposed to syntactic processing are also a feature of L1 processing, postchildhood L2 learning may be governed by the same brain properties as those which govern childhood L1 learning. We argue that these processes are qualitatively similar in many respects, with only restricted domains of language processing being subject to absolute critical period effects.

Reduced Frontal Activation with Increasing 2nd Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stein, Maria; Federspiel, Andrea; Koenig, Thomas; Wirth, Miranka; Lehmann, Christoph; Wiest, Roland; Strik, Werner; Brandeis, Daniel; Dierks, Thomas

2009-01-01

The factors influencing the degree of separation or overlap in the neuronal networks responsible for the processing of first and second language are still subject to investigation. This longitudinal study investigates how increasing second language proficiency influences activation differences during lexico-semantic processing of first and second…

Proficiency and Linguistic Complexity Influence Speech Motor Control and Performance in Spanish Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nip, Ignatius S. B.; Blumenfeld, Henrike K.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Second-language (L2) production requires greater cognitive resources to inhibit the native language and to retrieve less robust lexical representations. The current investigation identifies how proficiency and linguistic complexity, specifically syntactic and lexical factors, influence speech motor control and performance. Method: Speech…

Home Language and Language Proficiency; A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study in Dutch Primary Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driessen, Geert; van der Slik, Frans; De Bot, Kees

2002-01-01

Reports on a large-scale longitudinal study into the development of language proficiency of Dutch primary school children aged 7-10. Data on language proficiency and a range of background variables were analyzed. Results suggest that while immigrant children develop their language skill in Dutch considerably over 2 years, they are nonetheless…

From Language Proficiency to Interactional Competence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramsch, Claire

1986-01-01

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' guidelines for foreign language teaching and learning focus on the linear acquisition of grammatical structures, but this proficiency will not automatically lead to interactional competence. Enthusiasm generated by the proficiency movement should be redirected toward a push for…

Learning the Lexical Aspects of a Second Language at Different Proficiencies: A Neural Computational Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuppini, Cristiano; Magosso, Elisa; Ursino, Mauro

2013-01-01

We present an original model designed to study how a second language (L2) is acquired in bilinguals at different proficiencies starting from an existing L1. The model assumes that the conceptual and lexical aspects of languages are stored separately: conceptual aspects in distinct topologically organized Feature Areas, and lexical aspects in a…

The Development of L2 Fluency during Study Abroad: A Cross-Language Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Di Silvio, Francesca; Diao, Wenhao; Donovan, Anne

2016-01-01

Examining speech samples from 75 American university students learning 1 of 3 languages (Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish), this article reports on a study of second language (L2) learners' oral fluency development and its relationship with their gains in holistic proficiency ratings during a semester abroad. In study abroad research, there is a…

What Is Lexical Proficiency? Some Answers from Computational Models of Speech Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott A.; Salsbury, Tom; McNamara, Danielle S.; Jarvis, Scott

2011-01-01

Lexical proficiency, as a cognitive construct, is poorly understood. However, lexical proficiency is an important element of language proficiency and fluency, especially for second language (L2) learners. Lexical proficiency is also an important attribute of L2 academic achievement. Generally speaking, lexical proficiency comprises breadth of…

Effects of sex and proficiency in second language processing as revealed by a large-scale fNIRS study of school-aged children.

PubMed

Sugiura, Lisa; Ojima, Shiro; Matsuba-Kurita, Hiroko; Dan, Ippeita; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Katura, Takusige; Hagiwara, Hiroko

2015-10-01

Previous neuroimaging studies in adults have revealed that first and second languages (L1/L2) share similar neural substrates, and that proficiency is a major determinant of the neural organization of L2 in the lexical-semantic and syntactic domains. However, little is known about neural substrates of children in the phonological domain, or about sex differences. Here, we conducted a large-scale study (n = 484) of school-aged children using functional near-infrared spectroscopy and a word repetition task, which requires a great extent of phonological processing. We investigated cortical activation during word processing, emphasizing sex differences, to clarify similarities and differences between L1 and L2, and proficiency-related differences during early L2 learning. L1 and L2 shared similar neural substrates with decreased activation in L2 compared to L1 in the posterior superior/middle temporal and angular/supramarginal gyri for both sexes. Significant sex differences were found in cortical activation within language areas during high-frequency word but not during low-frequency word processing. During high-frequency word processing, widely distributed areas including the angular/supramarginal gyri were activated in boys, while more restricted areas, excluding the angular/supramarginal gyri were activated in girls. Significant sex differences were also found in L2 proficiency-related activation: activation significantly increased with proficiency in boys, whereas no proficiency-related differences were found in girls. Importantly, cortical sex differences emerged with proficiency. Based on previous research, the present results indicate that sex differences are acquired or enlarged during language development through different cognitive strategies between sexes, possibly reflecting their different memory functions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dimensions of L2 Performance and Proficiency: Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in SLA. Language Learning & Language Teaching. Volume 32

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Housen, Alex, Ed.; Kuiken, Folkert, Ed.; Vedder, Ineke, Ed.

2012-01-01

Research into complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) as basic dimensions of second language performance, proficiency and development has received increased attention in SLA. However, the larger picture in this field of research is often obscured by the breadth of scope, multiple objectives and lack of clarity as to how complexity, accuracy and…

The Role of Age of Acquisition in Late Second Language Oral Proficiency Attainment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saito, Kazuya

2015-01-01

The current project examined whether and to what degree age of acquisition (AOA), defined as the first intensive exposure to a second language (L2) environment, can be predictive of the end state of postpubertal L2 oral proficiency attainment. Data were collected from 88 experienced Japanese learners of English and two groups of 20 baseline…

The Use of Metalanguage among Second Language Learners to Mediate L2 Grammar Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harun, Haliza; Abdullah, Norhana; Wahab, Nur Syuhada' Ab.; Zainuddin, Nurkhamimi

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study investigated the use of metalanguage as a mediational tool in understanding targeted grammatical concepts from the perspective of the Sociocultural approach (SCT) in learning a second language (L2). Methodology: The participants involved in this study were Malay undergraduates with low to intermediate proficiency in L2 English.…

Child, family, and school characteristics related to English proficiency development among low-income, dual language learners.

PubMed

Kim, Yoon Kyong; Curby, Timothy W; Winsler, Adam

2014-12-01

Little is known about 2nd language development among young, low-income, language-minority children. This article examined the longitudinal English development of low-income, dual language learners (DLLs) in Miami (n = 18,532) from kindergarten through 5th grade. Growth curve modeling indicated that social skills, good behavior, Spanish (L1) competence in preschool, having a mother born in the United States, and attending larger schools with fewer DLLs were associated with higher initial levels of English proficiency in kindergarten and/or steeper growth over time. Survival analyses indicated that it took about 2 years for half of the sample to become proficient in English according to the school district's criterion. Higher initial proficiency in kindergarten, not receiving free/reduced lunch, not being Hispanic or Black, strong cognitive, language, and socioemotional skills at age 4, and maternal education were associated with faster attainment of English proficiency. It is important for teachers, parents, researchers, and policy makers to understand that DLL students come from diverse backgrounds and that poverty and other factors influence the speed of English language development for DLLs. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Proficiency Standards and Cut-Scores for Language Proficiency Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moy, Raymond H.

1984-01-01

Discusses the problems associated with "grading on a curve," the approach often used for standard setting on language proficiency tests. Proposes four main steps presented in the setting of a non-arbitrary cut-score. These steps not only establish a proficiency standard checked by external criteria, but also check to see that the test covers the…

First Language Proficiency and Successful Foreign Language Learning: The Case of High School Students Learning French as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gnintedem, Antoine

2014-01-01

This study investigated whether there was a correlation between first language proficiency as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT II) Reading and Language Arts and foreign language proficiency as measured by the French Language Proficiency Test. Data for the independent variable, first language proficiency, was collected from the…

Effects of language proficiency and language of the environment on aphasia therapy in a multilingual

PubMed Central

Goral, Mira; Rosas, Jason; Conner, Peggy S.; Maul, Kristen K.; Obler, Loraine K.

2011-01-01

We examined the relative proficiency of four languages (Spanish, German, French, English) of a multilingual speaker with aphasia, JM. JM’s self-rated proficiency was consistent with his naming accuracy for nouns and verbs (The Object and Action Naming Battery, Druks & Masterson, 2000) and with his performance on selected subtests of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (Paradis & Libben, 1987). Within and between-language changes were measured following two periods of language treatment, one in a highly-proficient language (Spanish) and one in a less-proficient language (English). The various outcome measures differed in their sensitivity to treatment-associated changes. Cross-language treatment effects were linked to the language of the environment at the time of testing and to relative language proficiency. PMID:23185107

Immigration, Language Proficiency, and Autobiographical Memories: Lifespan Distribution and Second-Language Access

PubMed Central

Esposito, Alena G.; Baker-Ward, Lynne

2015-01-01

This investigation examined two controversies in the autobiographical literature: how cross-language immigration affects the distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan and under what circumstances language-dependent recall is observed. Both Spanish/English bilingual immigrants and English monolingual non-immigrants participated in a cue word study, with the bilingual sample taking part in a within-subject language manipulation. The expected bump in the number of memories from early life was observed for non-immigrants but not immigrants, who reported more memories for events surrounding immigration. Aspects of the methodology addressed possible reasons for past discrepant findings. Language-dependent recall was influenced by second-language proficiency. Results were interpreted as evidence that bilinguals with high second-language proficiency, in contrast to those with lower second-language proficiency, access a single conceptual store through either language. The final multi-level model predicting language-dependent recall, including second-language proficiency, age of immigration, internal language, and cue word language, explained ¾ of the between-person variance and ⅕ of the within-person variance. We arrive at two conclusions. First, major life transitions influence the distribution of memories. Second, concept representation across multiple languages follows a developmental model. In addition, the results underscore the importance of considering language experience in research involving memory reports. PMID:26274061

Immigration, language proficiency, and autobiographical memories: Lifespan distribution and second-language access.

PubMed

Esposito, Alena G; Baker-Ward, Lynne

2016-08-01

This investigation examined two controversies in the autobiographical literature: how cross-language immigration affects the distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan and under what circumstances language-dependent recall is observed. Both Spanish/English bilingual immigrants and English monolingual non-immigrants participated in a cue word study, with the bilingual sample taking part in a within-subject language manipulation. The expected bump in the number of memories from early life was observed for non-immigrants but not immigrants, who reported more memories for events surrounding immigration. Aspects of the methodology addressed possible reasons for past discrepant findings. Language-dependent recall was influenced by second-language proficiency. Results were interpreted as evidence that bilinguals with high second-language proficiency, in contrast to those with lower second-language proficiency, access a single conceptual store through either language. The final multi-level model predicting language-dependent recall, including second-language proficiency, age of immigration, internal language, and cue word language, explained ¾ of the between-person variance and (1)/5 of the within-person variance. We arrive at two conclusions. First, major life transitions influence the distribution of memories. Second, concept representation across multiple languages follows a developmental model. In addition, the results underscore the importance of considering language experience in research involving memory reports.

Perception of speech rhythm in second language: the case of rhythmically similar L1 and L2

PubMed Central

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

2015-01-01

We investigated the perception of developmental changes in timing patterns that happen in the course of second language (L2) acquisition, provided that the native and the target languages of the learner are rhythmically similar (German and English). It was found that speech rhythm in L2 English produced by German learners becomes increasingly stress-timed as acquisition progresses. This development is captured by the tempo-normalized rhythm measures of durational variability. Advanced learners also deliver speech at a faster rate. However, when native speakers have to classify the timing patterns characteristic of L2 English of German learners at different proficiency levels, they attend to speech rate cues and ignore the differences in speech rhythm. PMID:25859228

Predicting Second Language Writing Proficiency: The Roles of Cohesion and Linguistic Sophistication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott A.; McNamara, Danielle S.

2012-01-01

This study addresses research gaps in predicting second language (L2) writing proficiency using linguistic features. Key to this analysis is the inclusion of linguistic measures at the surface, textbase and situation model level that assess text cohesion and linguistic sophistication. The results of this study demonstrate that five variables…

Identity processing styles and language proficiency among Persian learners of English as a foreign language.

PubMed

Razmjoo, Seyyed Ayatollah; Neissi, Sina

2010-12-01

The relationship between identity processing styles and language proficiency in English as foreign language (EFL) was investigated among the Persian EFL learners. 266 Persian candidates taking part in a Ph.D. examination at Shiraz University took part. The Language Proficiency Test was used to measure language proficiency in English. The Identity Styles Inventory was used to measure normative, informational, and diffuse-avoidant identity processing styles. Relationships between normative and informational styles and language proficiency and its subscales (grammar, vocabulary, and reading) were positive and significant. Negative relationships between diffuse-avoidant style and language proficiency and its subscales (grammar, vocabulary, and reading) were observed. There were significant sex differences for diffuse-avoidant style and for vocabulary.

Structural plasticity in the language system related to increased second language proficiency.

PubMed

Stein, Maria; Federspiel, Andrea; Koenig, Thomas; Wirth, Miranka; Strik, Werner; Wiest, Roland; Brandeis, Daniel; Dierks, Thomas

2012-04-01

While functional changes linked to second language learning have been subject to extensive investigation, the issue of learning-dependent structural plasticity in the fields of bilingualism and language comprehension has so far received less notice. In the present study we used voxel-based morphometry to monitor structural changes occurring within five months of second language learning. Native English-speaking exchange students learning German in Switzerland were examined once at the beginning of their stay and once about five months later, when their German language skills had significantly increased. We show that structural changes in the left inferior frontal gyrus are correlated with the increase in second language proficiency as measured by a paper-and-pencil language test. Contrary to the increase in proficiency and grey matter, the absolute values of grey matter density and second language proficiency did not correlate (neither on first nor on second measurement). This indicates that the individual amount of learning is reflected in brain structure changes, regardless of absolute proficiency. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

And Who Assesses the Bilingual Teacher's Language Proficiency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlisle-Zepeda, Veronica; Saldate, Macario, IV

1978-01-01

Describes the rationale and design of the Zepeda/Saldate Spanish Language Proficiency Exam developed at the University of Arizona for use in evaluating the language proficiency of applicants for bilingual/bicultural teacher education programs. (JG)

Language Learning Strategy Use across Proficiency Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarei, Abbas, Ali; Baharestani, Nooshin

2014-01-01

To investigate the use of language learning strategies (LLS) by Iranian EFL learners across proficiency levels, a total of 180 Iranian adult female EFL learners were selected and divided into three different proficiency level groups. To collect data, Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was used. One-way ANOVA procedures…

The Unified Language Testing Plan: Speaking Proficiency Test. Russian Pilot Validation Studies. Report Number 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thornton, Julie A.

The report describes one segment of the Federal Language Testing Board's Unified Language Testing Plan (ULTP), the validation of the speaking proficiency test in Russian. The ULTP is a project to increase standardization of foreign language proficiency measurement and promote sharing of resources among testing programs in the federal government.…

Language Proficiency Modulates the Recruitment of Non-Classical Language Areas in Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Leonard, Matthew K.; Torres, Christina; Travis, Katherine E.; Brown, Timothy T.; Hagler, Donald J.; Dale, Anders M.; Elman, Jeffrey L.; Halgren, Eric

2011-01-01

Bilingualism provides a unique opportunity for understanding the relative roles of proficiency and order of acquisition in determining how the brain represents language. In a previous study, we combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of word processing in a group of Spanish-English bilinguals who were more proficient in their native language. We found that from the earliest stages of lexical processing, words in the second language evoke greater activity in bilateral posterior visual regions, while activity to the native language is largely confined to classical left hemisphere fronto-temporal areas. In the present study, we sought to examine whether these effects relate to language proficiency or order of language acquisition by testing Spanish-English bilingual subjects who had become dominant in their second language. Additionally, we wanted to determine whether activity in bilateral visual regions was related to the presentation of written words in our previous study, so we presented subjects with both written and auditory words. We found greater activity for the less proficient native language in bilateral posterior visual regions for both the visual and auditory modalities, which started during the earliest word encoding stages and continued through lexico-semantic processing. In classical left fronto-temporal regions, the two languages evoked similar activity. Therefore, it is the lack of proficiency rather than secondary acquisition order that determines the recruitment of non-classical areas for word processing. PMID:21455315

Linguistic Proficiency Assessment in Second Language Acquisition Research: The Elicited Imitation Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaillard, Stéphanie; Tremblay, Annie

2016-01-01

This study investigated the elicited imitation task (EIT) as a tool for measuring linguistic proficiency in a second/foreign (L2) language, focusing on French. Nonnative French speakers (n = 94) and native French speakers (n = 6) completed an EIT that included 50 sentences varying in length and complexity. Three raters evaluated productions on…

Foreign Language Teachers' Language Proficiency and Their Language Teaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Heather; Conway, Clare; Roskvist, Annelies; Harvey, Sharon

2013-01-01

Teachers' subject knowledge is recognized as an essential component of effective teaching. In the foreign language context, teachers' subject knowledge includes language proficiency. In New Zealand high schools, foreign languages (e.g. Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish) have recently been offered to learners earlier in their schooling,…

L2 Reading Ability: Further Insight into the Short-Circuit Hypothesis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taillefer, Gail F.

1996-01-01

Discusses the notion of a language proficiency threshold that short circuits the transfer of reading ability from the native language (L1) to a second language (L2). This study, in which cognitive complexity of tasks and students' L2 proficiency levels vary, focuses on university students in France reading preprofessional English texts. (39…

English Language Proficiency and Early School Attainment Among Children Learning English as an Additional Language.

PubMed

Whiteside, Katie E; Gooch, Debbie; Norbury, Courtenay F

2017-05-01

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience lower academic attainment than monolingual peers. In this study, teachers provided ratings of English language proficiency and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning for 782 children with EAL and 6,485 monolingual children in reception year (ages 4-5). Academic attainment was assessed in reception and Year 2 (ages 6-7). Relative to monolingual peers with comparable English language proficiency, children with EAL displayed fewer social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties in reception, were equally likely to meet curriculum targets in reception, and were more likely to meet targets in Year 2. Academic attainment and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning in children with EAL are associated with English language proficiency at school entry. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.

5 CFR 9901.364 - Foreign language proficiency pay.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Foreign language proficiency pay. 9901... NATIONAL SECURITY PERSONNEL SYSTEM (NSPS) Pay and Pay Administration Premium Pay § 9901.364 Foreign language proficiency pay. (a) General provisions. (1) This section applies to employees who may be paid...

Cross Context Role of Language Proficiency in Learners' Use of Language Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamalizad, Jalal; Samuel, Moses

2015-01-01

Responding to the controversies in the results of past studies regarding the impact of language proficiency on learners' use of language learning strategies, this article reports the effect of language proficiency on the strategy use of Iranian English learners across two different settings, namely ESL Malaysia, and EFL Iran. Some 157 Iranian…

Planning for Proficiency. Dimension: Language '86. Report of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (1986).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fryer, T. Bruce; Medley, Frank W., Jr.

Selected papers from the 1986 Southern Conference on Language Teaching on instruction for language proficiency are presented: "The Foreign Language Teacher: Confronting an Ever-Changing Profession" (Robert Di Donato); "Restructuring a Traditional Foreign Language Program for Oral Proficiency" (Filisha Camara-Norman, James…

The Effects of First- and Second-Language Proficiency on Conflict Resolution and Goal Maintenance in Bilinguals: Evidence from Reaction Time Distributional Analyses in a Stroop Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tse, Chi-Shing; Altarriba, Jeanette

2012-01-01

By administering a Stroop task to college-student bilinguals varied in self-rated first- (L1) and second-language (L2) proficiency, the current study examined the effects of L1 and L2 proficiencies on selective attention performance. We conducted ex-Gaussian analyses to capture the modal and positive-tail components of participants' reaction time…

Learning Words and Definitions in Two Languages: What Promotes Cross-Language Transfer?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pham, Giang; Donovan, Danaee; Dam, Quynh; Contant, Amy

2018-01-01

This study used a brief vocabulary training paradigm to examine two factors for cross-language transfer: how similar the first language (L1) is to the second language (L2) and L1-L2 proficiency levels. Fifty-four sequential bilingual children (aged 6-8) with similar L2 English proficiency levels were assigned to three equal groups: a…

The L2 Motivational Self System and L2 Achievement: A Study of Saudi EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moskovsky, Christo; Assulaimani, Turki; Racheva, Silvia; Harkins, Jean

2016-01-01

The research reported in this article explores the relationship between Dörnyei's (2005, 2009) Second Language Motivational Self System (L2MSS) and the L2 proficiency level of Saudi learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Male and female participants (N = 360) responded to a questionnaire relating to the main components of L2MSS, the…

Understanding the Relationship between Language Proficiency, Language Impairment and Rehabilitation: Evidence from a Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiran, Swathi; Iakupova, Regina

2011-01-01

The goal of this study was to address the relationship between language proficiency, language impairment and rehabilitation in bilingual Russian-English individuals with aphasia. As a first step, we examined two Russian-English patients' pre-stroke language proficiency using a detailed and comprehensive language use and history questionnaire and…

The Relationship between Demotivation and EFL Learners' English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Rou-Jui Sophia

2011-01-01

To what extent does demotivation affect EFL learners' English language proficiency attainment? The present study addresses this question by investigating the relationship between technological institute EFL students' past demotivating factors and their English language proficiency. Although the role of demotivation in foreign language achievement…

What and When Second-Language Learners Revise When Responding to Timed Writing Tasks on the Computer: The Roles of Task Type, Second Language Proficiency, and Keyboarding Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barkaoui, Khaled

2016-01-01

This study contributes to the literature on second language (L2) learners' revision behavior by describing what, when, and how often L2 learners revise their texts when responding to timed writing tasks on the computer and by examining the effects of task type, L2 proficiency, and keyboarding skills on what and when L2 learners revise. Each of 54…

The effects of bilingual language proficiency on recall accuracy and semantic clustering in free recall output: evidence for shared semantic associations across languages.

PubMed

Francis, Wendy S; Taylor, Randolph S; Gutiérrez, Marisela; Liaño, Mary K; Manzanera, Diana G; Penalver, Renee M

2018-05-19

Two experiments investigated how well bilinguals utilise long-standing semantic associations to encode and retrieve semantic clusters in verbal episodic memory. In Experiment 1, Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 128) studied and recalled word and picture sets. Word recall was equivalent in L1 and L2, picture recall was better in L1 than in L2, and the picture superiority effect was stronger in L1 than in L2. Semantic clustering in word and picture recall was equivalent in L1 and L2. In Experiment 2, Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 128) and English-speaking monolinguals (N = 128) studied and recalled word sequences that contained semantically related pairs. Data were analyzed using a multinomial processing tree approach, the pair-clustering model. Cluster formation was more likely for semantically organised than for randomly ordered word sequences. Probabilities of cluster formation, cluster retrieval, and retrieval of unclustered items did not differ across languages or language groups. Language proficiency has little if any impact on the utilisation of long-standing semantic associations, which are language-general.

A Contextualized Approach to Describing Oral Proficiency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chalhoub-Deville, Micheline

1995-01-01

Studies learners' second-language (L2) oral proficiency, incorporating an interview, a narration, and a read-aloud. Results show that the nature of the L2 oral construct is not constant. The article concludes that proficiency researchers should use dimensions empirically derived according to the specific elicitation task and audience. (53…

Applications of Oral Proficiency Testing to Foreign Language. Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.

A guide to the adaptation of oral proficiency testing for classroom language instruction contains excerpts of projects by participants in an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) workshop. The excerpts are examples of proficiency based curricula and materials designed to personalize instruction and simulate real-life…

The Neural Processing of Second Language Comprehension Modulated by the Degree of Proficiency: A Listening Connected Speech fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Hesling, Isabelle; Dilharreguy, Bixente; Bordessoules, Martine; Allard, Michèle

2012-01-01

While the neural network encompassing the processing of the mother tongue (L1) is well defined and has revealed the existence of a bilateral ventral pathway and a left dorsal pathway in which 3 loops have been defined, the question of the processing of a second language (L2) is still a matter of debate. Among variables accounting for the discrepancies in results, the degree of L2 proficiency appears to be one of the main factors. The present study aimed at assessing both pathways in L2, making it possible to determine the degree of mastery of the different speech components (prosody, phonology, semantics and syntax) that are intrinsically embedded within connected speech and that vary according to the degree of proficiency using high degrees of prosodic information. Two groups of high and moderate proficiency in L2 performed an fMRI comprehension task in L1 and L2. The modifications in brain activity observed within the dorsal and the ventral pathways according to L2 proficiency suggest that different processes of L2 are supported by differences in the integrated activity within distributed networks that included the left STSp, the left Spt and the left pars triangularis. PMID:22927897

The Impact of Language Opacity and Proficiency on Reading Strategies in Bilinguals: An Eye Movement Study.

PubMed

de León Rodríguez, Diego; Buetler, Karin A; Eggenberger, Noëmi; Laganaro, Marina; Nyffeler, Thomas; Annoni, Jean-Marie; Müri, René M

2016-01-01

Reading strategies vary across languages according to orthographic depth - the complexity of the grapheme in relation to phoneme conversion rules - notably at the level of eye movement patterns. We recently demonstrated that a group of early bilinguals, who learned both languages equally under the age of seven, presented a first fixation location (FFL) closer to the beginning of words when reading in German as compared with French. Since German is known to be orthographically more transparent than French, this suggested that different strategies were being engaged depending on the orthographic depth of the used language. Opaque languages induce a global reading strategy, and transparent languages force a local/serial strategy. Thus, pseudo-words were processed using a local strategy in both languages, suggesting that the link between word forms and their lexical representation may also play a role in selecting a specific strategy. In order to test whether corresponding effects appear in late bilinguals with low proficiency in their second language (L2), we present a new study in which we recorded eye movements while two groups of late German-French and French-German bilinguals read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words. Since, a transparent reading strategy is local and serial, with a high number of fixations per stimuli, and the level of the bilingual participants' L2 is low, the impact of language opacity should be observed in L1. We therefore predicted a global reading strategy if the bilinguals' L1 was French (FFL close to the middle of the stimuli with fewer fixations per stimuli) and a local and serial reading strategy if it was German. Thus, the L2 of each group, as well as pseudo-words, should also require a local and serial reading strategy. Our results confirmed these hypotheses, suggesting that global word processing is only achieved by bilinguals with an opaque L1 when reading in an opaque language; the low level in the L2 gives way to

Lexical Sophistication as a Multidimensional Phenomenon: Relations to Second Language Lexical Proficiency, Development, and Writing Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Minkyung; Crossley, Scott A.; Kyle, Kristopher

2018-01-01

This study conceptualizes lexical sophistication as a multidimensional phenomenon by reducing numerous lexical features of lexical sophistication into 12 aggregated components (i.e., dimensions) via a principal component analysis approach. These components were then used to predict second language (L2) writing proficiency levels, holistic lexical…

Language-Independent and Language-Specific Aspects of Early Literacy: An Evaluation of the Common Underlying Proficiency Model.

PubMed

Goodrich, J Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J

2017-08-01

According to the common underlying proficiency model (Cummins, 1981), as children acquire academic knowledge and skills in their first language, they also acquire language-independent information about those skills that can be applied when learning a second language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relevance of the common underlying proficiency model for the early literacy skills of Spanish-speaking language-minority children using confirmatory factor analysis. Eight hundred fifty-eight Spanish-speaking language-minority preschoolers (mean age = 60.83 months, 50.2% female) participated in this study. Results indicated that bifactor models that consisted of language-independent as well as language-specific early literacy factors provided the best fits to the data for children's phonological awareness and print knowledge skills. Correlated factors models that only included skills specific to Spanish and English provided the best fits to the data for children's oral language skills. Children's language-independent early literacy skills were significantly related across constructs and to language-specific aspects of early literacy. Language-specific aspects of early literacy skills were significantly related within but not across languages. These findings suggest that language-minority preschoolers have a common underlying proficiency for code-related skills but not language-related skills that may allow them to transfer knowledge across languages.

On the Relationship between Multiple Intelligences and Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razmjoo, Seyyed Ayatollah

2008-01-01

The intent of the present study was to examine the strength of the relationship between language proficiency in English and the 9 types of intelligences. As such, the objectives of this study were three-folded. The primary objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between multiple intelligences and language proficiency among the…

STRUCTURE PLUS MEANING EQUALS LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BELASCO, SIMON

TRUE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY CAN BE ACHIEVED ONLY BY THE INTERNALIZATION OF THE ENTIRE GRAMMAR OF THE TARGET LANGUAGE PLUS THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKILL IN SEMANTIC INTERPRETATION. ADHERENCE TO EITHER OF THE METHODOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS THAT UNDERLIE TODAY'S AUDIOLINGUALLY-ORIENTED PROGRAMS WILL LEAD STUDENTS TO NOTHING MORE THAN A LEARNING PLATEAU.…

Measuring Language Dominance and Bilingual Proficiency Development of Tarahumara Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paciotto, Carla

This paper examines the language dominance and oral bilingual proficiency of Tarahumara-Spanish speaking students from Chihuahua, Mexico, within the framework of Cummins' model of bilingual proficiency development. Cummins' model distinguishes between basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency…

Determinants of International Students' Adaptation: Examining Effects of Integrative Motivation, Instrumental Motivation and Second Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Baohua; Downing, Kevin

2012-01-01

This study examined the influence of integrative motivation, instrumental motivation and second language (L2) proficiency on socio-cultural/academic adaptation in a sample of two groups of international students studying Chinese in China. Results revealed that the non-Asian student group reported higher levels of integrative motivation,…

An Exploration of English Language Learners Reading Proficiency Assessment, the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System, as Perceived by Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreno-Hewitt, Andrea

2015-01-01

This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to explore teachers' perceptions of their students' reading proficiency as demonstrated on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System's reading test. Ten teachers participated in the study, and responses pertaining to their perceptions of reading instruction and…

Relationship between English Language Learners' Proficiency in Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking and Proficiency on Maryland School Assessments in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, C. Michael

2013-01-01

Mathematics proficiency of English language learners (ELLs) on the Maryland School Assessments (MSA) for mathematics continues to lag behind the proficiency level of students who are proficient English speakers. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between English language learner's…

Onset age of L2 acquisition influences language network in early and late Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals.

PubMed

Liu, Xiaojin; Tu, Liu; Wang, Junjing; Jiang, Bo; Gao, Wei; Pan, Ximin; Li, Meng; Zhong, Miao; Zhu, Zhenzhen; Niu, Meiqi; Li, Yanyan; Zhao, Ling; Chen, Xiaoxi; Liu, Chang; Lu, Zhi; Huang, Ruiwang

2017-11-01

Early second language (L2) experience influences the neural organization of L2 in neuro-plastic terms. Previous studies tried to reveal these plastic effects of age of second language acquisition (AoA-L2) and proficiency-level in L2 (PL-L2) on the neural basis of language processing in bilinguals. Although different activation patterns have been observed during language processing in early and late bilinguals by task-fMRI, few studies reported the effect of AoA-L2 and high PL-L2 on language network at resting state. In this study, we acquired resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) data from 10 Cantonese (L1)-Mandarin (L2) early bilinguals (acquired L2: 3years old) and 11 late bilinguals (acquired L2: 6years old), and analyzed their topological properties of language networks after controlling the language daily exposure and usage as well as PL in L1 and L2. We found that early bilinguals had significantly a higher clustering coefficient, global and local efficiency, but significantly lower characteristic path length compared to late bilinguals. Modular analysis indicated that compared to late bilinguals, early bilinguals showed significantly stronger intra-modular functional connectivity in the semantic and phonetic modules, stronger inter-modular functional connectivity between the semantic and phonetic modules as well as between the phonetic and syntactic modules. Differences in global and local parameters may reflect different patterns of neuro-plasticity respectively for early and late bilinguals. These results suggested that different L2 experience influences topological properties of language network, even if late bilinguals achieve high PL-L2. Our findings may provide a new perspective of neural mechanisms related to early and late bilinguals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Washington English Language Proficiency Assessment (WELPA). Form C 2015. Interpretation Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2015

2015-01-01

The "Washington English Language Proficiency Assessment" (WELPA) is a No Child Left Behind (NCLB)-compliant instrument that is used in Grades K-12 as a formal and standardized method of measuring language proficiency. The test results provide important information for classifying English Language Learners (ELLs) and subsequently for…

Mother-adolescent language proficiency and adolescent academic and emotional adjustment among Chinese American families.

PubMed

Liu, Lisa L; Benner, Aprile D; Lau, Anna S; Kim, Su Yeong

2009-04-01

This study examined the role of adolescents' and mothers' self-reports of English and heritage language proficiency in youth's academic and emotional adjustment among 444 Chinese American families. Adolescents who were proficient in English tended to exhibit higher reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, and overall GPA. Mothers who were English proficient tended to have children with higher academic achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results also indicated that adolescents' heritage language maintenance was associated with positive adjustment, particularly amongst foreign-born youth and for youth whose parents were highly proficient in the heritage language. Mother-adolescent match in heritage language proficiency was related to higher math achievement scores and overall GPA. Additionally, higher heritage language proficiency was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for foreign-born but not U.S.-born youth. Overall, the findings suggest that proficiency in both the English and heritage language may confer advantages to Chinese American youth.

Teaching for Proficiency, the Organizing Principle. The ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgs, Theodore V., Ed.

A collection of reports and case studies of second language instruction for proficiency includes: "Language Teaching and the Quest for the Holy Grail" (Theodore V. Higgs); "The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines: A Historical Perspective" (Judith E. Liskin-Gasparro); "The Proficiency-Oriented Classroom" (Alice C. Omaggio);…

Elicited Imitation as a Measure of Second Language Proficiency: A Narrative Review and Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yan, Xun; Maeda, Yukiko; Lv, Jing; Ginther, April

2016-01-01

Elicited imitation (EI) has been widely used to examine second language (L2) proficiency and development and was an especially popular method in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, as the field embraced more communicative approaches to both instruction and assessment, the use of EI diminished, and the construct-related validity of EI scores as a…

Do Language Proficiency Levels Correspond to Language Learning Strategy Adoption?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gharbavi, Abdullah; Mousavi, Seyyed Ahmad

2012-01-01

The primary focus of research on employment of language learning strategies has been on identification of adoption of different learning strategies. However, the relationship between language learning strategies and proficiency levels was ignored in previous research. The present study was undertaken to find out whether there are any relationship…

Mother-Adolescent Language Proficiency and Adolescent Academic and Emotional Adjustment Among Chinese American Families

PubMed Central

Benner, Aprile D.; Lau, Anna S.; Kim, Su Yeong

2009-01-01

This study examined the role of adolescents’ and mothers’ self-reports of English and heritage language proficiency in youth’s academic and emotional adjustment among 444 Chinese American families. Adolescents who were proficient in English tended to exhibit higher reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, and overall GPA. Mothers who were English proficient tended to have children with higher academic achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results also indicated that adolescents’ heritage language maintenance was associated with positive adjustment, particularly amongst foreign-born youth and for youth whose parents were highly proficient in the heritage language. Mother-adolescent match in heritage language proficiency was related to higher math achievement scores and overall GPA. Additionally, higher heritage language proficiency was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for foreign-born but not U.S.-born youth. Overall, the findings suggest that proficiency in both the English and heritage language may confer advantages to Chinese American youth. PMID:19636729

Linguistic transfer in bilingual children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Verhoeven, Ludo; Steenge, Judit; van Balkom, Hans

2012-01-01

In the literature so far the limited research on specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children has concentrated on linguistic skills in the first language (L1) and/or the second language (L2) without paying attention to the relations between the two types of skills and to the issue of linguistic transfer. To examine the first and second language proficiency of 75 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children with SLI in the age range between 7 and 11 years living in the Netherlands. A multidimensional perspective on language proficiency was taken in order to assess children's Turkish and Dutch proficiency levels, whereas equivalent tests were used in order to determine language dominance. A second aim was to find out to what extent the children's proficiency in L2 can be predicted from their L1 proficiency, while taking into account their general cognitive abilities. The children's performance on a battery of equivalent language ability tests in Turkish and Dutch was compared at three age levels. By means of analyses of variance, it was explored to what extent the factors of language and grade level as well as their interactions were significant. Bivariate correlations and partial correlations with age level partialled out were computed to examine the relationships between L1 and L2 proficiency levels. Moreover, regression analysis was conducted to find out to what extent the variance in general L2 proficiency levels could be explained by children's L1 proficiency, short-term memory and non-verbal intelligence. Repeated measures analyses showed that the children had generally higher scores on L1 as compared with L2 and that with progression of age the children's scores in L1 and L2 improved. Medium to high correlations were found between phonological memory, phonological awareness, grammatical skills and story comprehension in the two languages. Regression analysis revealed that children's L2 proficiency levels could be explained by their proficiency levels in L1

Issues in Vertical Scaling of a K-12 English Language Proficiency Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenyon, Dorry M.; MacGregor, David; Li, Dongyang; Cook, H. Gary

2011-01-01

One of the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act is that states show adequate yearly progress in their English language learners' (ELLs) acquisition of English language proficiency. States are required to assess ELLs' English language proficiency annually in four language domains (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) to measure their…

Second and foreign language listening: unraveling the construct.

PubMed

Tafaghodtari, Marzieh H; Vandergrift, Larry

2008-08-01

Identifying the variables which contribute to second and foreign language (L2) listening ability can provide a better understanding of the listening construct. This study explored the degree to which first language (L1) listening ability, L2 proficiency, motivation and metacognition contribute to L2 listening comprehension. 115 Persian-speaking English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students completed a motivation questionnaire, the Language Learning Motivation Orientation Scale, a listening questionnaire, the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire, and an English-language proficiency measure, as well as listening tests in English and Persian. Scores from all measures were subjected to descriptive, inferential, and correlational analyses. The results support the hypothesis that variability in L2 listening cannot be explained by either L2 proficiency or L1 listening ability; rather, a cluster of variables including L2 proficiency, L1 listening ability, metacognitive knowledge and motivation orientations can better explain variability in L2 listening ability.

Proficiency Standards and Cut-Scores for Language Proficiency Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moy, Raymond H.

The problem of standard setting on language proficiency tests is often approached by the use of norms derived from the group being tested, a process commonly known as "grading on the curve." One particular problem with this ad hoc method of standard setting is that it will usually result in a fluctuating standard dependent on the particular group…

Verbal Inflectional Morphology in L1 and L2 Spanish: A Frequency Effects Study Examining Storage versus Composition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowden, Harriet Wood; Gelfand, Matthew P.; Sanz, Cristina; Ullman, Michael T.

2010-01-01

This study examines the storage versus composition of Spanish inflected verbal forms in first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers of Spanish. L2 participants were selected to have mid-to-advanced proficiency, high classroom experience, and low immersion experience, typical of medium-to-advanced foreign language learners. Participants…

Facets of Speaking Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Jong, Nivja H.; Steinel, Margarita P.; Florijn, Arjen F.; Schoonen, Rob; Hulstijn, Jan H.

2012-01-01

This study examined the componential structure of second-language (L2) speaking proficiency. Participants--181 L2 and 54 native speakers of Dutch--performed eight speaking tasks and six tasks tapping nine linguistic skills. Performance in the speaking tasks was rated on functional adequacy by a panel of judges and formed the dependent variable in…

Similarity in L2 Phonology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrios, Shannon L.

2013-01-01

Adult second language (L2) learners often experience difficulty producing and perceiving non-native phonological contrasts. Even highly proficient bilinguals, who have been exposed to an L2 for long periods of time, struggle with difficult contrasts, such as /r/-/l/ for Japanese learners of English. To account for the relative ease or difficulty…

The Measurement of Change in English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nallaya, Sasikala

2012-01-01

This study investigated the measurement of change in English language proficiency levels of pre-service and in-service teachers enrolled in a public university in Malaysia. Path analysis was used to measure change on three occasions by examining the effects of student characteristics, learning needs and multimodal technology on proficiency levels.…

L[subscript 1] and L[subscript 2] Spoken Word Processing: Evidence from Divided Attention Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafiee Nahrkhalaji, Saeedeh; Lotfi, Ahmad Reza; Koosha, Mansour

2016-01-01

The present study aims to reveal some facts concerning first language (L[subscript 1]) and second language (L[subscript 2]) spoken-word processing in unbalanced proficient bilinguals using behavioral measures. The intention here is to examine the effects of auditory repetition word priming and semantic priming in first and second languages of…

English language proficiency and the accommodations for language non-concordance amongst patients utilizing chiropractic college teaching clinics.

PubMed

Saporito, Richard P

2013-02-01

The number of households in the United States that are not proficient in the English language is growing and presenting a challenge to the health care system. Over nineteen percent of the US population speak a language other than English in the home. This increase in language discordance generates a greater need to find and implement accommodations in the clinical setting to insure accurate and efficient diagnosis and treatment as well as provide for patient safety. The purpose of this study is to determine the percentage of patients accessing the chiropractic college teaching clinics who are not proficient in the English language and to what extent the colleges provide accommodations for that language disparity. The clinic directors and deans of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges were surveyed via an on-line survey engine. The survey queried the percentage of the patient population that is not English language proficient, the accommodations the college currently has in place, if the college has a language specific consent to treat document and if the college has a written policy concerning patients without English proficiency. Fifty percent of the contacted chiropractic colleges responded to the survey. In the respondent college clinics 16.5% of the patient population is not proficient in English, with over 75% speaking Spanish. All but one of the respondents provide some level of accommodation for the language non-concordance. Forty five percent of the responding colleges employ a language specific consent to treat form. The implementation of accommodations and the use of a language specific consent to treat form is more prevalent at colleges with a higher percentage of non-English speaking patients. The percentage of patients with limited English proficiency accessing services at the teaching clinics of the chiropractic colleges mirrors the numbers in the general population. There is a wide disparity in the accommodations that the individual colleges make

Speaking in Multiple Languages: Neural Correlates of Language Proficiency in Multilingual Word Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Videsott, Gerda; Herrnberger, Barbel; Hoenig, Klaus; Schilly, Edgar; Grothe, Jo; Wiater, Werner; Spitzer, Manfred; Kiefer, Markus

2010-01-01

The human brain has the fascinating ability to represent and to process several languages. Although the first and further languages activate partially different brain networks, the linguistic factors underlying these differences in language processing have to be further specified. We investigated the neural correlates of language proficiency in a…

Exploring the Dynamic Long-Term Interaction between Cognitive and Psychosocial Resources in Adult Second Language Development at Varying Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serafini, Ellen J.

2017-01-01

This study draws on conceptual and methodological insights afforded within a dynamic systems perspective to explore shifting interrelationships between cognitive capacity and motivational resources in instructed adult second language (L2) learners of Spanish at increasing proficiency. Relationships that emerged showed both stability and…

The development and psychometric properties of the American sign language proficiency assessment (ASL-PA).

PubMed

Maller, S; Singleton, J; Supalla, S; Wix, T

1999-01-01

We describe the procedures for constructing an instrument designed to evaluate children's proficiency in American Sign Language (ASL). The American Sign Language Proficiency Assessment (ASL-PA) is a much-needed tool that potentially could be used by researchers, language specialists, and qualified school personnel. A half-hour ASL sample is collected on video from a target child (between ages 6 and 12) across three separate discourse settings and is later analyzed and scored by an assessor who is highly proficient in ASL. After the child's language sample is scored, he or she can be assigned an ASL proficiency rating of Level 1, 2, or 3. At this phase in its development, substantial evidence of reliability and validity has been obtained for the ASL-PA using a sample of 80 profoundly deaf children (ages 6-12) of varying ASL skill levels. The article first explains the item development and administration of the ASL-PA instrument, then describes the empirical item analysis, standard setting procedures, and evidence of reliability and validity. The ASL-PA is a promising instrument for assessing elementary school-age children's ASL proficiency. Plans for further development are also discussed.

Medical language proficiency: A discussion of interprofessional language competencies and potential for patient risk.

PubMed

Hull, Melodie

2016-02-01

In increasingly multilingual healthcare environments worldwide, ensuring accurate, effective communication is requisite. Language proficiency is essential, particularly medical language proficiency. Medical language is a universal construct in healthcare, the shared language of health and allied health professions. It is highly evolved, career-specific, technical and cultural-bound-a language for specific purposes. Its function differs significantly from that of a standard language. Proficiency requires at minimum, a common understanding of discipline-specific jargon, abstracts, euphemisms, abbreviations; acronyms. An optimal medical language situation demands a level of competency beyond the superficial wherein one can convey or interpret deeper meanings, distinguish themes, voice opinion, and follow directions precisely. It necessitates the use of clarity, and the ability to understand both lay and formal language-characteristics not essential to standard language. Proficiency influences professional discourse and can have the potential to positively or negatively affect patient outcomes. While risks have been identified when there is language discordance between care provider and patient, almost nothing has been said about this within care teams themselves. This article will do so in anticipation that care providers, regulators, employers, and researchers will acknowledge potential language-based communication barriers and work towards resolutions. This is predicated on the fact that the growing interest in language and communication in healthcare today appears to be rested in globalization and increasingly linguistically diverse patient populations. Consideration of the linguistically diverse healthcare workforce is absent. An argument will be posited that if potential risks to patient safety exist and there are potentials for disengagement from care by patients when health providers do not speak their languages then logically these language-based issues can

Development and Validation of the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smyk, Ekaterina; Restrepo, M. Adelaida; Gorin, Joanna S.; Gray, Shelley

2013-01-01

Purpose: This study examined the development and validation of a criterion-referenced Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS) that was designed to assess the oral language skills of sequential bilingual children ages 4-8. This article reports results for the English proficiency portion of the scale. Method: The SELPS assesses syntactic…

Report on the Formal Trialling of the Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings (ASLPR).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingram, D. E.

Results of testing the validity and reliability of the Australian second language proficiency ratings (ASLPR) are presented. In addition to providing a framework for planning English as a second language programs for immigrants to Australia, the ASLPR was developed to specify second language proficiency in terms of practical language skills. The…

How L2 Words Are Stored: The Episodic L2 Hypothesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witzel, Naoko Ouchi; Forster, Kenneth I.

2012-01-01

This article reports findings from 3 experiments examining whether 2nd language (L2) words are represented in episodic memory, as originally proposed by Jiang and Forster (2001). Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Jiang and Forster, testing highly proficient Chinese-English bilinguals. Masked translation priming was obtained in an episodic…

Defining English Language Proficiency for Malaysian Tertiary Education: Past, Present and Future Efforts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heng, Chan Swee

2012-01-01

Any attempt to define English language proficiency can never be divorced from the theories that describe the nature of language, language acquisition and human cognition. By virtue of such theories being socially constructed, the descriptions are necessarily value-laden. Thus, a definition of language proficiency can only, at best, be described as…

The Symposium on the Evaluation of Foreign Language Proficiency: Challenges to the Profession.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valdman, Albert

This paper presents a report of a 1987 symposium on the Evaluation of Foreign Language Proficiency held in Bloomington, Indiana. Although much has been accomplished in language testing, much remains to be done before the language teaching profession has at its disposal a common means of measuring proficiency in the functional use of language in…

Neural Bases of Language Switching in High and Early Proficient Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garbin, G.; Costa, A.; Sanjuan, A.; Forn, C.; Rodriguez-Pujadas, A.; Ventura, N.; Belloch, V.; Hernandez, M.; Avila, C.

2011-01-01

The left inferior frontal cortex, the caudate and the anterior cingulate have been proposed as the neural origin of language switching, but most of the studies were conducted in low proficient bilinguals. In the present study, we investigated brain areas involved in language switching in a sample of 19 early, high-proficient Spanish-Catalan…

Modeling the language learning strategies and English language proficiency of pre-university students in UMS: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiram, J. J.; Sulaiman, J.; Swanto, S.; Din, W. A.

2015-10-01

This study aims to construct a mathematical model of the relationship between a student's Language Learning Strategy usage and English Language proficiency. Fifty-six pre-university students of University Malaysia Sabah participated in this study. A self-report questionnaire called the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning was administered to them to measure their language learning strategy preferences before they sat for the Malaysian University English Test (MUET), the results of which were utilised to measure their English language proficiency. We attempted the model assessment specific to Multiple Linear Regression Analysis subject to variable selection using Stepwise regression. We conducted various assessments to the model obtained, including the Global F-test, Root Mean Square Error and R-squared. The model obtained suggests that not all language learning strategies should be included in the model in an attempt to predict Language Proficiency.

The Effects of Language Environment and Oral Language Ability on Phonological Production Proficiency in Bilingual Spanish-English Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scarpino, Shelley E.

2011-01-01

Purpose: This study was conducted to determine if phonological production proficiency in bilingual Spanish-English preschoolers could be predicted by their language environment, language ability, and phonological production proficiency in their other language. Method: Participants were 199 Latino children and their families. Children ranged in age…

L1 and L2 Strategy Use in Reading Comprehension of Chinese EFL Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsai, Yea-Ru; Ernst, Cheryl; Talley, Paul C.

2010-01-01

This study revealed the relationship between L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and L2 (English) strategy use in L2 reading comprehension by focusing on the correlation of L1 reading ability, L2 proficiency and employed reading strategies. The participants, 222 undergraduates learning English as a foreign language (EFL), were classified into skilled and…

L2 Acquisition of Prosodic Properties of Speech Rhythm: Evidence from L1 Mandarin and German Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Aike; Post, Brechtje

2014-01-01

This study examines the development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) learners of typologically different first languages (L1s) at different levels of proficiency. An empirical investigation of durational variation in L2 English productions by L1 Mandarin learners and L1 German learners compared to native control values in English and the…

Examining the Reliability and Validity of ADEPT and CELDT: Comparing Two Assessments of Oral Language Proficiency for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chavez, Gina

2013-01-01

Few classroom measures of English language proficiency have been evaluated for reliability and validity. This research examined the concurrent and predictive validity of an oral language test, titled A Developmental English Language Proficiency Test (ADEPT), and the relationship to the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) in the…

Do Decision Rules Matter? A Descriptive Study of English Language Proficiency Assessment Classifications for English-Language Learners and Native English Speakers in Fifth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Patricia E.; Bailey, Alison L.

2016-01-01

English language proficiency assessments (ELPA) are used in the United States to measure annually the English language progress and proficiency of English-language learners (ELLs), a subgroup of language minority students who receive language acquisition support mandated and largely funded by Title III (NCLB, 2001). ELPA proficient and…

Variables Affecting Proficiency in English as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santana, Josefina C.; García-Santillán, Arturo; Escalera-Chávez, Milka Elena

2017-01-01

This study explores different variables leading to proficiency in English as a second language. Level of English on a placement exam taken upon entering a private university in Mexico was correlated to several variables. Additionally, participants (N = 218) were asked their perception of their own proficiency. A linear regression and a one-factor…

Teaching Languages in College: Communicative Proficiency and Cross-Cultural Issues. Volume 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramirez, Arnulfo G., Ed.

A collection of papers concerning college language instruction and exploring issues related to promoting communicative skills and cross-cultural understanding includes the following titles: (1) "Languages at College: The Student and the Curriculum," by W. M. Rivers; (2) "Dimensions of Communicative Proficiency," by A. Ramirez; (3) "Communicative…

EFL Proficiency in Language Learning and Learner Autonomy Perceptions of Turkish Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ünal, Süleyman; Çeliköz, Nadir; Sari, Irfan

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to determine the relationships of Turkish-English Language Teaching (ELT) learners' perceptions of learner autonomy with ELT learner's proficiency level in language learning. Particularly, the study aimed at investigating to what extent ELT learners' autonomy perceptions are affected by proficiency level of learners.…

Examining the Relationship between Math Scores and English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Denfield L.; Nistor, Nicolae; Baltes, Beate

2016-01-01

Multiple studies propose that English proficiency dictates English language learners' (ELLs) performances on mathematics assessments. The current study investigates the predictive power of English proficiency on mathematics scores, while controlling for gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and grade level among ELLs at a south Florida elementary…

Native language change during early stages of second language learning.

PubMed

Bice, Kinsey; Kroll, Judith F

2015-11-11

Research on proficient bilinguals has demonstrated that both languages are always active, even when only one is required. The coactivation of the two languages creates both competition and convergence, facilitating the processing of cognate words, but slowing lexical access when there is a requirement to engage control mechanisms to select the target language. Critically, these consequences are evident in the native language (L1) as well as in the second language (L2). The present study questioned whether L1 changes can be detected at early stages of L2 learning and how they are modulated by L2 proficiency. Native English speakers learning Spanish performed an English (L1) lexical decision task that included cognates while event-related potentials were recorded. They also performed verbal fluency, working memory, and inhibitory control tasks. A group of matched monolinguals performed the same tasks in English only. The results revealed that intermediate learners demonstrate a reduced N400 for cognates compared with noncognates in English (L1), and an emerging effect is visually present in beginning learners as well; however, no behavioral cognate effect was present for either group. In addition, slower reaction times in English (L1) are related to a larger cognate N400 magnitude in English (L1) and Spanish (L2), and to better inhibitory control for learners but not for monolinguals. The results suggest that contrary to the claim that L2 affects L1 only when L2 speakers are highly proficient, L2 learning begins to impact L1 early in the development of the L2 skill.

Connecting Language Proficiency to (Self-Reported) Teaching Ability: A Review and Analysis of Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faez, Farahnaz; Karas, Michael

2017-01-01

This article provides a review and analysis of current research examining the connection between teacher language proficiency and their self-reported beliefs about their pedagogical abilities. Generally speaking, (English) language teachers require an advanced level of proficiency in order to be successful language teachers, but pedagogical skills…

Transition in Modern Foreign Languages: A Longitudinal Study of Motivation for Language Learning and Second Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Courtney, Louise

2017-01-01

The current longitudinal study examines the similarities and differences between primary and secondary foreign language curricula and pedagogy along with the development of motivation for language learning and second language proficiency. Data from 26 English learners of French (aged 10-11) were collected across three times points over a 12-month…

Host Language Proficiency, Intercultural Sensitivity, and Study Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Jane

2011-01-01

The number of foreign language students who join study abroad programs continues to increase annually, especially those who take part in short-term sojourns lasting eight weeks or less. What can be accomplished in such a short stay in the host culture? Is it possible for sojourners to enhance their proficiency in the host language and…

Assessing the Language Proficiency of Second Language Teachers: An LSP Approach to Test Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elder, Catherine

This paper describes a language-for-specific-purposes test development project designed to assess both general language proficiency and classroom communicative competence for the purpose of accrediting teachers of Italian as a second/foreign language. A rationale for test design is presented that draws in a review of the second language…

Predictors and Outcomes of Early vs. Later English Language Proficiency Among English Language Learners

PubMed Central

Halle, Tamara; Hair, Elizabeth; Wandner, Laura; McNamara, Michelle; Chien, Nina

2011-01-01

The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children’s growth and development. PMID:22389551

Method for automatic measurement of second language speaking proficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernstein, Jared; Balogh, Jennifer

2005-04-01

Spoken language proficiency is intuitively related to effective and efficient communication in spoken interactions. However, it is difficult to derive a reliable estimate of spoken language proficiency by situated elicitation and evaluation of a person's communicative behavior. This paper describes the task structure and scoring logic of a group of fully automatic spoken language proficiency tests (for English, Spanish and Dutch) that are delivered via telephone or Internet. Test items are presented in spoken form and require a spoken response. Each test is automatically-scored and primarily based on short, decontextualized tasks that elicit integrated listening and speaking performances. The tests present several types of tasks to candidates, including sentence repetition, question answering, sentence construction, and story retelling. The spoken responses are scored according to the lexical content of the response and a set of acoustic base measures on segments, words and phrases, which are scaled with IRT methods or parametrically combined to optimize fit to human listener judgments. Most responses are isolated spoken phrases and sentences that are scored according to their linguistic content, their latency, and their fluency and pronunciation. The item development procedures and item norming are described.

Confusing similar words: ERP correlates of lexical-semantic processing in first language attrition and late second language acquisition.

PubMed

Kasparian, Kristina; Steinhauer, Karsten

2016-12-01

First language (L1) attrition is a socio-linguistic circumstance where second language (L2) learning coincides with changes in exposure and use of the native-L1. Attriters often report experiencing a decline in automaticity or proficiency in their L1 after a prolonged period in the L2 environment, while their L2 proficiency continues to strengthen. Investigating the neurocognitive correlates of attrition alongside those of late L2 acquisition addresses the question of whether the brain mechanisms underlying both L1 and L2 processing are strongly determined by proficiency, irrespective of whether the language was acquired from birth or in adulthood. Using event-related-potentials (ERPs), we examined lexical-semantic processing in Italian L1 attriters, compared to adult Italian L2 learners and to Italian monolingual native speakers. We contrasted the processing of classical lexical-semantic violations (Mismatch condition) with sentences that were equally semantically implausible but arguably trickier, as the target-noun was "swapped" with an orthographic neighbor that differed only in its final vowel and gender-marking morpheme (e.g., cappello (hat) vs. cappella (chapel)). Our aim was to determine whether sentences with such "confusable nouns" (Swap condition) would be processed as semantically correct by late L2 learners and L1 attriters, especially for those individuals with lower Italian proficiency scores. We found that lower-proficiency Italian speakers did not show significant N400 effects for Swap violations relative to correct sentences, regardless of whether Italian was the L1 or the L2. Crucially, N400 response profiles followed a continuum of "nativelikeness" predicted by Italian proficiency scores - high-proficiency attriters and high-proficiency Italian learners were indistinguishable from native controls, whereas attriters and L2 learners in the lower-proficiency range showed significantly reduced N400 effects for "Swap" errors. Importantly, attriters

Musical and Language Proficiency of Students Majoring in Singing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bocsi, Veronika; Ujvarosi, Andrea

2017-01-01

The aim of our study is to give an overview about language and musical skills of students in musical traning courses and we try to outline the effects of the sociocultural background in these fields. We would like to show the main patterns of language proficiency (the number of langugages they speak and levels of the language skills) and we also…

Brain responses before and after intensive second language learning: proficiency based changes and first language background effects in adult learners.

PubMed

White, Erin Jacquelyn; Genesee, Fred; Steinhauer, Karsten

2012-01-01

This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1-L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., "grammaticalization") are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning.

Brain Responses before and after Intensive Second Language Learning: Proficiency Based Changes and First Language Background Effects in Adult Learners

PubMed Central

White, Erin Jacquelyn; Genesee, Fred; Steinhauer, Karsten

2012-01-01

This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner’s first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1–L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., “grammaticalization”) are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning. PMID:23300641

Family Language Policies, Reported Language Use and Proficiency in Russian-Hebrew Bilingual Children in Israel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altman, Carmit; Burstein Feldman, Zhanna; Yitzhaki, Dafna; Armon Lotem, Sharon; Walters, Joel

2014-01-01

The relationship between family language policy (FLP) and language choice, language use, proficiency in Russian and Hebrew, codeswitching (CS) and linguistic performance was studied in Russian-speaking immigrant parents and their Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschool children. By means of Glaser's Grounded Theory, the content of sociolinguistic…

How Much L1 Is Too Much? Teachers' Language Use in Response to Students' Abilities and Classroom Interaction in Content and Language Integrated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lo, Yuen Yi

2015-01-01

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classrooms where students' L2 proficiency has not reached the threshold level, teachers have been observed to use L1 to assist students in grasping specific technical terms and abstract concepts. It is argued to be a 'realistic' approach to the learning problems caused by students' limited L2…

Masked translation priming effects with low proficient bilinguals.

PubMed

Dimitropoulou, Maria; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni; Carreiras, Manuel

2011-02-01

Non-cognate masked translation priming lexical decision studies with unbalanced bilinguals suggest that masked translation priming effects are asymmetric as a function of the translation direction (significant effects only in the dominant [L1] to nondominant [L2] language translation direction). However, in contrast to the predictions of most current accounts of masked translation priming effects, bidirectional effects have recently been reported with a group of low proficient bilinguals Duyck & Warlop 2009 (Experimental Psychology 56:173-179). In a series of masked translation priming lexical decision experiments we examined whether the same pattern of effects would emerge with late and low proficient Greek (L1)-Spanish (L2) bilinguals. Contrary to the results obtained by Duyck and Warlop, and in line with the results found in most studies in the masked priming literature, significant translation priming effects emerged only when the bilinguals performed the task with L1 primes and L2 targets. The existence of the masked translation priming asymmetry with low proficient bilinguals suggests that cross-linguistic automatic lexico-semantic links may be established very early in the process of L2 acquisition. These findings could help to define models of bilingualism that consider L2 proficiency level to be a determining factor.

Fractionating English Language Proficiency: Policy and Practice in Australian Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Paul J.; Harrington, Michael

2016-01-01

Policy-makers and practitioners in Australian higher education increasingly view English language proficiency (ELP) as a tripartite construct consisting of English proficiency for academic study, interpersonal communication, and more recently, the workplace. This paper examines this assumption and identifies the significant implications it has for…

Using genre pedagogy to promote student proficiency in the language required for interpreting line graphs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smit, Jantien; Bakker, Arthur; van Eerde, Dolly; Kuijpers, Maggie

2016-09-01

The importance of language in mathematics learning has been widely acknowledged. However, little is known about how to make this insight productive in the design and enactment of language-oriented mathematics education. In a design-based research project, we explored how language-oriented mathematics education can be designed and enacted. We drew on genre pedagogy to promote student proficiency in the language required for interpreting line graphs. In the intervention, the teacher used scaffolding strategies to focus students' attention on the structure and linguistic features of the language involved in this particular domain. The research question addressed in this paper is how student proficiency in this language may be promoted. The study comprised nine lessons involving 22 students in grades 5 and 6 (aged 10-12); of these students, 19 had a migrant background. In light of the research aim, we first describe the rationale behind our design. Next, we illustrate how the design was enacted by means of a case study focusing on one student in the classroom practice of developing proficiency in the language required for interpreting line graphs. On the basis of pre- and posttest scores, we conclude that overall their proficiency has increased. Together, the results indicate that and how genre pedagogy may be used to help students become more proficient in the language required in a mathematical domain.

Progress, Proficiency and Motivation among British University Language Learners. CLCS Occasional Paper No. 40.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coleman, James A.

A study of over 3,000 British college and university students investigated the relationship of student language proficiency and student demographic and background characteristics. Proficiency levels were assessed by means of C-Tests, while associated questionnaires sought to explore biographical data, language learning background, residence…

Language Learning Strategies and English Proficiency: Interpretations from Information-Processing Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rao, Zhenhui

2016-01-01

The research reported here investigated the relationship between students' use of language learning strategies and their English proficiency, and then interpreted the data from two models in information-processing theory. Results showed that the students' English proficiency significantly affected their use of learning strategies, with high-level…

Effects of Experience Abroad and Language Proficiency on Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Language Learning.

PubMed

Kim, Hyang-Il; Cha, Kyung-Ae

2017-01-01

Experience abroad has been recognized as one of the best investments for second or foreign language learning. A lot of research has examined its impact on language learning from linguistic as well as non-linguistic perspectives. Nonetheless, literature on the relationships between and among experience abroad, language proficiency, and self-efficacy beliefs in language learning seems to still be cursory and thus the present study chose to focus on these aspects in more detail. To do so, 259 Korean English as a foreign language students answered the Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy as well as completed a background questionnaire. Statistical analyses identified two underlying factors of self-efficacy beliefs-production and comprehension-that helped analyze the data from a new perspective. Using this two-factor structure of self-efficacy, it was found that the combination of experience abroad and English proficiency were indeed related to these self-efficacy factors. In addition, the results indicate that students may have benefitted most in self-efficacy formation in production and comprehension aspects when they have four to six months of experience abroad.

Teachers' English Proficiency and Classroom Language Use: A Conversation Analysis Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Canh, Le; Renandya, Willy A.

2017-01-01

How does teachers' target language proficiency correlate with their ability to use the target language effectively in order to provide optimal learning opportunities in the language classroom? Adopting a conversation analysis approach, this study examines the extent to which teachers' use of the target language in the classroom creates learning…

An Exploration of the Relationship between Vietnamese Students' Knowledge of L1 Grammar and Their English Grammar Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Tammie M.

2010-01-01

The problem. This research study explores an important issue in the field of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and second language acquisition (SLA). Its purpose is to examine the relationship between Vietnamese students' L1 grammar knowledge and their English grammar proficiency. Furthermore, it investigates the extent to…

Language Interference and Language Learning Techniques Transfer in L2 and L3 Immersion Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aronin, Larissa; Toubkin, Lynne

2002-01-01

Examines the relationships between the first (L1), second (L2), and third (L3) language in immersion programs for Russian-speaking students in Israel. Two parallel and similar immersion programs, which were carried out for the same population, but with different target languages (L2 Hebrew and L3 English), are described. Presents tentative…

Examining the Concept of Subordination in Spoken L1 and L2 English: The Case of "If"-Clauses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basterrechea, María; Weinert, Regina

2017-01-01

This article explores the applications of research on native spoken language into second language learning in the concept of subordination. Second language (L2) learners' ability to integrate subordinate clauses is considered an indication of higher proficiency (e.g., Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Tarone & Swierzbin, 2009). However, the notion…

English L3 Learning in a Multilingual Context: The Role of Parental Education and L2 Exposure within the Living Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Angelis, Gessica

2015-01-01

The present study examines two factors in relation to English L3 proficiency development and school performance in a third language: (a) parental education and (b) second language exposure within the living community. Participants (n?=?50) are Italian L1 students with German L2 and English L3. All students (eighth grade, 14 years of age) were…

Identifying Differences in Early Literacy Skills across Subgroups of Language-Minority Children: A Latent Profile Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Goodrich, J. Marc; Farver, JoAnn M.

2018-01-01

Despite acknowledgment that language-minority children come from a wide variety of home language backgrounds and have a wide range of proficiency in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages, it is unknown whether differences across language-minority children in relative and absolute levels of proficiency in L1 and L2 predict subsequent…

Spanish language proficiency among providers and Latino clients' engagement in substance abuse treatment.

PubMed

Guerrero, Erick G; Khachikian, Tenie; Kim, Tina; Kong, Yinfei; Vega, William A

2013-12-01

Quality of care, such as provision of services in Spanish, is a common factor believed to improve treatment engagement among Spanish-speaking Latinos in health care. However, there is little evidence that Spanish language proficiency among providers increases treatment access and retention in publicly funded substance abuse treatment. We analyzed client and program data collected in 2010-2011 from publicly funded treatment programs in Los Angeles County, California. An analytic sample of 1903 Latino clients nested within 40 treatment programs located in minority communities was analyzed using multilevel negative binomial regressions on days to initiate and spent in treatment. As hypothesized, Spanish language proficiency was negatively associated with client wait time and positively associated with retention in treatment, after controlling for individual and program characteristics. The path analysis models showed that Spanish language proficiency played a mediating role between professional accreditation and client wait time and retention. These preliminary findings provide an evidentiary base for the role of providers' Spanish language proficiency and Latino engagement in treatment for a population at high risk of treatment dropout. Implications related to health care reform legislation, which seeks to enhance linguistically competent care, are discussed. © 2013.

Does Language Proficiency Modulate Oculomotor Control? Evidence from Hindi-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Niharika; Mishra, Ramesh Kumar

2012-01-01

Though many previous studies have reported enhanced cognitive control in bilinguals, few have investigated if such control is modulated by language proficiency. Here, we examined the inhibitory control of high and low proficient Hindi-English bilinguals on an oculomotor Stroop task. Subjects were asked to make a saccade as fast as possible towards…

Language proficiency and health status: are bilingual immigrants healthier?

PubMed

Schachter, Ariela; Kimbro, Rachel T; Gorman, Bridget K

2012-03-01

Bilingual immigrants appear to have a health advantage, and identifying the mechanisms responsible for this is of increasing interest to scholars and policy makers in the United States. Utilizing the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS; n = 3,264), we investigate the associations between English and native-language proficiency and usage and self-rated health for Asian and Latino U.S. immigrants from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. The findings demonstrate that across immigrant ethnic groups, being bilingual is associated with better self-rated physical and mental health relative to being proficient in only English or only a native language, and moreover, these associations are partially mediated by socioeconomic status and family support but not by acculturation, stress and discrimination, or health access and behaviors.

"Bridging Activities," New Media Literacies, and Advanced Foreign Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thorne, Steven L.; Reinhardt, Jonathon

2008-01-01

In this article we propose the pedagogical model "bridging activities" to address advanced foreign language proficiency in the context of existing and emerging internet communication and information tools and communities. The article begins by establishing the need for language and genre-focused activities at the advanced level that attend to the…

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) in L2 Oral Proficiency Development: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Huifen

2015-01-01

The ever growing interest in the development of foreign or second (L2) oral proficiency in a computer-mediated communication (CMC) classroom has resulted in a large body of studies looking at both the direct and indirect effects of CMC interventions on the acquisition of oral competences. The present study employed a quantitative meta-analytic…

Accommodations for English Language Learners with Disabilities in Federally-Mandated Statewide English Language Proficiency Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuti, Laura M.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this research study was to conduct exploratory research to examine federally-mandated annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment of English language learners (ELLs) and their use of accommodations on the assessment. First the researcher provides a review of the literature regarding accommodations provided for ELLs,…

English Language Proficiency and Early School Attainment among Children Learning English as an Additional Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whiteside, Katie E.; Gooch, Debbie; Norbury, Courtenay F.

2017-01-01

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience lower academic attainment than monolingual peers. In this study, teachers provided ratings of English language proficiency and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning for 782 children with EAL and 6,485 monolingual children in reception year (ages 4-5). Academic…

L'evaluation de la competence linguistique des membres des ordres professionnels au Quebec (The Quebec Region Evaluation of Professional Personnel's Language Proficiency).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gareau, Claude

1981-01-01

Describes a testing program designed to assess the French language proficiency of professionals desiring to practice in the Quebec region. Discusses the criteria used for the construction, administration, and scoring of the tests in compliance with the 1977 French language legislation. (MES)

Assessing Lexical Proficiency Using Analytic Ratings: A Case for Collocation Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott A.; Salsbury, Tom; Mcnamara, Danielle S.

2015-01-01

This study analyzes lexical proficiency in oral and written texts produced by second language (L2) learners of English. The purpose of the study is to examine relationships between analytic scores of depth of lexical knowledge, breadth of lexical knowledge, and access to core lexical items and holistic scores of lexical proficiency. A corpus of…

L1/L2 Differences in the Acquisition of Form-Meaning Pairings in a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McManus, Kevin

2015-01-01

This paper examines the impact of L1/L2 form-meaning differences in the domain of aspect to investigate whether L2 learners are able to acquire properties of the L2 that are different from the L1. Oral data were collected from English- and German-speaking university learners of French L2 (n = 75) at two different levels of proficiency. The results…

Masked Associative/Semantic Priming Effects across Languages with Highly Proficient Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perea, Manuel; Dunabeitia, Jon Andoni; Carreiras, Manuel

2008-01-01

One key issue for models of bilingual memory is to what degree the semantic representation from one of the languages is shared with the other language. In the present paper, we examine whether there is an early, automatic semantic priming effect across languages for noncognates with highly proficient (Basque/Spanish) bilinguals. Experiment 1 was a…

Analysis of English language learner performance on the biology Massachusetts comprehensive assessment system: The impact of english proficiency, first language characteristics, and late-entry ELL status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitchell, Mary A.

This study analyzed English language learner (ELL) performance on the June 2012 Biology MCAS, namely on item attributes of domain, cognitive skill, and linguistic complexity. It examined the impact of English proficiency, Latinate first language, first language orthography, and late-entry ELL status. The results indicated that English proficiency was a strong predictor of performance and that ELLs at higher levels of English proficiency overwhelmingly passed. The results further indicated that English proficiency introduced a construct-irrelevant variance on the Biology MCAS and raised validity issues for using this assessment at lower levels of English proficiency. This study also found that ELLs with a Latinate first language consistently had statistically significant lower performance. Late-entry ELL status did not predict Biology MCAS performance.

An Investigation of Syntactic Priming among German Speakers at Varying Proficiency Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruf, Helena T.

2011-01-01

This dissertation investigates syntactic priming in second language (L2) development among three speaker populations: (1) less proficient L2 speakers; (2) advanced L2 speakers; and (3) LI speakers. Using confederate scripting this study examines how German speakers choose certain word orders in locative constructions (e.g., "Auf dem Tisch…

Differential Gains in Oral Proficiency during Study Abroad: The Role of Language Learning Aptitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Sheri Lynn

2012-01-01

This inquiry analyzed the relationships between individual differences and gains made in oral proficiency of adult, second language learners of Spanish during one semester studying abroad. Oral proficiency was measured using a pre/post-SA Computerized Oral Proficiency Instrument (COPI, CAL, 2009). Gain scores were correlated with two cognitive…

Proficiency or Exposure? Rethinking Foreign Language Requirements within College Curriculum Reviews

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rios-Font, Wadda C.

2017-01-01

This article analyzes the growing trend among US higher education institutions to replace four-semester, proficiency-oriented language requirement models with shorter exposure-oriented sequences frequently restricting exemptions and aimed at bringing languages into distribution requirement structures. By contrasting the history, strengths, and…

Determinants of Second Language Proficiency among Refugees in the Netherlands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Tubergen, Frank

2010-01-01

Little is known about the language acquisition of refugees in Western countries. This study examines how pre- and post-migration characteristics of refugees are related to their second language proficiency. Data are from a survey of 3,500 refugees, who were born in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, former Yugoslavia and Somalia, and who resided in the…

Bilingual experience and resting-state brain connectivity: Impacts of L2 age of acquisition and social diversity of language use on control networks.

PubMed

Gullifer, Jason W; Chai, Xiaoqian J; Whitford, Veronica; Pivneva, Irina; Baum, Shari; Klein, Denise; Titone, Debra

2018-05-01

We investigated the independent contributions of second language (L2) age of acquisition (AoA) and social diversity of language use on intrinsic brain organization using seed-based resting-state functional connectivity among highly proficient French-English bilinguals. There were two key findings. First, earlier L2 AoA related to greater interhemispheric functional connectivity between homologous frontal brain regions, and to decreased reliance on proactive executive control in an AX-Continuous Performance Task completed outside the scanner. Second, greater diversity in social language use in daily life related to greater connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex and the putamen bilaterally, and to increased reliance on proactive control in the same task. These findings suggest that early vs. late L2 AoA links to a specialized neural framework for processing two languages that may engage a specific type of executive control (e.g., reactive control). In contrast, higher vs. lower degrees of diversity in social language use link to a broadly distributed set of brain networks implicated in proactive control and context monitoring. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oral English Language Proficiency and Reading Mastery: The Role of Home Language and School Supports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palacios, Natalia; Kibler, Amanda

2016-01-01

The analysis of 21,409 participants of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort focused on home and school factors sought to understand the level of reading mastery that children experienced throughout elementary school and Grade 8 by relating home language use, timing of oral English language proficiency, and the provision of…

Deconstructing Comprehensibility: Identifying the Linguistic Influences on Listeners' L2 Comprehensibility Ratings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isaacs, Talia; Trofimovich, Pavel

2012-01-01

Comprehensibility, a major concept in second language (L2) pronunciation research that denotes listeners' perceptions of how easily they understand L2 speech, is central to interlocutors' communicative success in real-world contexts. Although comprehensibility has been modeled in several L2 oral proficiency scales--for example, the Test of English…

The Role of Fathers in Language Maintenance and Language Attrition: The Case of Korean-English Late Bilinguals in New Zealand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Sun Hee Ok; Starks, Donna

2010-01-01

The father's role in children's L1 maintenance and L2 learning is a relatively unexplored area. This study considers the L1 and L2 proficiency of 30 Korean-English late bilinguals who immigrated to New Zealand during their adolescence and how their L1 and L2 proficiency is influenced by the language use of family members. Data were collected…

Lexical Competition during Second-Language Listening: Sentence Context, but Not Proficiency, Constrains Interference from the Native Lexicon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambers, Craig G.; Cooke, Hilary

2009-01-01

A spoken language eye-tracking methodology was used to evaluate the effects of sentence context and proficiency on parallel language activation during spoken language comprehension. Nonnative speakers with varying proficiency levels viewed visual displays while listening to French sentences (e.g., "Marie va decrire la poule" [Marie will…

Shaving Bridges and Tuning Kitaraa: The Effect of Language Switching on Semantic Processing

PubMed Central

Hut, Suzanne C. A.; Leminen, Alina

2017-01-01

Language switching has been repeatedly found to be costly. Yet, there are reasons to believe that switches in language might benefit language comprehension in some groups of people, such as less proficient language learners. This study therefore investigated the interplay between language switching and semantic processing in groups with varying language proficiency. EEG was recorded while L2 learners of English with intermediate and high proficiency levels read semantically congruent or incongruent sentences in L2. Translations of congruent and incongruent target words were additionally presented in L1 to create intrasentential language switches. A control group of English native speakers was tested in order to compare responses to non-switched stimuli with those of L2 learners. An omnibus ANOVA including all groups revealed larger N400 responses for non-switched incongruent stimuli compared to congruent stimuli. Additionally, despite switches to L1 at target word position, semantic N400 responses were still elicited in both L2 learner groups. Further switching effects were reflected by an N400-like effect and a late positivity complex, pointing to possible parsing efforts after language switches. Our results therefore show that although language switches are associated with increased mental effort, switches may not necessarily be costly on the semantic level. This finding contributes to the ongoing discussion on language inhibition processes, and shows that, in these intermediate and high proficient L2 learners, semantic processes look similar to those of native speakers of English. PMID:28900402

Acquisition of speech rhythm in a second language by learners with rhythmically different native languages.

PubMed

Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona

2015-08-01

The development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) acquisition was investigated. Speech rhythm was defined as durational variability that can be captured by the interval-based rhythm metrics. These metrics were used to examine the differences in durational variability between proficiency levels in L2 English spoken by French and German learners. The results reveal that durational variability increased as L2 acquisition progressed in both groups of learners. This indicates that speech rhythm in L2 English develops from more syllable-timed toward more stress-timed patterns irrespective of whether the native language of the learner is rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Although both groups showed similar development of speech rhythm in L2 acquisition, there were also differences: German learners achieved a degree of durational variability typical of the target language, while French learners exhibited lower variability than native British speakers, even at an advanced proficiency level.

The Unified Language Testing Plan: Speaking Proficiency Test. Spanish and English Pilot Validation Studies. Report Number 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thornton, Julie A.

This report describes one segment of the Federal Language Testing Board's Unified Language Testing Plan (ULTP), the validation of speaking proficiency tests in Spanish and English. The ULTP is a project to increase standardization of foreign language proficiency measurement and promote sharing of resources among testing programs in the federal…

The Effect of Language Learning Strategies on Proficiency, Attitudes and School Achievement

PubMed Central

Habók, Anita; Magyar, Andrea

2018-01-01

This study examines language learning strategy (LLS) use in connexion with foreign language attitude, proficiency and general school achievement among lower secondary students in Years 5 and 8 (n = 868) in Hungary. An adapted version of the Strategies Inventory for Language Learning questionnaire was used for data collection. The results showed that Hungarian students mainly engage in metacognitive strategies in both years. Differences between more and less proficient language learners’ strategy use have also been found. With regard to the effect of LLS on foreign language attitude, the foreign language mark and school achievement, path analysis indicated a good fit in both years. The metacognitive, social and memory strategies primarily influenced foreign language attitudes and marks in Year 5. The metacognitive strategies had a slight impact on school achievement as well as on foreign language marks. We demonstrated the dominant effect of metacognitive strategies and the low effect of memory strategies in Year 8. In addition, metacognitive strategies also influenced foreign language marks. The effect of foreign language marks on school achievement was also remarkable. There was a strong impact on the children’s attitudes through these variables. PMID:29379461

The Effect of Language Learning Strategies on Proficiency, Attitudes and School Achievement.

PubMed

Habók, Anita; Magyar, Andrea

2017-01-01

This study examines language learning strategy (LLS) use in connexion with foreign language attitude, proficiency and general school achievement among lower secondary students in Years 5 and 8 ( n = 868) in Hungary. An adapted version of the Strategies Inventory for Language Learning questionnaire was used for data collection. The results showed that Hungarian students mainly engage in metacognitive strategies in both years. Differences between more and less proficient language learners' strategy use have also been found. With regard to the effect of LLS on foreign language attitude, the foreign language mark and school achievement, path analysis indicated a good fit in both years. The metacognitive, social and memory strategies primarily influenced foreign language attitudes and marks in Year 5. The metacognitive strategies had a slight impact on school achievement as well as on foreign language marks. We demonstrated the dominant effect of metacognitive strategies and the low effect of memory strategies in Year 8. In addition, metacognitive strategies also influenced foreign language marks. The effect of foreign language marks on school achievement was also remarkable. There was a strong impact on the children's attitudes through these variables.

The Impact of Topic Interest, L2 Proficiency, and Gender on EFL Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Sunjung; Pulido, Diana

2017-01-01

This study investigated the impact of topic interest, alongside L2 proficiency and gender, on L2 vocabulary acquisition through reading. A repeated-measures design was used with 135 Korean EFL students. Control variables included topic familiarity, prior target-word knowledge, and target-word difficulty (word length, class, and concreteness).…

The English proficiency and academic language skills of Australian bilingual children during the primary school years.

PubMed

Dennaoui, Kamelia; Nicholls, Ruth Jane; O'Connor, Meredith; Tarasuik, Joanne; Kvalsvig, Amanda; Goldfeld, Sharon

2016-04-01

Evidence suggests that early proficiency in the language of school instruction is an important predictor of academic success for bilingual children. This study investigated whether English-proficiency at 4-5 years of age predicts academic language and literacy skills among Australian bilingual children at 10-11 years of age, as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children ( LSAC, 2012 ). The LSAC comprises a nationally representative clustered cross-sequential sample of Australian children. Data were analysed from a sub-sample of 129 bilingual children from the LSAC Kindergarten cohort (n = 4983), for whom teachers completed the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) checklist (a population measure of early childhood development) and the Academic Rating Scale (ARS) language and literacy subscale. Linear regression analyses revealed that bilingual children who commenced school with stronger English proficiency had higher academic language and literacy scores at the end of primary school (β = 0.45). English proficiency remained a significant predictor, even when accounting for gender and socio-economic disadvantage (β = 0.38). The findings indicate that bilingual children who begin school without English proficiency are at risk of difficulties with academic language and literacy, even after 6 years of schooling. Risk factors need to be identified so early support can be targeted towards the most vulnerable children.

Language-Independent and Language-Specific Aspects of Early Literacy: An Evaluation of the Common Underlying Proficiency Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodrich, J. Marc; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2017-01-01

According to the common underlying proficiency model (Cummins, 1981), as children acquire academic knowledge and skills in their first language, they also acquire language-independent information about those skills that can be applied when learning a second language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relevance of the common underlying…

Leveling L2 Texts through Readability: Combining Multilevel Linguistic Features with the CEFR

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Yao-Ting; Lin, Wei-Chun; Dyson, Scott Benjamin; Chang, Kuo-En; Chen, Yu-Chia

2015-01-01

Selecting appropriate texts for L2 (second/foreign language) learners is an important approach to enhancing motivation and, by extension, learning. There is currently no tool for classifying foreign language texts according to a language proficiency framework, which makes it difficult for students and educators to determine the precise…

Why bother with testing? The validity of immigrants' self-assessed language proficiency.

PubMed

Edele, Aileen; Seuring, Julian; Kristen, Cornelia; Stanat, Petra

2015-07-01

Due to its central role in social integration, immigrants' language proficiency is a matter of considerable societal concern and scientific interest. This study examines whether commonly applied self-assessments of linguistic skills yield results that are similar to those of competence tests and thus whether these self-assessments are valid measures of language proficiency. Analyses of data for immigrant youth reveal moderate correlations between language test scores and two types of self-assessments (general ability estimates and concrete performance estimates) for the participants' first and second languages. More importantly, multiple regression models using self-assessments and models using test scores yield different results. This finding holds true for a variety of analyses and for both types of self-assessments. Our findings further suggest that self-assessed language skills are systematically biased in certain groups. Subjective measures thus seem to be inadequate estimates of language skills, and future research should use them with caution when research questions pertain to actual language skills rather than self-perceptions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Teacher Professionalism--An Innovative Programme for Teaching Mathematics to Foundation Level Learners with Limited Language Proficiency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naude, H.; Pretorius, E.; Vandeyar, S.

2003-01-01

Details a study of the ways that limited language proficiency affected learners' readiness for mathematics instruction among disadvantaged preschoolers within a Griqua community in South Africa. Notes a link between limited language proficiency and nonreadiness for foundation level mathematics due to limited thinking skills, which constitute…

English Language Proficiency and Teacher Judgments of the Academic and Interpersonal Competence of English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freberg, Miranda E.

2014-01-01

The purpose of the study was to investigate how English language proficiency is related to teacher judgments of students' academic and interpersonal competence. It was hypothesized that English Language Learner (ELL) students would generally be perceived as having weaker academic and interpersonal skills than their non-ELL counterparts regardless…

TOEFL from a Communicative Viewpoint on Language Proficiency: A Working Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duran, Richard P.; And Others

The content characteristics of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are examined from a communicative viewpoint, based on current theory in applied linguistics and language proficiency assessment. The study employed a four-part operational framework. The first component analyzed the communicative characteristics of a language…

Cognitive and Psychosocial Factors in the Long-Term Development of Implicit and Explicit Second Language Knowledge in Adult Learners of Spanish at Increasing Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serafini, Ellen Johnson

2013-01-01

This study examined the second language (L2) development of adult learners of Spanish at three levels of proficiency during and after a semester of instruction. A fundamental goal was to identify cognitive and psychosocial individual differences (IDs) that can explain between-learner variation over time in order to expand our understanding of the…

Dynamic spatial organization of the occipito-temporal word form area for second language processing.

PubMed

Gao, Yue; Sun, Yafeng; Lu, Chunming; Ding, Guosheng; Guo, Taomei; Malins, Jeffrey G; Booth, James R; Peng, Danling; Liu, Li

2017-08-01

Despite the left occipito-temporal region having shown consistent activation in visual word form processing across numerous studies in different languages, the mechanisms by which word forms of second languages are processed in this region remain unclear. To examine this more closely, 16 Chinese-English and 14 English-Chinese late bilinguals were recruited to perform lexical decision tasks to visually presented words in both their native and second languages (L1 and L2) during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Here we demonstrate that visual word form processing for L1 versus L2 engaged different spatial areas of the left occipito-temporal region. Namely, the spatial organization of the visual word form processing in the left occipito-temporal region is more medial and posterior for L2 than L1 processing in Chinese-English bilinguals, whereas activation is more lateral and anterior for L2 in English-Chinese bilinguals. In addition, for Chinese-English bilinguals, more lateral recruitment of the occipito-temporal region was correlated with higher L2 proficiency, suggesting higher L2 proficiency is associated with greater involvement of L1-preferred mechanisms. For English-Chinese bilinguals, higher L2 proficiency was correlated with more lateral and anterior activation of the occipito-temporal region, suggesting higher L2 proficiency is associated with greater involvement of L2-preferred mechanisms. Taken together, our results indicate that L1 and L2 recruit spatially different areas of the occipito-temporal region in visual word processing when the two scripts belong to different writing systems, and that the spatial organization of this region for L2 visual word processing is dynamically modulated by L2 proficiency. Specifically, proficiency in L2 in Chinese-English is associated with assimilation to the native language mechanisms, whereas L2 in English-Chinese is associated with accommodation to second language mechanisms. Copyright © 2017

Developing L2 Pragmatic Competence in Mandarin Chinese: Sequential Realization of Requests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Su, Yunwen; Ren, Wei

2017-01-01

The present study explored the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners' ability to negotiate requests in interactions. It investigated the effect of proficiency on learners' use of request strategies and internal modifications and on their sequential realization of requests in L2 Chinese. Twenty-four American English learners of L2…

The Effect of Dual-Language and Transitional-Bilingual Education Instructional Models on Spanish Proficiency for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Audrey Figueroa

2014-01-01

The effects of "transitional-bilingual" and "dual-language" educational models on proficiency in students' home language (Spanish) were examined in a study of English language learners in the first and second grades in a large urban elementary school. In each grade, students were taught with either a transitional-bilingual…

Japanese Language Proficiency, Social Networking, and Language Use during Study Abroad: Learners' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewey, Dan P.; Bown, Jennifer; Eggett, Dennis

2012-01-01

This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels…

Borrowing Legitimacy as English Learner (EL) Leaders: Indiana's 14-Year History with English Language Proficiency Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morita-Mullaney, Trish

2017-01-01

English language proficiency or English language development (ELP/D) standards guide how content-specific instruction and assessment is practiced by teachers and how English learners (ELs) at varying levels of English proficiency can perform grade-level-specific academic standards in K-12 US schools. With the transition from the state-developed…

Identifying Affirmative Beliefs about English Language Learning: Self-Perceptions of Thai Learners with Different Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Tuntiga; Rajprasit, Krich

2015-01-01

Theoretically, beliefs about English language learning have a psychological factor, such as predicting the rate of success or failure among learners in the classroom context. However, learners with different levels of language proficiency may perceive such beliefs in a different way, which may lead to the development of special needs, in terms of…

Language-independent talker-specificity in first-language and second-language speech production by bilingual talkers: L1 speaking rate predicts L2 speaking rate

PubMed Central

Bradlow, Ann R.; Kim, Midam; Blasingame, Michael

2017-01-01

Second-language (L2) speech is consistently slower than first-language (L1) speech, and L1 speaking rate varies within- and across-talkers depending on many individual, situational, linguistic, and sociolinguistic factors. It is asked whether speaking rate is also determined by a language-independent talker-specific trait such that, across a group of bilinguals, L1 speaking rate significantly predicts L2 speaking rate. Two measurements of speaking rate were automatically extracted from recordings of read and spontaneous speech by English monolinguals (n = 27) and bilinguals from ten L1 backgrounds (n = 86): speech rate (syllables/second), and articulation rate (syllables/second excluding silent pauses). Replicating prior work, L2 speaking rates were significantly slower than L1 speaking rates both across-groups (monolinguals' L1 English vs bilinguals' L2 English), and across L1 and L2 within bilinguals. Critically, within the bilingual group, L1 speaking rate significantly predicted L2 speaking rate, suggesting that a significant portion of inter-talker variation in L2 speech is derived from inter-talker variation in L1 speech, and that individual variability in L2 spoken language production may be best understood within the context of individual variability in L1 spoken language production. PMID:28253679

Vietnamese Immigrant and Refugee Women's Mental Health: An Examination of Age of Arrival, Length of Stay, Income, and English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Chris; Schale, Codi L.; Nilsson, Johanna E.

2010-01-01

Vietnamese immigrant and refugee women (N = 83) were surveyed regarding their mental health, English language proficiency, age of arrival, length of stay, and income. English language proficiency and age of arrival correlated with reduced symptomatology. Moreover, English language proficiency was the sole predictor of somatic distress. (Contains 1…

Poor knowledge of methotrexate associated with older age and limited English-language proficiency in a diverse rheumatoid arthritis cohort

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Introduction Our objective was to determine rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients’ understanding of methotrexate and assess whether knowledge varies by age, education, English language proficiency, or other disease-related factors. Methods Adults with RA (n = 135) who were enrollees of an observational cohort completed a structured telephone interview in their preferred language between August 2007 and July 2009. All subjects who reported taking methotrexate were asked 11 questions about the medication in addition to demographics, education level, and language proficiency. Primary outcome was a total score below the 50th percentile (considered inadequate methotrexate knowledge). Bivariable and multivariable logistic regressions were performed. Covariates included demographics, language proficiency, education, and disease characteristics. Results Of 135 subjects, 83% were female, with a mean age of 55 ± 14 years. The majority spoke English (64%), followed by 22% Spanish and 14% Cantonese or Mandarin. Limited English language proficiency (LEP) was reported in 42%. Mean methotrexate knowledge score was 5.4 ± 2.6 (range, 0 to 10); 73 (54%) had a score lower than 5 (of 10). Age older than 55, less than high school education, LEP, better function, and biologic use were independently associated with poor knowledge. Conclusions In a diverse RA cohort, overall methotrexate knowledge was poor. Older age and limited proficiency in English were significant correlates of poor knowledge. Identification of language barriers and improved clinician-patient communication around methotrexate dosing and side effects may lead to improved safety and enhanced benefits of this commonly used RA medication. PMID:24432366

Anatomical Substrates of Visual and Auditory Miniature Second-language Learning

PubMed Central

Newman-Norlund, Roger D.; Frey, Scott H.; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Grafton, Scott T.

2007-01-01

Longitudinal changes in brain activity during second language (L2) acquisition of a miniature finite-state grammar, named Wernickese, were identified with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants learned either a visual sign language form or an auditory-verbal form to equivalent proficiency levels. Brain activity during sentence comprehension while hearing/viewing stimuli was assessed at low, medium, and high levels of proficiency in three separate fMRI sessions. Activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca’s area) correlated positively with improving L2 proficiency, whereas activity in the right-hemisphere (RH) homologue was negatively correlated for both auditory and visual forms of the language. Activity in sequence learning areas including the premotor cortex and putamen also correlated with L2 proficiency. Modality-specific differences in the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal accompanying L2 acquisition were localized to the planum temporale (PT). Participants learning the auditory form exhibited decreasing reliance on bilateral PT sites across sessions. In the visual form, bilateral PT sites increased in activity between Session 1 and Session 2, then decreased in left PT activity from Session 2 to Session 3. Comparison of L2 laterality (as compared to L1 laterality) in auditory and visual groups failed to demonstrate greater RH lateralization for the visual versus auditory L2. These data establish a common role for Broca’s area in language acquisition irrespective of the perceptual form of the language and suggest that L2s are processed similar to first languages even when learned after the ‘‘critical period.’’ The right frontal cortex was not preferentially recruited by visual language after accounting for phonetic/structural complexity and performance. PMID:17129186

L2-L1 Translation Priming Effects in a Lexical Decision Task: Evidence From Low Proficient Korean-English Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Lee, Yoonhyoung; Jang, Euna; Choi, Wonil

2018-01-01

One of the key issues in bilingual lexical representation is whether L1 processing is facilitated by L2 words. In this study, we conducted two experiments using the masked priming paradigm to examine how L2-L1 translation priming effects emerge when unbalanced, low proficiency, Korean-English bilinguals performed a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, we used a 150 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 100 ms) and found a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect. In contrast, in Experiment 2, we used a 60 ms SOA (50 ms prime duration followed by a blank interval of 10 ms) and found a null effect of L2-L1 translation priming. This finding is the first demonstration of a significant L2-L1 translation priming effect with unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals. Implications of this work are discussed with regard to bilingual word recognition models. PMID:29599733

L1 and L2 Spoken Word Processing: Evidence from Divided Attention Paradigm.

PubMed

Shafiee Nahrkhalaji, Saeedeh; Lotfi, Ahmad Reza; Koosha, Mansour

2016-10-01

The present study aims to reveal some facts concerning first language (L 1 ) and second language (L 2 ) spoken-word processing in unbalanced proficient bilinguals using behavioral measures. The intention here is to examine the effects of auditory repetition word priming and semantic priming in first and second languages of these bilinguals. The other goal is to explore the effects of attention manipulation on implicit retrieval of perceptual and conceptual properties of spoken L 1 and L 2 words. In so doing, the participants performed auditory word priming and semantic priming as memory tests in their L 1 and L 2 . In a half of the trials of each experiment, they carried out the memory test while simultaneously performing a secondary task in visual modality. The results revealed that effects of auditory word priming and semantic priming were present when participants processed L 1 and L 2 words in full attention condition. Attention manipulation could reduce priming magnitude in both experiments in L 2 . Moreover, L 2 word retrieval increases the reaction times and reduces accuracy on the simultaneous secondary task to protect its own accuracy and speed.

Identifying differences in early literacy skills across subgroups of language-minority children: A latent profile analysis.

PubMed

Lonigan, Christopher J; Goodrich, J Marc; Farver, JoAnn M

2018-04-01

Despite acknowledgment that language-minority children come from a wide variety of home language backgrounds and have a wide range of proficiency in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages, it is unknown whether differences across language-minority children in relative and absolute levels of proficiency in L1 and L2 predict subsequent development of literacy-related skills. The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of language-minority children and evaluate whether differences in level and rate of growth of early literacy skills differed across subgroups. Five-hundred and twenty-six children completed measures of Spanish and English language and early literacy skills at the beginning, middle, and end of the preschool year. Latent growth models indicated that children's early literacy skills were increasing over the course of the preschool year. Latent profile analysis indicated that language-minority children could be classified into nine distinct groups, each with unique patterns of absolute and relative levels of proficiency in L1 and L2. Results of three-step mixture models indicated that profiles were closely associated with level of early literacy skills at the beginning of the preschool year. Initial level of early literacy skills was positively associated with growth in code-related skills (i.e., print knowledge, phonological awareness) and inversely associated with growth in language skills. These findings suggest that language-minority children are a diverse group with regard to their L1 and L2 proficiencies and that growth in early literacy skills is most associated with level of proficiency in the same language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Proficiency and Working Memory Based Explanations for Nonnative Speakers' Sensitivity to Agreement in Sentence Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coughlin, Caitlin E.; Tremblay, Annie

2013-01-01

This study examines the roles of proficiency and working memory (WM) capacity in second-/foreign-language (L2) learners' processing of agreement morphology. It investigates the processing of grammatical and ungrammatical short- and long-distance number agreement dependencies by native English speakers at two proficiencies in French, and the…

Rater Judgment and English Language Speaking Proficiency. Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chalhoub-Deville, Micheline; Wigglesworth, Gillian

2005-01-01

The paper investigates whether there is a shared perception of speaking proficiency among raters from different English speaking countries. More specifically, this study examines whether there is a significant difference among English language learning (ELL) teachers, residing in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA when rating speech samples of…

The Effects of Service Learning Participation in Foreign Language Classes on Students' Attitudes towards the Spanish Language and Culture and Their Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malkin, Fran

2010-01-01

This dissertation examines the effects of service learning experiences on participants' attitudes towards the Spanish language and culture and their language proficiency. It was hypothesized that using the Spanish language outside the confines of the academic environment would affect participants' attitudes and have an impact on their language…

The Development of Language and Reading Skills in the Second and Third Languages of Multilingual Children in French Immersion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berube, Daniel; Marinova-Todd, Stefka H.

2012-01-01

The relationship between first language (L1) typology, defined as the classification of languages according to their structural characteristics (e.g. phonological systems and writing systems), and the development of second (L2) and third (L3) language skills and literacy proficiency in multilingual children was investigated in this study. The…

The Role of the Native Language in the Use of the English Nongeneric Definite Article by L2 Learners: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrabaszcz, Anna; Jiang, Nan

2014-01-01

The study uses an elicited imitation (EI) task to examine the effect of the native language on the use of the English nongeneric definite article by highly proficient first-language (L1) Spanish and Russian speakers and to test the hierarchy of article difficulty first proposed by Liu and Gleason (2002). Our findings suggest that there is a clear…

Cross-Language Activation Begins during Speech Planning and Extends into Second Language Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, April; Fricke, Melinda; Kroll, Judith F.

2016-01-01

Three groups of native English speakers named words aloud in Spanish, their second language (L2). Intermediate proficiency learners in a classroom setting (Experiment 1) and in a domestic immersion program (Experiment 2) were compared to a group of highly proficient English-Spanish speakers. All three groups named cognate words more quickly and…

Language Proficiency in Native and Nonnative Speakers: An Agenda for Research and Suggestions for Second-Language Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hulstijn, Jan H.

2011-01-01

This article addresses the question of what language proficiency (LP) is, both theoretically and empirically. It does so by making a distinction, on one hand, between "basic" and "higher language cognition" and, on the other hand, between "core" and "peripheral components" of LP. The article furthermore critically examines the notion of "level" in…

Investigating Auditory Processing of Syntactic Gaps with L2 Speakers Using Pupillometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernandez, Leigh; Höhle, Barbara; Brock, Jon; Nickels, Lyndsey

2018-01-01

According to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH), second language (L2) speakers, unlike native speakers, build shallow syntactic representations during sentence processing. In order to test the SSH, this study investigated the processing of a syntactic movement in both native speakers of English and proficient late L2 speakers of English using…

Modeling Speaker Proficiency, Comprehensibility, and Perceived Competence in a Language Use Domain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidgall, Jonathan Edgar

2013-01-01

Research suggests that listener perceptions of a speaker's oral language use, or a speaker's "comprehensibility," may be influenced by a variety of speaker-, listener-, and context-related factors. Primary speaker factors include aspects of the speaker's proficiency in the target language such as pronunciation and…

Association between pediatric asthma care quality and morbidity and English language proficiency in Ohio.

PubMed

Montgomery, Martha P; Allen, Elizabeth D; Thomas, Olivia; Robinson, Byron F; Clark, Donnie; Connelly, Ann; Mott, Joshua A; Conrey, Elizabeth

2018-05-08

Limited English proficiency can be a barrier to asthma care and is associated with poor outcomes. This study examines whether pediatric patients in Ohio with limited English proficiency experience lower asthma care quality or higher morbidity. We used electronic health records for asthma patients aged 2-17 years from a regional, urban, children's hospital in Ohio during 2011-2015. Community-level demographics were included from U.S. Census data. By using chi-square and t-tests, patients with limited English proficiency and bilingual English-speaking patients were compared with English-only patients. Five asthma outcomes-two quality and three morbidity measures-were modeled using generalized estimating equations. The study included 15 352 (84%) English-only patients, 1744 (10%) patients with limited English proficiency, and 1147 (6%) bilingual patients. Pulmonary function testing (quality measure) and multiple exacerbation visits (morbidity measure) did not differ by language group. Compared with English-only patients, bilingual patients had higher odds of ever having an exacerbation visit (morbidity measure) (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-1.6) but lower odds of admission to intensive care (morbidity measure) (aOR, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.2-0.7), while patients with limited English proficiency did not differ on either factor. Recommended follow-up after exacerbation (quality measure) was higher for limited English proficiency (aOR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.4-2.3) and bilingual (aOR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3-2.1), compared with English-only patients. In this urban, pediatric population with reliable interpreter services, limited English proficiency was not associated with worse asthma care quality or morbidity.

Functional activity and white matter microstructure reveal the independent effects of age of acquisition and proficiency on second-language learning.

PubMed

Nichols, Emily S; Joanisse, Marc F

2016-12-01

Two key factors govern how bilingual speakers neurally maintain two languages: the speakers' second language age of acquisition (AoA) and their subsequent proficiency. However, the relative roles of these two factors have been difficult to disentangle given that the two can be closely correlated, and most prior studies have examined the two factors in isolation. Here, we combine functional magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion tensor imaging to identify specific brain areas that are independently modulated by AoA and proficiency in second language speakers. First-language Mandarin Chinese speakers who are second language speakers of English were scanned as they performed a picture-word matching task in either language. In the same session we also acquired diffusion-weighted scans to assess white matter microstructure, along with behavioural measures of language proficiency prior to entering the scanner. Results reveal gray- and white-matter networks involving both the left and right hemisphere that independently vary as a function of a second-language speaker's AoA and proficiency, focused on the superior temporal gyrus, middle and inferior frontal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, and the basal ganglia. These results indicate that proficiency and AoA explain separate functional and structural networks in the bilingual brain, which we interpret as suggesting distinct types of plasticity for age-dependent effects (i.e., AoA) versus experience and/or predisposition (i.e., proficiency). Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bilingual Literacy or Substantive Bilingualism? L1 and L2 Reading and Writing Performance among Grade 7 Learners in Three Township Schools Gauteng Province, South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manyike, T. V.

2013-01-01

Language diversity in South Africa continues to problematise educational provision and the realisation of equitable educational opportunities for all learners in various ways. This article presents the findings of ongoing research which explores the effect of language in education policy on the L1 and L2 proficiency of Grade 7 learners in township…

The Beneficial Role of L1 Spoken Language Skills on Initial L2 Sign Language Learning: Cognitive and Linguistic Predictors of M2L2 Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Joshua T.; Darcy, Isabelle; Newman, Sharlene D.

2017-01-01

Understanding how language modality (i.e., signed vs. spoken) affects second language outcomes in hearing adults is important both theoretically and pedagogically, as it can determine the specificity of second language (L2) theory and inform how best to teach a language that uses a new modality. The present study investigated which…

Multicompetence in L2 Language Play: A Longitudinal Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Nancy; Skalicky, Stephen; Salsbury, Tom

2014-01-01

Humor and language play have been recognized as important aspects of second language (L2) development. Qualitative studies that have documented the forms and functions of language play for adult and child L2 users have taken place largely in classroom settings. In order to gain a fuller understanding of such creative manipulations by L2 users, it…

First-Language Longitudinal Predictors of Second-Language Literacy in Young L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shum, Kathy Kar-man; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Siegel, Linda S.; Au, Terry Kit-fong

2016-01-01

Can young students' early reading abilities in their first language (L1) predict later literacy development in a second language (L2)? The cross-language relationships between Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among 87 Hong Kong students were explored in a longitudinal study. Chinese word-reading fluency, Chinese rapid digit naming, and Chinese rhyme…

The Effects of L2 Proficiency on Pragmatics Instruction: A Web-Based Approach to Teaching Chinese Expressions of Gratitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether the effects of pragmatics instruction delivered via a self-access website in a Chinese as a foreign language learning environment vary according to learners' language proficiency. The website provided learners with explicit instruction in how to express gratitude appropriately in Chinese and offered them pragmatic…

Investigating Correspondence between Language Proficiency Standards and Academic Content Standards: A Generalizability Theory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Chih-Kai; Zhang, Jinming

2014-01-01

Research on the relationship between English language proficiency standards and academic content standards serves to provide information about the extent to which English language learners (ELLs) are expected to encounter academic language use that facilitates their content learning, such as in mathematics and science. Standards-to-standards…

Ultimate Attainment of Anaphora Resolution in L2 Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Lucy Xia

2014-01-01

The current study tests the Interface Hypothesis through forward and backward anaphora in complex sentences with temporal subordinate clauses in highly proficient English-speaking learners' second-language (L2) Chinese. Forward anaphora is involved when the overt pronoun "ta" "he/she" or a null element appears in the subject…

Early neurophysiological indices of second language morphosyntax learning

PubMed Central

Hanna, Jeff; Shtyrov, Yury; Williams, John; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2016-01-01

Humans show variable degrees of success in acquiring a second language (L2). In many cases, morphological and syntactic knowledge remain deficient, although some learners succeed in reaching nativelike levels, even if they begin acquiring their L2 relatively late. In this study, we use psycholinguistic, online language proficiency tests and a neurophysiological index of syntactic processing, the syntactic mismatch negativity (sMMN) to local agreement violations, to compare behavioural and neurophysiological markers of grammar processing between native speakers (NS) of English and non-native speakers (NNS). Variable grammar proficiency was measured by psycholinguistic tests. When NS heard ungrammatical word sequences lacking agreement between subject and verb (e.g. *we kicks), the MMN was enhanced compared with syntactically legal sentences (e.g. he kicks). More proficient NNS also showed this difference, but less proficient NNS did not. The main cortical sources of the MMN responses were localised in bilateral superior temporal areas, where, crucially, source strength of grammar-related neuronal activity correlated significantly with grammatical proficiency of individual L2 speakers as revealed by the psycholinguistic tests. As our results show similar, early MMN indices to morpho-syntactic agreement violations among both native speakers and non-native speakers with high grammar proficiency, they appear consistent with the use of similar brain mechanisms for at least certain aspects of L1 and L2 grammars. PMID:26752451

Examining the Relationship between Math Scores and English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Denfield L.

2013-01-01

English language learners (ELLs) at a south Florida elementary school have consistently struggled with the mathematics segment of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Examining the relationship between ELLs' mathematics scores and English proficiency might provide local educators with ideas for reversing a downward trend in ELLs' mathematics…

Recurrent Word Combinations in EAP Test-Taker Writing: Differences between High- and Low-Proficiency Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Appel, Randy; Wood, David

2016-01-01

The correct use of frequently occurring word combinations represents an important part of language proficiency in spoken and written discourse. This study investigates the use of English-language recurrent word combinations in low-level and high-level L2 English academic essays sourced from the Canadian Academic English Language (CAEL) assessment.…

When the Second Language Takes the Lead: Neurocognitive Processing Changes in the First Language of Adult Attriters.

PubMed

Kasparian, Kristina; Steinhauer, Karsten

2017-01-01

Although research on multilingualism has revealed continued neuroplasticity for language-learning beyond what was previously expected, it remains controversial whether and to what extent a second language (L2) acquired in adulthood may induce changes in the neurocognitive processing of a first language (L1). First language (L1) attrition in adulthood offers new insight on neuroplasticity and the factors that modulate neurocognitive responses to language. To date, investigations of the neurocognitive correlates of L1 attrition and of factors influencing these mechanisms are still scarce. Moreover, most event-related-potential (ERP) studies of second language processing have focused on L1 influence on the L2, while cross-linguistic influence in the reverse direction has been underexplored. Using ERPs, we examined the real-time processing of Italian relative-clauses in 24 Italian-English adult migrants with predominant use of English since immigration and reporting attrition of their native-Italian (Attriters), compared to 30 non-attriting monolinguals in Italy (Controls). Our results showed that Attriters differed from Controls in their acceptability judgment ratings and ERP responses when relative clause constructions were ungrammatical in English, though grammatical in Italian. Controls' ERP responses to unpreferred sentence constructions were consistent with garden path effects typically observed in the literature for these complex sentences. In contrast, due to L2-English influence, Attriters were less sensitive to semantic cues than to word-order preferences, and processed permissible Italian sentences as outright morphosyntactic violations. Key factors modulating processing differences within Attriters were the degree of maintained L1 exposure, length of residence in the L2 environment and L2 proficiency - with higher levels of L2 immersion and proficiency associated with increased L2 influence on the L1. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that

When the Second Language Takes the Lead: Neurocognitive Processing Changes in the First Language of Adult Attriters

PubMed Central

Kasparian, Kristina; Steinhauer, Karsten

2017-01-01

Although research on multilingualism has revealed continued neuroplasticity for language-learning beyond what was previously expected, it remains controversial whether and to what extent a second language (L2) acquired in adulthood may induce changes in the neurocognitive processing of a first language (L1). First language (L1) attrition in adulthood offers new insight on neuroplasticity and the factors that modulate neurocognitive responses to language. To date, investigations of the neurocognitive correlates of L1 attrition and of factors influencing these mechanisms are still scarce. Moreover, most event-related-potential (ERP) studies of second language processing have focused on L1 influence on the L2, while cross-linguistic influence in the reverse direction has been underexplored. Using ERPs, we examined the real-time processing of Italian relative-clauses in 24 Italian-English adult migrants with predominant use of English since immigration and reporting attrition of their native-Italian (Attriters), compared to 30 non-attriting monolinguals in Italy (Controls). Our results showed that Attriters differed from Controls in their acceptability judgment ratings and ERP responses when relative clause constructions were ungrammatical in English, though grammatical in Italian. Controls’ ERP responses to unpreferred sentence constructions were consistent with garden path effects typically observed in the literature for these complex sentences. In contrast, due to L2-English influence, Attriters were less sensitive to semantic cues than to word-order preferences, and processed permissible Italian sentences as outright morphosyntactic violations. Key factors modulating processing differences within Attriters were the degree of maintained L1 exposure, length of residence in the L2 environment and L2 proficiency – with higher levels of L2 immersion and proficiency associated with increased L2 influence on the L1. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration

Second language proficiency modulates conflict-monitoring in an oculomotor Stroop task: evidence from Hindi-English bilinguals

PubMed Central

Singh, Niharika; Mishra, Ramesh K.

2013-01-01

Many studies have confirmed the presence of a bilingual advantage which is manifested as enhanced cognitive and attention control. However, very few studies have investigated the role of second language proficiency on the modulation of conflict-monitoring in bilinguals. We investigated this by comparing high and low proficient Hindi-English bilinguals on a modified saccadic arrow Stroop task under different monitoring conditions, and tested the predictions of the bilingual executive control advantage proposal. The task of the participants was to make an eye movement toward the color patch in the same color as the central arrow, ignoring the patch to which the arrow was pointing. High-proficient bilinguals had overall faster saccade latency on all types of trials as compared to the low proficient bilinguals. The overall saccadic latency for high proficiency bilinguals was similarly affected by the different types of monitoring conditions, whereas conflict resolution advantage was found only for high monitoring demanding condition. The results support a conflict-monitoring account in a novel oculomotor task and also suggest that language proficiency could modulate executive control in bilinguals. PMID:23781210

Developmental Patterns of Metadiscourse in Second Language Writing*

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kobayashi, Yuichiro

2017-01-01

The present study aimed to profile the developmental patterns of discourse in second language (L2) writings among different first language (L1) groups. Applying the list of metadiscourse markers proposed by Ken Hyland to learner language, this study investigates variation of metadiscourse across proficiency levels, as well as across L1…

More than Use it or Lose it: The Number of Speakers Effect on Heritage Language Proficiency

PubMed Central

Gollan, Tamar H.; Starr, Jennie; Ferreira, Victor S.

2014-01-01

Acquiring a Heritage Language (HL), a minority language spoken primarily at home, is often a major step toward achieving bilingualism. Two studies examined factors that promote HL proficiency. Chinese-English and Spanish-English undergraduates and Hebrew-English children named pictures in both their languages, and they or their parents completed language history questionnaires. HL picture-naming ability correlated positively with the number of different HL speakers participants spoke to as children, independent of each language’s frequency of use, and without negatively affecting English picture naming ability. HL performance increased also when primary caregivers had lower English proficiency, with later English age-of-acquisition, and (in children) with increased age. These results suggest a prescription for increasing bilingual proficiency is regular interaction with multiple HL speakers. Responsible cognitive mechanisms could include greater variety of words used by different speakers, representational robustness from exposure to variations in form, or multiple retrieval cues, perhaps analogous to contextual diversity effects. PMID:24942146

Cognitive Factors Contributing to Chinese EFL Learners' L2 Writing Performance in Timed Essay Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Yanbin

2010-01-01

This study investigated cognitive factors that might influence Chinese EFL learners' argumentative essay writing in English. The factors that were explored included English (L2) language proficiency, Chinese (L1) writing ability, genre knowledge, use of writing strategies, and working memory capacity in L1 and L2. Data were collected from 136…

Grammatical Gender in L2: A Production or a Real-Time Processing Problem?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gruter, Theres; Lew-Williams, Casey; Fernald, Anne

2012-01-01

Mastery of grammatical gender is difficult to achieve in a second language (L2). This study investigates whether persistent difficulty with grammatical gender often observed in the speech of otherwise highly proficient L2 learners is best characterized as a production-specific performance problem, or as difficulty with the retrieval of gender…

Beyond Host Language Proficiency: Coping Resources Predicting International Students' Satisfaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mak, Anita S.; Bodycott, Peter; Ramburuth, Prem

2015-01-01

As international students navigate in a foreign educational environment, having higher levels of coping or stress-resistance resources--both internal and external--could be related to increased satisfaction with personal and university life. The internal coping resources examined in this study were host language proficiency, self-esteem,…

The relationship between English language learning strategies and proficiency of pre-university students: A study case of UMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiram, Johannah Jamalul; Sulaiman, Jumat; Swanto, Suyansah; Din, Wardatul Akmam

2014-07-01

This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between language learning strategies and proficiency in English. Fifty-six pre-university students (22 males, 34 females) of University Malaysia Sabah participated in this study. Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) self-report questionnaire was adopted to identify the students' language learning strategies, whereas their proficiencies were judged based on their Malaysian University English Test (MUET) Results. Pearson's correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and the t-test were utilized to make statistical interpretation about the relationship. The knowledge obtained from this study will be helpful for future studies on how to improve the quality of learning and proficiency in English.

Relationships Between English Language Proficiency, Health Literacy, and Health Outcomes in Somali Refugees.

PubMed

Murphy, Jessica E; Smock, Laura; Hunter-Adams, Jo; Xuan, Ziming; Cochran, Jennifer; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K; Geltman, Paul L

2018-06-15

Little is known about the impacts of health literacy and English proficiency on the health status of Somali refugees. Data came from interviews in 2009-2011 of 411 adult Somali refugees recently resettled in Massachusetts. English proficiency, health literacy, and physical and mental health were measured using the Basic English Skills Test Plus, the Short Test of Health Literacy in Adults, and the Physical and Mental Component Summaries of the Short Form-12. Associations were analyzed using multiple linear regression. In adjusted analyses, higher English proficiency was associated with worse mental health in males. English proficiency was not associated with physical health. Health literacy was associated with neither physical nor mental health. Language proficiency may adversely affect the mental health of male Somali refugees, contrary to findings in other immigrant groups. Research on underlying mechanisms and opportunities to understand this relationship are needed.

Functional connectivity changes in second language vocabulary learning.

PubMed

Ghazi Saidi, Ladan; Perlbarg, Vincent; Marrelec, Guillaume; Pélégrini-Issac, Mélani; Benali, Habib; Ansaldo, Ana-Inés

2013-01-01

Functional connectivity changes in the language network (Price, 2010), and in a control network involved in second language (L2) processing (Abutalebi & Green, 2007) were examined in a group of Persian (L1) speakers learning French (L2) words. Measures of network integration that characterize the global integrative state of a network (Marrelec, Bellec et al., 2008) were gathered, in the shallow and consolidation phases of L2 vocabulary learning. Functional connectivity remained unchanged across learning phases for L1, whereas total, between- and within-network integration levels decreased as proficiency for L2 increased. The results of this study provide the first functional connectivity evidence regarding the dynamic role of the language processing and cognitive control networks in L2 learning (Abutalebi, Cappa, & Perani, 2005; Altarriba & Heredia, 2008; Leonard et al., 2011; Parker-Jones et al., 2011). Thus, increased proficiency results in a higher degree of automaticity and lower cognitive effort (Segalowitz & Hulstijn, 2005). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Science as a second language: Analysis of Emergent Bilinguals performance and the impact of English language proficiency and first language characteristics on the Colorado measures of academic success for science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bruno, Joanna K.

In an age when communication is highly important and states across the nation, including Colorado, have adopted Common Core State Standards, the need for academic language is even more important than ever. The language of science has been compared to a second language in that it uses specific discourse patterns, semantic rules, and a very specific vocabulary. There is a need for educators to better understand how language impacts academic achievement, specifically concerning Emergent Bilinguals (EBs). Research has identified the need to study the role language plays in content assessments and the impact they have on EBs performance (Abedi, 2008b; Abedi, Hofestter & Lord, 2004; Abedi & Lord, 2001). Since language is the means through which content knowledge is assessed, it is important to analyze this aspect of learning. A review of literature identified the need to create more reliable and valid content assessments for EBs (Abedi, 2008b) and to further study the impact of English proficiency on EBs performance on standardized assessments (Solorzano, 2008; Wolf, & Leon, 2009). This study contributes to the literature by analyzing EBs performance on a state-level science content assessment, taking into consideration English language proficiency, receptive versus productive elements of language, and students' home language. This study further contributes by discussing the relationship between language proficiency, and the different strands of science (physical, life, and earth) on the state science assessment. Finally, this study demonstrates that home language, English language proficiency, and receptive and productive elements of language are predictive of EBs' achievement on the CMAS for science, overall and by strand. It is the blending of the social (listening and speaking) with the academic (reading and writing) that is also important and possibly more important.

Teachers' Views on the Implementation of the English Language Proficiency Programme in Namibia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngololo, Elizabeth N.; Nekongo-Nielsen, Haaveshe

2017-01-01

The study explores teachers' views on the impact of the English Language Proficiency Programme in Namibian schools that was implemented over a period of five years, from 2011 to 2015. The program aimed at improving teachers' proficiency in English. The summative evaluation was conducted in 2016 in the following five (5) regions: Erongo, Hardap,…

Can a Horse Be a Donkey? Semantic and Form Interference Effects in Translation Recognition in Early and Late Proficient and Nonproficient Spanish-Catalan Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferre, Pilar; Sanchez-Casas, Rosa; Guasch, Marc

2006-01-01

The present study investigates the developmental aspect of the revised hierarchical model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994) concerning the access to the conceptual store from the second language (L2). We manipulated the level of proficiency and age of L2 acquisition. We tested Spanish-Catalan bilinguals (49 early proficient bilinguals, 28 late proficient…

Age and Proficiency in L2 Attrition: Data from Two Siblings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomiyama, Machiko

2009-01-01

This paper investigates whether any difference exists in the degree of second language attrition between two siblings in terms of grammatical complexity, grammatical accuracy, lexical complexity, and lexical productivity based on their storytelling data collected over the period of 31 months. The subjects' L1 and L2 are Japanese and English,…

Can Experience with Co-Speech Gesture Influence the Prosody of a Sign Language? Sign Language Prosodic Cues in Bimodal Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brentari, Diane; Nadolske, Marie A.; Wolford, George

2012-01-01

In this paper the prosodic structure of American Sign Language (ASL) narratives is analyzed in deaf native signers (L1-D), hearing native signers (L1-H), and highly proficient hearing second language signers (L2-H). The results of this study show that the prosodic patterns used by these groups are associated both with their ASL language experience…

Transactional Associations between Supportive Family Climate and Young Children's Heritage Language Proficiency in Immigrant Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Heejung; Tsai, Kim M.; Liu, Lisa L.; Lau, Anna S.

2012-01-01

Heritage language (HL) proficiency confers developmental benefits; however, the onset of HL loss is observed among many young children from immigrant families. In this longitudinal study, transactional associations between children's HL proficiency and supportive family climate were examined in Chinese immigrant families with pre-school-aged…

Working Memory-Learning Condition Interactions Proficiency in L2 Russian under Naturalistic and Formal Learning Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canner, Marc T.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationships between working memory (WM) and three commonly used learning strategies or conditions in the nature of proficiency among adult L2 Russian learners. Based on the aptitude-learning condition interaction framework articulated by Robinson (2002b), the study identifies two types of…

Examining the Effects of Gender and Second Language Proficiency on Hispanic Writers' Persuasive Discourse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bermudez, Andrea B.; Prater, Doris L.

1994-01-01

Examines the use of persuasive responses by Hispanic second-language writers and categorizes these responses by level of language proficiency and gender. Findings indicate that students exit English-as-a-Second-Language classes without having achieved a higher level of expertise in the use of persuasive discourse and that females elaborate more…

The Impact of Consecutive Interpreting Training on the L2 Listening Competence Enhancement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Tongtong; Wu, Zhiwei

2017-01-01

In recent years, a growing number of people have taken up interpreting training, with the intention of not only developing interpreting skills, but improving language proficiency as well. The present study sets out to investigate the impact of English-Chinese consecutive interpreting (CI) training on the enhancement of the second language (L2,…

English Language Proficiency and Employability Framework for Australian Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arkoudis, Sophie; Baik, Chi; Bexley, Emmaline; Doughney, Lachlan

2014-01-01

This report presents the "English Language Proficiency" (ELP) and Employability Framework", which has been designed to inform and support higher education institutions' (HEIs) policies and practices on ELP and graduate employability. The "Framework" was developed through a review of the national and international…

Relationship of L1 Skills and L2 Aptitude to L2 Anxiety on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Patton, Jon

2013-01-01

The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) has been challenged on the grounds that it may also assess language learning skills. In this study, 128 students who had been administered measures of first language (L1) skills in elementary school were followed from 1st to 10th grade. Fifty-three students had completed second language (L2)…

The Roles of Relative Linguistic Proficiency and Modality Switching in Language Switch Cost: Evidence from Chinese Visual Unimodal and Bimodal Bilinguals.

PubMed

Lu, Aitao; Wang, Lu; Guo, Yuyang; Zeng, Jiahong; Zheng, Dongping; Wang, Xiaolu; Shao, Yulan; Wang, Ruiming

2017-09-01

The current study investigated the mechanism of language switching in unbalanced visual unimodal bilinguals as well as balanced and unbalanced bimodal bilinguals during a picture naming task. All three groups exhibited significant switch costs across two languages, with symmetrical switch cost in balanced bimodal bilinguals and asymmetrical switch cost in unbalanced unimodal bilinguals and bimodal bilinguals. Moreover, the relative proficiency of the two languages but not their absolute proficiency had an effect on language switch cost. For the bimodal bilinguals the language switch cost also arose from modality switching. These findings suggest that the language switch cost might originate from multiple sources from both outside (e.g., modality switching) and inside (e.g., the relative proficiency of the two languages) the linguistic lexicon.

An Examination of Reliability and Validity Claims of a Foreign Language Proficiency Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mircea-Pines, Walter J.

2009-01-01

This dissertation study examined the reliability and validity claims of a modified version of the Spanish Modern Language Association Foreign Language Proficiency Test for Teachers and Advanced Students administered at George Mason University (GMU). The study used the 1999 computerized GMU version that was administered to 277 test-takers via…

Portraits of the L2 User. Second Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Vivian, Ed.

This collection of papers treats second language users in their own right rather than as failed native speakers, reflecting a new shift within the field of second language acquisition research. The 13 papers are: (1) "Background to the L2 User" (Vivian Cook); (2) "Lexical Representation and Lexical Processing in the L2 User"…

Nonnativeness in Near-Native Child L2 Starters of Japanese: Age and the Acquisition of Relative Clauses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nishikawa, Tomomi

2014-01-01

Many age-related second language (L2) studies have confirmed that young children have a better chance to become nativelike in L2 acquisition than adults. The current study investigated whether age effects exist in the L2 acquisition of Japanese and whether nativelike proficiency is guaranteed for early child L2 starters after constant target…

Investigating Transfer of Academic Proficiency among Trilingual Immigrant Students: A Holistic Tri-Directional Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haim, Orly

2015-01-01

The study addresses the degree of transfer of literacy dimensions of academic proficiency (AP), that is, reading comprehension and writing, across three languages--Russian (L1), Hebrew (L2), and English (L3)--and investigates whether a common conceptual source underlies the linguistic and cognitive operations of the trilingual learner (Grosjean,…

Effects of Synonym Generation on Incidental and Intentional L2 Vocabulary Learning during Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barcroft, Joe

2009-01-01

This study examined effects of synonym generation on second language (L2) vocabulary learning during reading in both incidental and intentional vocabulary learning contexts. Spanish-speaking adult learners of L2 English (N = 114) at low- and high-intermediate proficiency levels read an English passage containing 10 target words translated in the…

The Emergence of a Phoneme-Sized Unit in L2 Speech Production: Evidence from Japanese–English Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Nakayama, Mariko; Kinoshita, Sachiko; Verdonschot, Rinus G.

2016-01-01

Recent research has revealed that the way phonology is constructed during word production differs across languages. Dutch and English native speakers are suggested to incrementally insert phonemes into a metrical frame, whereas Mandarin Chinese speakers use syllables and Japanese speakers use a unit called the mora (often a CV cluster such as “ka” or “ki”). The present study is concerned with the question how bilinguals construct phonology in their L2 when the phonological unit size differs from the unit in their L1. Japanese–English bilinguals of varying proficiency read aloud English words preceded by masked primes that overlapped in just the onset (e.g., bark-BENCH) or the onset plus vowel corresponding to the mora-sized unit (e.g., bell-BENCH). Low-proficient Japanese–English bilinguals showed CV priming but did not show onset priming, indicating that they use their L1 phonological unit when reading L2 English words. In contrast, high-proficient Japanese–English bilinguals showed significant onset priming. The size of the onset priming effect was correlated with the length of time spent in English-speaking countries, which suggests that extensive exposure to L2 phonology may play a key role in the emergence of a language-specific phonological unit in L2 word production. PMID:26941669

Early neurophysiological indices of second language morphosyntax learning.

PubMed

Hanna, Jeff; Shtyrov, Yury; Williams, John; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2016-02-01

Humans show variable degrees of success in acquiring a second language (L2). In many cases, morphological and syntactic knowledge remain deficient, although some learners succeed in reaching nativelike levels, even if they begin acquiring their L2 relatively late. In this study, we use psycholinguistic, online language proficiency tests and a neurophysiological index of syntactic processing, the syntactic mismatch negativity (sMMN) to local agreement violations, to compare behavioural and neurophysiological markers of grammar processing between native speakers (NS) of English and non-native speakers (NNS). Variable grammar proficiency was measured by psycholinguistic tests. When NS heard ungrammatical word sequences lacking agreement between subject and verb (e.g. *we kicks), the MMN was enhanced compared with syntactically legal sentences (e.g. he kicks). More proficient NNS also showed this difference, but less proficient NNS did not. The main cortical sources of the MMN responses were localised in bilateral superior temporal areas, where, crucially, source strength of grammar-related neuronal activity correlated significantly with grammatical proficiency of individual L2 speakers as revealed by the psycholinguistic tests. As our results show similar, early MMN indices to morpho-syntactic agreement violations among both native speakers and non-native speakers with high grammar proficiency, they appear consistent with the use of similar brain mechanisms for at least certain aspects of L1 and L2 grammars. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Within- and Cross-Language Relations between Oral Language Proficiency and School Outcomes in Bilingual Children with an Immigrant Background

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prevoo, Mariëlle J. L.; Malda, Maike; Mesman, Judi; van IJzendoorn, Marinus H.

2016-01-01

Sixteen meta-analyses were conducted to examine relations of typically developing bilingual immigrant-background children's oral language proficiency in their first and second language with the school outcomes of early literacy (k = 41), reading (k = 61), spelling (k = 9), mathematics (k = 9), and academic achievement (k = 9). Moderate to strong…

Implementing ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements in the Versant Aviation English Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Moere, Alistair; Suzuki, Masanori; Downey, Ryan; Cheng, Jian

2009-01-01

This paper discusses the development of an assessment to satisfy the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Language Proficiency Requirements. The Versant Aviation English Test utilizes speech recognition technology and a computerized testing platform, such that test administration and scoring are fully automated. Developed in…

Deaf College Students' Mathematical Skills Relative to Morphological Knowledge, Reading Level, and Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Ronald R.; Gaustad, Martha G.

2007-01-01

This study of deaf college students examined specific relationships between their mathematics performance and their assessed skills in reading, language, and English morphology. Simple regression analyses showed that deaf college students' language proficiency scores, reading grade level, and morphological knowledge regarding word segmentation and…

Two-Way Immersion Students' Home Languages, Proficiency Levels, and Responses to Form-Focused Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tedick, Diane J.; Young, Amy I.

2018-01-01

Two-way immersion (TWI) programs in the U.S. integrate learners with different home languages and varied proficiencies in Spanish and English. Although both English home language (EHL) and Spanish home language (SHL) TWI students succeed academically in English, they often experience incomplete acquisition (Montrul 2011. "Morphological Errors…

Interpretation and Use of K-12 Language Proficiency Assessment Score Reports: Perspectives of Educators and Parents. WCER Working Paper No. 2016-8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Ahyoung Alicia; Kondo, Akira; Blair, Alissa; Mancilla, Lorena; Chapman, Mark; Wilmes, Carsten

2016-01-01

A number of English language proficiency exams target grades K-12 English language learners (ELLs) because of the rising need to identify their needs and provide appropriate support in language learning. A good example is the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs (hereafter ACCESS), designed to measure the English language proficiency of students identified as…

Discriminating languages in bilingual contexts: the impact of orthographic markedness

PubMed Central

Casaponsa, Aina; Carreiras, Manuel; Duñabeitia, Jon A.

2014-01-01

Does language-specific orthography help language detection and lexical access in naturalistic bilingual contexts? This study investigates how L2 orthotactic properties influence bilingual language detection in bilingual societies and the extent to which it modulates lexical access and single word processing. Language specificity of naturalistically learnt L2 words was manipulated by including bigram combinations that could be either L2 language-specific or common in the two languages known by bilinguals. A group of balanced bilinguals and a group of highly proficient but unbalanced bilinguals who grew up in a bilingual society were tested, together with a group of monolinguals (for control purposes). All the participants completed a speeded language detection task and a progressive demasking task. Results showed that the use of the information of orthotactic rules across languages depends on the task demands at hand, and on participants' proficiency in the second language. The influence of language orthotactic rules during language detection, lexical access and word identification are discussed according to the most prominent models of bilingual word recognition. PMID:24860536

Orthographic Consistency and Individual Learner Differences in Second Language Literacy Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Sun-A; Packard, Jerome; Christianson, Kiel; Anderson, Richard C.; Shin, Jeong-Ah

2016-01-01

This study investigated whether orthographic consistency and individual learner differences including working memory (WM), first language (L1) background, and second language (L2) proficiency affect Chinese L2 learners' literacy acquisition. Seventy American college students in beginning or intermediate Chinese classes participated in a character…

What Is the Criterion of Interest in Identifying Limited-English Speaking Students: Language Dominance or Proficiency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Estes, Gary D.; Estes, Carole

The issue of using language proficiency or language dominance to assess programs for high school students with limited English speaking backgrounds is addressed. The development and initial analyses of the Competency Based Oral Language Assessment (COLA) are discussed. Three components of oral language are rated separately: semantics; syntax and…

A study of the effects of English language proficiency and scientific reasoning skills on the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners and native English language-speaking students participating in grade 10 science classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torres, Hector Neftali, Sr.

2000-11-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of English language proficiency and levels of scientific reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. The researcher studied a group of high school Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students participating in Grade 10 science classes. The language proficiency of the students was to be measured through the use of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) instrument. A Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning developed by Lawson (1978) was administered in either English or Spanish to the group of Hispanic English language learners and in English to the group of native English language-speaking students in order to determine their levels of scientific reasoning skills. The students' acquisition of science content knowledge was measured through the use of statewide-standardized science test developed by the State's Department of Education. This study suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence the acquisition of science content knowledge of Hispanic English language learners in the study. The results of the study also suggest that with regards to scientific reasoning skills, students that showed high levels or reflective reasoning skills for the most part performed better on the statewide-standardized science test than students with intuitive or transitional reasoning skills. This assertion was supported by the studies conducted by Lawson and his colleagues, which showed that high levels of reasoning or reflective reasoning skills are prerequisite for most high school science courses. The findings in this study imply that high order English language proficiency combined with high levels of reasoning skills enhances students' abilities to learn science content subject matter. This

The Development and Validation of a Spanish Elicited Imitation Test of Oral Language Proficiency for the Missionary Training Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Carrie A.

2013-01-01

The Missionary Training Center (MTC), affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, needs a reliable and cost effective way to measure the oral language proficiency of missionaries learning Spanish. The MTC needed to measure incoming missionaries' Spanish language proficiency for training and classroom assignment as well as to…

Initial Spanish Proficiency and English Language Development among Spanish-Speaking English Learner Students in New Mexico. REL 2018-286

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arellano, Brenda; Liu, Feng; Stoker, Ginger; Slama, Rachel

2018-01-01

To what extent do Spanish-speaking English learner students develop English proficiency and grade-level readiness in English language arts and math from early elementary school to upper elementary school? Is there a relationship between proficiency in a student's primary home language, Spanish, and the amount of time needed to attain fluency in…

Exploring Blended Learning in a Postsecondary Spanish Language Program: Observations, Perceptions, and Proficiency Ratings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romeo, Kenneth; Bernhardt, Elizabeth B.; Miano, Alice; Leffell, Cici Malik

2017-01-01

Despite the foreign language community's historical interest in employing technology to support language learning, few research studies have linked its use to instructional outcomes and most have failed to address whether technology enhancements lead to increased proficiency gains. This article examines the relationship between technology use and…

Achieving Academic Control in Two Languages: Drawing on the Psychology of Language Learning in Considering the Past, the Present, and Prospects for the Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Andrew D.

2015-01-01

This paper first considers what it means to become truly proficient in a language other than the native one. It then looks briefly at the evolution of dual language programs. Next, it focuses on the issue of whether the first language (L1) or the second language (L2) serves as the language of mediation. Other dual language program issues are then…

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study

PubMed Central

Chen, Baoguo; Ma, Tengfei; Liang, Lijuan; Liu, Huanhuan

2017-01-01

Previous studies have found quantity of exposure, i.e., frequency of exposure (Horst et al., 1998; Webb, 2008; Pellicer-Sánchez and Schmitt, 2010), is important for second language (L2) contextual word learning. Besides this factor, context constraint and L2 proficiency level have also been found to affect contextual word learning (Pulido, 2003; Tekmen and Daloglu, 2006; Elgort et al., 2015; Ma et al., 2015). In the present study, we adopted the event-related potential (ERP) technique and chose high constraint sentences as reading materials to further explore the effects of quantity of exposure and proficiency on L2 contextual word learning. Participants were Chinese learners of English with different English proficiency levels. For each novel word, there were four high constraint sentences with the critical word at the end of the sentence. Learners read sentences and made semantic relatedness judgment afterwards, with ERPs recorded. Results showed that in the high constraint condition where each pseudoword was embedded in four sentences with consistent meaning, N400 amplitude upon this pseudoword decreased significantly as learners read the first two sentences. High proficiency learners responded faster in the semantic relatedness judgment task. These results suggest that in high quality sentence contexts, L2 learners could rapidly acquire word meaning without multiple exposures, and L2 proficiency facilitated this learning process. PMID:29375420

Rapid L2 Word Learning through High Constraint Sentence Context: An Event-Related Potential Study.

PubMed

Chen, Baoguo; Ma, Tengfei; Liang, Lijuan; Liu, Huanhuan

2017-01-01

Previous studies have found quantity of exposure, i.e., frequency of exposure (Horst et al., 1998; Webb, 2008; Pellicer-Sánchez and Schmitt, 2010), is important for second language (L2) contextual word learning. Besides this factor, context constraint and L2 proficiency level have also been found to affect contextual word learning (Pulido, 2003; Tekmen and Daloglu, 2006; Elgort et al., 2015; Ma et al., 2015). In the present study, we adopted the event-related potential (ERP) technique and chose high constraint sentences as reading materials to further explore the effects of quantity of exposure and proficiency on L2 contextual word learning. Participants were Chinese learners of English with different English proficiency levels. For each novel word, there were four high constraint sentences with the critical word at the end of the sentence. Learners read sentences and made semantic relatedness judgment afterwards, with ERPs recorded. Results showed that in the high constraint condition where each pseudoword was embedded in four sentences with consistent meaning, N400 amplitude upon this pseudoword decreased significantly as learners read the first two sentences. High proficiency learners responded faster in the semantic relatedness judgment task. These results suggest that in high quality sentence contexts, L2 learners could rapidly acquire word meaning without multiple exposures, and L2 proficiency facilitated this learning process.

Evaluation of Bilingual Secondary Education in the Netherlands: Students' Language Proficiency in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Admiraal, Wilfried; Westhoff, Gerard; de Bot, Kees

2006-01-01

In this longitudinal study, we examined the effects of the use of English as the language of instruction in the first 4 years of secondary education in The Netherlands on the students' language proficiency in English and Dutch, and achievement in subject matters taught through English. Compared to a control group in regular secondary education,…

The Proximate Phonological Unit of Chinese-English Bilinguals: Proficiency Matters

PubMed Central

Verdonschot, Rinus Gerardus; Nakayama, Mariko; Zhang, Qingfang; Tamaoka, Katsuo; Schiller, Niels Olaf

2013-01-01

An essential step to create phonology according to the language production model by Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer is to assemble phonemes into a metrical frame. However, recently, it has been proposed that different languages may rely on different grain sizes of phonological units to construct phonology. For instance, it has been proposed that, instead of phonemes, Mandarin Chinese uses syllables and Japanese uses moras to fill the metrical frame. In this study, we used a masked priming-naming task to investigate how bilinguals assemble their phonology for each language when the two languages differ in grain size. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant masked onset priming effect in English (L2), and a significant masked syllabic priming effect in Mandarin Chinese (L1). These results suggest that their proximate unit is phonemic in L2 (English), and that bilinguals may use different phonological units depending on the language that is being processed. Additionally, under some conditions, a significant sub-syllabic priming effect was observed even in Mandarin Chinese, which indicates that L2 phonology exerts influences on L1 target processing as a consequence of having a good command of English. PMID:23646107

L2 Reading Perceptions of Learners of Japanese: The Influence of the Reading Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabata-Sandom, Mitsue

2015-01-01

The nature of learning to read in a second and foreign language (L2) can be more challenging when compared to learning other subjects. Therefore, the influence of instruction given in L2 classrooms cannot be underestimated. A balanced instruction needs to be taken in order to develop learners' reading proficiency and their motivation to read. This…

The Effects of English Language Proficiency on Adjustment to University Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrade, Maureen Snow

2009-01-01

Higher education institutions in the United States recognize the economic and educational benefits of international students. Although non-native English speakers (NNES) submit evidence of English language proficiency for admission purposes, many struggle with the demands of English. This study draws on qualitative and quantitative data to provide…

How Is No Child Left Behind Affecting Proficient and Advanced Students on the California STAR Test in English Language Arts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Susan

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether students who enter high school in ninth grade and score proficient or advanced on their CST in English Language Arts remain proficient or advanced 2 years later in 11th grade. The effects of NCLB will be considered as a contributing factor to the difference in student scores. This study was…

Word Order Processing in a Second Language: From VO to OV

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erdocia, Kepa; Zawiszewski, Adam; Laka, Itziar

2014-01-01

Event-related potential studies on second language processing reveal that L1/L2 differences are due either to proficiency, age of acquisition or grammatical differences between L1 and L2 (Kotz in "Brain Lang" 109(2-3):68-74, 2009). However, the relative impact of these and other factors in second language processing is still not well…

How Involved Are American L2 Learners of Spanish in Lexical Input Processing Tasks during Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pulido, Diana

2009-01-01

This study examines the nature of the involvement load (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) in second language (L2) lexical input processing through reading by considering the effects of the reader-based factors of L2 reading proficiency and background knowledge. The lexical input processing aspects investigated were lexical inferencing (search), attentional…

Talking to Score: Impression Management in L2 Oral Assessment and the Co-Construction of a Test Discourse Genre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luk, Jasmine

2010-01-01

In recent years, the emphasis in second language (L2) oral proficiency assessment has shifted from linguistic accuracy to discourse strategies such as the ability to initiate, respond, and negotiate meaning. This has resulted in a growing interest in the discourse analysis of students' performance in different oral proficiency assessment formats.…

Qualitative Differences between Bilingual Language Control and Executive Control: Evidence from Task-Switching

PubMed Central

Calabria, Marco; Hernández, Mireia; Branzi, Francesca M.; Costa, Albert

2012-01-01

Previous research has shown that highly proficient bilinguals have comparable switch costs in both directions when they switch between languages (L1 and L2), the so-called “symmetrical switch cost” effect. Interestingly, the same symmetry is also present when they switch between L1 and a much weaker L3. These findings suggest that highly proficient bilinguals develop a language control system that seems to be insensitive to language proficiency. In the present study, we explore whether the pattern of symmetrical switch costs in language switching tasks generalizes to a non-linguistic switching task in the same group of highly proficient bilinguals. The end goal of this is to assess whether bilingual language control (bLC) can be considered as subsidiary to domain-general executive control (EC). We tested highly proficient Catalan–Spanish bilinguals both in a linguistic switching task and in a non-linguistic switching task. In the linguistic task, participants named pictures in L1 and L2 (Experiment 1) or L3 (Experiment 2) depending on a cue presented with the picture (a flag). In the non-linguistic task, the same participants had to switch between two card sorting rule-sets (color and shape). Overall, participants showed symmetrical switch costs in the linguistic switching task, but not in the non-linguistic switching task. In a further analysis, we observed that in the linguistic switching task the asymmetry of the switch costs changed across blocks, while in the non-linguistic switching task an asymmetrical switch cost was observed throughout the task. The observation of different patterns of switch costs in the linguistic and the non-linguistic switching tasks suggest that the bLC system is not completely subsidiary to the domain-general EC system. PMID:22275905

Language balance and switching ability in children acquiring English as a second language.

PubMed

Goriot, Claire; Broersma, Mirjam; McQueen, James M; Unsworth, Sharon; van Hout, Roeland

2018-09-01

This study investigated whether relative lexical proficiency in Dutch and English in child second language (L2) learners is related to executive functioning. Participants were Dutch primary school pupils of three different age groups (4-5, 8-9, and 11-12 years) who either were enrolled in an early-English schooling program or were age-matched controls not on that early-English program. Participants performed tasks that measured switching, inhibition, and working memory. Early-English program pupils had greater knowledge of English vocabulary and more balanced Dutch-English lexicons. In both groups, lexical balance, a ratio measure obtained by dividing vocabulary scores in English by those in Dutch, was related to switching but not to inhibition or working memory performance. These results show that for children who are learning an L2 in an instructional setting, and for whom managing two languages is not yet an automatized process, language balance may be more important than L2 proficiency in influencing the relation between childhood bilingualism and switching abilities. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated Scoring of L2 Spoken English with Random Forests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kobayashi, Yuichiro; Abe, Mariko

2016-01-01

The purpose of the present study is to assess second language (L2) spoken English using automated scoring techniques. Automated scoring aims to classify a large set of learners' oral performance data into a small number of discrete oral proficiency levels. In automated scoring, objectively measurable features such as the frequencies of lexical and…

Attitudes and Attained English Language Proficiency of University Students in Thailand: A Sociolinguistic Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boykin, Arsene; Trungamphai, Arunthadee

English proficiency of Thai university students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) was studied in relation to attitudinal scores on social, economic, travel, or prestige scales. Secondarily, the subjects' attitudes toward their native group and toward the target language group, and their motives for learning English were studied in…

Oral Proficiency Standards and Foreign Language Teacher Candidates: Current Findings and Future Research Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glisan, Eileen W.; Swender, Elvira; Surface, Eric A.

2013-01-01

The renewed national focus on teacher quality and effectiveness has resulted in more rigorous standards that describe the knowledge and skills required of teacher candidates across all disciplines. In the area of foreign languages, three sets of professional standards address the oral proficiency of teachers in the target languages they teach…

The impact of language co-activation on L1 and L2 speech fluency.

PubMed

Bergmann, Christopher; Sprenger, Simone A; Schmid, Monika S

2015-10-01

Fluent speech depends on the availability of well-established linguistic knowledge and routines for speech planning and articulation. A lack of speech fluency in late second-language (L2) learners may point to a deficiency of these representations, due to incomplete acquisition. Experiments on bilingual language processing have shown, however, that there are strong reasons to believe that multilingual speakers experience co-activation of the languages they speak. We have studied to what degree language co-activation affects fluency in the speech of bilinguals, comparing a monolingual German control group with two bilingual groups: 1) first-language (L1) attriters, who have fully acquired German before emigrating to an L2 English environment, and 2) immersed L2 learners of German (L1: English). We have analysed the temporal fluency and the incidence of disfluency markers (pauses, repetitions and self-corrections) in spontaneous film retellings. Our findings show that learners to speak more slowly than controls and attriters. Also, on each count, the speech of at least one of the bilingual groups contains more disfluency markers than the retellings of the control group. Generally speaking, both bilingual groups-learners and attriters-are equally (dis)fluent and significantly more disfluent than the monolingual speakers. Given that the L1 attriters are unaffected by incomplete acquisition, we interpret these findings as evidence for language competition during speech production. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Facework among L2 Speakers: A Close Look at Intercultural Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jwa, Soomin

2017-01-01

Although significant attention has been devoted to the notion of facework and its functions, facework among L2 speakers, whose cultural backgrounds and language proficiencies vary, has remained unexplored. The present study attempts to explore situations of intercultural communication in which facework is used as a way to remedy moments of…

Cross-Linguistic Influence in Third Language Perception: L2 and L3 Perception of Japanese Contrasts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onishi, Hiromi

2013-01-01

This dissertation examines the possible influence of language learners' second language (L2) on their perception of phonological contrasts in their third language (L3). Previous studies on Third Language Acquisition (TLA) suggest various factors as possible sources of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of an L3. This dissertation…

Word order processing in a second language: from VO to OV.

PubMed

Erdocia, Kepa; Zawiszewski, Adam; Laka, Itziar

2014-12-01

Event-related potential studies on second language processing reveal that L1/L2 differences are due either to proficiency, age of acquisition or grammatical differences between L1 and L2 (Kotz in Brain Lang 109(2-3):68-74, 2009). However, the relative impact of these and other factors in second language processing is still not well understood. Here we present evidence from behavioral and ERP experiments on Basque sentence word order processing by L1Spanish-L2Basque early bilinguals (Age of Aquisition [Formula: see text] 3 years) with very high proficiency in their L2. Results reveal that these L2 speakers have a preference towards canonical Subject-Object-Verb word order, which they processed faster and with greater ease than non-canonical Object-Subject-Verb. This result converges with the processing preferences shown by natives and reported in Erdocia et al. (Brain Lang 109(1):1-17, 2009). However, electrophysiological measures associated to canonical (SOV) and non-canonical (OSV) sentences revealed a different pattern in the non-natives, as compared to that reported previously for natives. The non-native group elicited a P600 component that native group did not show when comparing S and O at sentence's second position. This pattern of results suggests that, despite high proficiency, non-native language processing recruits neural resources that are different from those employed in native languages.

Second Language Pre-Service Teachers as Learners: The Language Portfolio Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christiansen, Helen; Laplante, Bernard

2004-01-01

This article reports on a study of pre-service French immersion teachers who were required to compile second language (L2) portfolios as part of their professional development. Documents included a brief biography of the students' lives as speakers and learners of French; an action plan in which students assessed their L2 proficiency and set…

The Complex Relationship between Bilingual Home Language Input and Kindergarten Children's Spanish and English Oral Proficiencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cha, Kijoo; Goldenberg, Claude

2015-01-01

This study examined how emergent bilingual children's English and Spanish proficiencies moderated the relationships between Spanish and English input at home (bilingual home language input [BHLI]) and children's oral language skills in each language. The sample comprised over 1,400 Spanish-dominant kindergartners in California and Texas. BHLI was…

Measuring Oral Proficiency in Distance, Face-to-Face, and Blended Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blake, Robert; Wilson, Nicole L.; Cetto, Maria; Pardo-Ballester, Cristina

2008-01-01

Although the foreign-language profession routinely stresses the importance of technology for the curriculum, many teachers still harbor deep-seated doubts as to whether or not a hybrid course, much less a completely distance-learning class, could provide L2 learners with a way to reach linguistic proficiency, especially with respect to oral…

Factors Affecting Grammatical and Lexical Complexity of Long-Term L2 Speakers' Oral Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lahmann, Cornelia; Steinkrauss, Rasmus; Schmid, Monika S.

2016-01-01

There remains considerable disagreement about which factors drive second language (L2) ultimate attainment. Age of onset (AO) appears to be a robust factor, lending support to theories of maturational constraints on L2 acquisition. The present study is an investigation of factors that influence grammatical and lexical complexity at the stage of L2…

Effects of Sound, Vocabulary, and Grammar Learning Aptitude on Adult Second Language Speech Attainment in Foreign Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saito, Kazuya

2017-01-01

This study examines the relationship between different types of language learning aptitude (measured via the LLAMA test) and adult second language (L2) learners' attainment in speech production in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. Picture descriptions elicited from 50 Japanese EFL learners from varied proficiency levels were analyzed…

Heritage Language Proficiency in Relation to Attitudes, Motivation, and Age at Immigration: A Case of Korean-Australians

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jee, Min Jung

2018-01-01

This study investigated Korean heritage speakers' Korean language proficiency (i.e. morphosyntax, collocation, and lexicon) in relation to their attitudes, motivation, and age at immigration (AI). Seventy-six adult Korean-Australians with Korean literacy participated. Overall, participants showed high levels of Korean proficiency in all three…

Captioned Instructional Video: Effects on Content Comprehension, Vocabulary Acquisition and Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BavaHarji, Madhubala; Alavi, Zhinoos Kamal; Letchumanan, Krishnaveni

2014-01-01

This experimental design study examined the effects of viewing captioned instructional videos on EFL learners' content comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and language proficiency. It also examined the participants' perception of viewing the captioned instructional videos. The 92 EFL students in two classes, who were undertaking the "Tape…

Limited english proficiency, primary language at home, and disparities in children's health care: how language barriers are measured matters.

PubMed

Flores, Glenn; Abreu, Milagros; Tomany-Korman, Sandra C

2005-01-01

Approximately 3.5 million U.S. schoolchildren are limited in English proficiency (LEP). Disparities in children's health and health care are associated with both LEP and speaking a language other than English at home, but prior research has not examined which of these two measures of language barriers is most useful in examining health care disparities. Our objectives were to compare primary language spoken at home vs. parental LEP and their associations with health status, access to care, and use of health services in children. We surveyed parents at urban community sites in Boston, asking 74 questions on children's health status, access to health care, and use of health services. Some 98% of the 1,100 participating children and families were of non-white race/ethnicity, 72% of parents were LEP, and 13 different primary languages were spoken at home. "Dose-response" relationships were observed between parental English proficiency and several child and parental sociodemographic features, including children's insurance coverage, parental educational attainment, citizenship and employment, and family income. Similar "dose-response" relationships were noted between the primary language spoken at home and many but not all of the same sociodemographic features. In multivariate analyses, LEP parents were associated with triple the odds of a child having fair/poor health status, double the odds of the child spending at least one day in bed for illness in the past year, and significantly greater odds of children not being brought in for needed medical care for six of nine access barriers to care. None of these findings were observed in analyses of the primary language spoken at home. Individual parental LEP categories were associated with different risks of adverse health status and outcomes. Parental LEP is superior to the primary language spoken at home as a measure of the impact of language barriers on children's health and health care. Individual parental LEP

Visualizing First and Second Language Interactions in Science Reading: A Knowledge Structure Network Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Kyung

2017-01-01

The present study considers the potential influence of first language (L1) in reading second language (L2) science text. University mixed proficiency Korean English language learners (n = 136) were asked to complete pre- and post-reading "sorting maps" in L1 or L2 (e.g., sort Korean, read text, sort English). All of the participants'…

The Relationships among Heritage Language Proficiency, Ethnic Identity, and Self-Esteem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Shu-Chun

2015-01-01

With the trend toward globalization and the continual change of the ethnic composition of the U.S. population, there is increasing awareness in the U.S. that not every child is raised in an English-only family. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationships among heritage language proficiency, ethnic identity, and self-esteem in the…

"Review of English Language Proficiency Tests," J. Alderson, K. Krahnke & C. Stanfield, Eds. Book Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mills, Nancy; Ovando, Carlos, Ed.

1988-01-01

Reviews a volume of descriptive and evaluative information on 47 commercially available English language proficiency tests used in North America, Great Britain, and Australia. The book includes discussions of uses and misuses of tests, and overviews of English as second language testing in North America and Great Britain. (SV)

Testing the Limits of Proficiency: The ACTFL OPI and FL Departments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grosse, Christine Uber; And Others

A study investigated: (1) the average language proficiency level as determined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) attained by 271 college seniors majoring in 6 languages (Spanish, French, Russian, German, Japanese, Italian); (2) current and projected uses of the ACTFL OPI by…

Are Alphabetic Language-Derived Models of L2 Reading Relevant to L1 Logographic Background Readers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ehrich, John Fitzgerald; Zhang, Lawrence Jun; Mu, Jon Congjun; Ehrich, Lisa Catherine

2013-01-01

In this paper, we argue that second language (L2) reading research, which has been informed by studies involving first language (L1) alphabetic English reading, may be less relevant to L2 readers with non-alphabetic reading backgrounds, such as Chinese readers with an L1 logographic (Chinese character) learning history. We provide both…

Investigating the Interactions among Genre, Task Complexity, and Proficiency in L2 Writing: A Comprehensive Text Analysis and Study of Learner Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Hyung-Jo

2017-01-01

In this study, I explored the interactions among genre, task complexity, and L2 proficiency in learners' writing task performance. Specifically, after identifying the lack of valid operationalizations of genre and task dimensions in L2 writing research, I examined how genre functions as a task complexity variable, and how learners' perceptions and…

Knowledge Structure Measures of Reader's Situation Models across Languages: Translation Engenders Richer Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Kyung; Clariana, Roy B.

2015-01-01

In order to further validate and extend the application of recent knowledge structure (KS) measures to second language settings, this investigation explores how second language (L2, English) situation models are influenced by first language (L1, Korean) translation tasks. Fifty Korean low proficient English language learners were asked to read an…

The Relationship between First Language (L1) and Second Language (L2) Lexical Development in Young Turkish-German Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinker, Tanja; Budde-Spengler, Nora; Sachse, Steffi

2017-01-01

Lexical development in first language (L1) Turkish and second language (L2) German in two- to three-year-old children was examined, using parental vocabulary checklists in Turkish and in German. Children showed strong Turkish dominance in the number of lexical items they produced, which was due to the more frequent exposure to Turkish and higher…

The Relations among L1 (Spanish) Literacy Skills, L2 (English) Language, L2 Text Reading Fluency, and L2 Reading Comprehension for Spanish-Speaking ELL First Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk

2012-01-01

We investigated the relations of L2 (i.e., English) oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, word reading automaticity, oral language skills, and L1 literacy skills (i.e., Spanish) to L2 reading comprehension for Spanish-speaking English language learners in the first grade (N = 150). An analysis was conducted for the entire sample as well as…

Negotiating Multiple Audiences of L2 Learners on Facebook: Navigating Parallel Realities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafie, Latisha Asmaak; Yaacob, Aizan; Singh, Paramjit Kaur A/P Karpal

2016-01-01

As social network sites have become popular with university students, it is easier to understand how students employ social network sites seamlessly in their academic and personal lives. L2 learners often employ Facebook to improve their English language proficiency by communicating with their native and non-native English speakers. Facebook is…

Instructional Practices That Promote Reading Proficiency for English Language Learners in Grades 3 and 5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smiley-Blanton, Regina

2010-01-01

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that all public school students, including English language learners, achieve proficiency in reading, math, and science by 2014 as measured on state assessments. English language learners enrolled in public schools for the first time receive a 1-year deferment from these state assessments in subjects…

Strategy Use, Listening Problems, and Motivation of High- and Low-Proficiency Chinese Listeners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, Kit-Ling

2017-01-01

Building on previous listening strategy research, the author aimed to explore the differences between Chinese high-proficiency listeners (HLs) and low-proficiency listeners (LLs) on their strategy use, problems, and motivation in native language (L1) listening. It involved 1,290 Grade 7 and 1,515 Grade 9 students. Both quantitative and qualitative…

The Effects of Direct Written Corrective Feedback on Improvement of Grammatical Accuracy of High-Proficient L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrokhi, Farahman; Sattarpour, Simin

2012-01-01

The present article reports the findings of a study that explored(1) whether direct written corrective feedback (CF) can help high-proficient L2 learners, who has already achieved a rather high level of accuracy in English, improve in the accurate use of two functions of English articles (the use of "a" for first mention and…

Military and Civilian L2 Instructors: Decoding Perceptions of U.S. Service Academy Cadets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Zachary F.

2016-01-01

This study examined whether cadets at a U.S. service academy perceived attitudinal differences toward their military and civilian L2 instructors along three variables: foreign language expertise, communicative anxiety, and relatability. Cadets' proficiency levels (divided by beginning and intermediate classes) and current instructor (civilian or…

The Interpretability Hypothesis: Evidence from Wh-Interrogatives in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria; Dimitrakopoulou, Maria

2007-01-01

The second language acquisition (SLA) literature reports numerous studies of proficient second language (L2) speakers who diverge significantly from native speakers despite the evidence offered by the L2 input. Recent SLA theories have attempted to account for native speaker/non-native speaker (NS/NNS) divergence by arguing for the dissociation…

Spoken Language Activation Alters Subsequent Sign Language Activation in L2 Learners of American Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Joshua T.; Newman, Sharlene D.

2017-01-01

A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel…

Increasing Language Awareness and Self-Efficacy of FL Students Using Self-Assessment and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kissling, Elizabeth M.; O'Donnell, Mary E.

2015-01-01

This study describes how oral language was assessed in an advanced-level college foreign language (FL) conversation course. Learners used the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines to guide self-analyses of their oral production at intervals throughout the course. The intent was to provide opportunities for…

Education in the World System: The Demand for Language and International Proficiencies in Economic Development and National Security.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoegl, Juergen K.

1986-01-01

Discusses the role of second-language proficiency from international, national, and state perspectives, including consideration of the need for such proficiency in science, technology, and research for economic development. Trends indicate that a more internationalized curricula in higher education and a greater demand for second-language…

Oral Language Proficiency Testing at the Foreign Service Institute. An Update--1983.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Gary D.; And Others

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has been engaged in oral language proficiency testing theory and practice for more than 20 years. The FSI test has been consistent during this time in format, evaluation criteria, performance standards, and level definitions. Current concerns about the degree of standardization of the format and the strength of…

Online and Face-to-Face Language Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Oral Proficiency in Introductory Spanish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moneypenny, Dianne Burke; Aldrich, Rosalie S.

2016-01-01

The primary resistance to online foreign language teaching often involves questions of spoken mastery of second language. In order to address this concern, this research comparatively assesses undergraduate students' oral proficiency in online and face-to-face Spanish classes, while taking into account students' previous second language…

A School's Activity System of Supporting Upper-Elementary Newcomers' English Language Proficiency Growth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowdrick, Kara E.

2018-01-01

Using the sociocultural theoretical framework of activity theory, this intrinsic case study sought to investigate how administrators, mainstream teachers, and English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) teachers in one school support newcomers' English language proficiency growth. Newcomers are English learners (ELs) who moved to the United…

Classroom Assistants for Foreign Language Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Brien, Trudy

2017-01-01

This paper describes how Applied Linguistics (AL) seminar students that are proficient in languages other than English intern as classroom assistants (CAs) in foreign language classrooms. The CAs gain useful insights from the seminar on theoretical and pedagogical approaches, methods and techniques in L2 pedagogy and then apply this knowledge…

Metanotes (Written Languaging) in a Translation Task: Do L2 Proficiency and Task Outcome Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishikawa, Masako

2015-01-01

Languaging has been identified as a contributor to language learning. Yet, compared to oral languaging, such as collaborative dialogs in contextualized settings, little seems to be known about written languaging. In order to fill this gap, this study investigates languaging in the form of "metanotes," that is, metatalk in a written…

Connecting Language to Content: Second Language Literature Instruction at the Intermediate Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoecherl-Alden, Gisela

2006-01-01

Meaningfully integrating multidimensional approaches with learner-centered, workshop-style second language (L2) literature instruction at intermediate-level proficiency can help students increase their linguistic competence and further both their cultural understanding and analytical thinking skills. Moreover, the utilization of drama techniques…

The influence of English proficiency on access to care.

PubMed

Shi, Leiyu; Lebrun, Lydie A; Tsai, Jenna

2009-12-01

The number of individuals with limited English proficiency in the USA is large and rapidly growing. Consequently, addressing language barriers in access to medical care is becoming increasingly important. Previous studies have reported that individuals with limited English proficiency have more difficulty gaining access to care, compared to English-proficient individuals. We assessed the impact of English language proficiency on access to medical care, accounting for health and socioeconomic status, using nationally representative data. Cross-sectional data from the 2006 National Health Interview Survey (n=29,868). The main outcome measures of interest were self-reported delayed medical care, forgone needed care, and visits to a health care professional. In unadjusted analyses, individuals with limited English proficiency were more likely to forgo needed medical care and less likely to have a health care visit, compared to individuals who were proficient in English. There was no significant association between language proficiency and reports of delayed care. After accounting for individuals' health and socioeconomic status, only the relationship between limited English proficiency and health care visits remained statistically significant. Most associations between language proficiency and access to care did not differ across various racial/ethnic groups. Results indicate that the choice of access measure may influence conclusions about language barriers in health care. Given the growing proportion of US residents with limited English proficiency, health care settings need to better address potential language barriers.

Inhibition Efficiency in Highly Proficient Bilinguals and Simultaneous Interpreters: Evidence from Language Switching and Stroop Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aparicio, Xavier; Heidlmayr, Karin; Isel, Frédéric

2017-01-01

The present behavioral study aimed to examine the impact of language control expertise on two domain-general control processes, i.e. active inhibition of competing representations and overcoming of inhibition. We compared how Simultaneous Interpreters (SI) and Highly Proficient Bilinguals--two groups assumed to differ in language control…

Negative Transfer Effects on L2 Word Order Processing

PubMed Central

Erdocia, Kepa; Laka, Itziar

2018-01-01

Does first language (L1) word order affect the processing of non-canonical but grammatical syntactic structures in second language (L2) comprehension? In the present study, we test whether L1-Spanish speakers of L2-Basque process subject–verb–object (SVO) and object–verb–subject (OVS) non-canonical word order sentences of Basque in the same way as Basque native speakers. Crucially, while OVS orders are non-canonical in both Spanish and Basque, SVO is non-canonical in Basque but is the canonical word order in Spanish. Our electrophysiological results showed that the characteristics of L1 affect the processing of the L2 even at highly proficient and early-acquired bilingual populations. Specifically, in the non-native group, we observed a left anterior negativity-like component when comparing S and O at sentence initial position and a P600 when comparing those elements at sentence final position. Those results are similar of those reported by Casado et al. (2005) for native speakers of Spanish indicating that L2-Basque speakers rely in their L1-Spanish when processing SVO–OVS word order sentences. Our results favored the competition model (MacWhinney, 1997). PMID:29593626

Negative Transfer Effects on L2 Word Order Processing.

PubMed

Erdocia, Kepa; Laka, Itziar

2018-01-01

Does first language (L1) word order affect the processing of non-canonical but grammatical syntactic structures in second language (L2) comprehension? In the present study, we test whether L1-Spanish speakers of L2-Basque process subject-verb-object (SVO) and object-verb-subject (OVS) non-canonical word order sentences of Basque in the same way as Basque native speakers. Crucially, while OVS orders are non-canonical in both Spanish and Basque, SVO is non-canonical in Basque but is the canonical word order in Spanish. Our electrophysiological results showed that the characteristics of L1 affect the processing of the L2 even at highly proficient and early-acquired bilingual populations. Specifically, in the non-native group, we observed a left anterior negativity-like component when comparing S and O at sentence initial position and a P600 when comparing those elements at sentence final position. Those results are similar of those reported by Casado et al. (2005) for native speakers of Spanish indicating that L2-Basque speakers rely in their L1-Spanish when processing SVO-OVS word order sentences. Our results favored the competition model (MacWhinney, 1997).

Language Effects in Trilinguals: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Aparicio, Xavier; Midgley, Katherine J.; Holcomb, Phillip J.; Pu, He; Lavaur, Jean-Marc; Grainger, Jonathan

2012-01-01

Event-related potentials were recorded during the visual presentation of words in the three languages of French-English-Spanish trilinguals. Participants monitored a mixed list of unrelated non-cognate words in the three languages while performing a semantic categorization task. Words in L1 generated earlier N400 peak amplitudes than both L2 and L3 words, which peaked together. On the other hand, L2 and L3 words did differ significantly in terms of N400 amplitude, with L3 words generating greater mean amplitudes compared with L2 words. We interpret the effects of peak N400 latency as reflecting the special status of the L1 relative to later acquired languages, rather than proficiency in that language per se. On the other hand, the mean amplitude difference between L2 and L3 is thought to reflect different levels of fluency in these two languages. PMID:23133428

Setting Language Proficiency Score Requirements for English-as-a-Second-Language Placement Decisions in Secondary Education. Research Report. ETS RR-16-17

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baron, Patricia A.; Papageorgiou, Spiros

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to collect recommendations for minimum score requirements (cut scores) on the "TOEFL Junior"® English language proficiency test in order to guide decisions on the placement of learners into English as a second language (ESL) support classes. The TOEFL Junior test, intended primarily for students ages 11 and…

How Will Alberta's Second Language Students Ever Achieve Proficiency? ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the CEFR and the "10,000-Hour Rule" in Relation to the Alberta K-12 Language-Learning Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Sarah Elaine

2012-01-01

Students of second and international languages in Alberta do not receive sufficient hours of instruction through formal classroom time alone to achieve distinguished levels of proficiency (Archibald, J., Roy, S., Harmel, S., Jesney, K., Dewey, E., Moisik, S., et al., 2006). This research study uses a constructivist approach (Guba & Lincoln,…

Specific aspects of cognitive and language proficiency account for variability in neural indices of semantic and syntactic processing in children.

PubMed

Hampton Wray, Amanda; Weber-Fox, Christine

2013-07-01

The neural activity mediating language processing in young children is characterized by large individual variability that is likely related in part to individual strengths and weakness across various cognitive abilities. The current study addresses the following question: How does proficiency in specific cognitive and language functions impact neural indices mediating language processing in children? Thirty typically developing seven- and eight-year-olds were divided into high-normal and low-normal proficiency groups based on performance on nonverbal IQ, auditory word recall, and grammatical morphology tests. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were elicited by semantic anomalies and phrase structure violations in naturally spoken sentences. The proficiency for each of the specific cognitive and language tasks uniquely contributed to specific aspects (e.g., timing and/or resource allocation) of neural indices underlying semantic (N400) and syntactic (P600) processing. These results suggest that distinct aptitudes within broader domains of cognition and language, even within the normal range, influence the neural signatures of semantic and syntactic processing. Furthermore, the current findings have important implications for the design and interpretation of developmental studies of ERPs indexing language processing, and they highlight the need to take into account cognitive abilities both within and outside the classic language domain. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bilingual Word Recognition in Deaf and Hearing Signers: Effects of Proficiency and Language Dominance on Cross-Language Activation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morford, Jill P.; Kroll, Judith F.; Piñar, Pilar; Wilkinson, Erin

2014-01-01

Recent evidence demonstrates that American Sign Language (ASL) signs are active during print word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are highly proficient in both ASL and English. In the present study, we investigate whether signs are active during print word recognition in two groups of unbalanced bilinguals: deaf ASL-dominant and hearing…

Workpapers in Teaching English as a Second Language. Vol. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Povey, John, Ed.

This is the tenth annual issue of the UCLA TESL (teaching English as a second language) workpapers. It includes the following papers: (1) "An Attempt to Model the Role of Cognitions in Language Learning," by R.L. Allwright; (2) "A Comparison of Language Proficiency Tests," by J. Donald Bowen; (3) "Language Study Through…

The Development of L2 Oral Language Skills in Two L1 Groups: A 7-Year Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derwing, Tracey M.; Munro, Murray J.

2013-01-01

Researching the longitudinal development of second language (L2) learners is essential to understanding influences on their success. This 7-year study of oral skills in adult immigrant learners of English as a second language evaluated comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in first-language (L1) Mandarin and Slavic language speakers. The…

Assessing the Accuracy and Consistency of Language Proficiency Classification under Competing Measurement Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Bo

2010-01-01

This article investigates how measurement models and statistical procedures can be applied to estimate the accuracy of proficiency classification in language testing. The paper starts with a concise introduction of four measurement models: the classical test theory (CTT) model, the dichotomous item response theory (IRT) model, the testlet response…

Second Language Acquisition of Gender Agreement in Explicit and Implicit Training Conditions: An Event-Related Potential Study

PubMed Central

Morgan-Short, Kara; Sanz, Cristina; Steinhauer, Karsten; Ullman, Michael T.

2011-01-01

This study employed an artificial language learning paradigm together with a combined behavioral/event-related potential (ERP) approach to examine the neurocognition of the processing of gender agreement, an aspect of inflectional morphology that is problematic in adult second language (L2) learning. Subjects learned to speak and comprehend an artificial language under either explicit (classroomlike) or implicit (immersionlike) training conditions. In each group, both noun-article and noun-adjective gender agreement processing were examined behaviorally and with ERPs at both low and higher levels of proficiency. Results showed that the two groups learned the language to similar levels of proficiency but showed somewhat different ERP patterns. At low proficiency, both types of agreement violations (adjective, article) yielded N400s, but only for the group with implicit training. Additionally, noun-adjective agreement elicited a late N400 in the explicit group at low proficiency. At higher levels of proficiency, noun-adjective agreement violations elicited N400s for both the explicit and implicit groups, whereas noun-article agreement violations elicited P600s for both groups. The results suggest that interactions among linguistic structure, proficiency level, and type of training need to be considered when examining the development of aspects of inflectional morphology in L2 acquisition. PMID:21359123

Multilingual Proficiency in Fiji Primary Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shameem, Nikhat

2002-01-01

Determined language proficiency among multilingual Indo-Fijian primary school children who have the languages, Fiji-Hindi, Standard Hindi, Urdu, English, Fijian, and Fijian English in their speech repertoire. Identifies the variables that affect multilingual proficiency in this group and determines whether classroom practice reflects educational…

How L2 Legal Writers Use Strategies for Scholarly Writing: A Mixed Methods Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bain Butler, Donna

2010-01-01

This dissertation research fills existing gaps regarding the practices and processes of teaching second language (L2) writers at higher ranges of proficiency in law school context. It is a mixed methods, longitudinal, descriptive, writer-centered study. The research purpose was to explore strategic competence as a catalyst for professional…

The Impact of Patient Language Proficiency and Interpreter Service Use on the Quality of Psychiatric Care: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Bauer, Amy M.; Alegría, Margarita

2010-01-01

Objective To determine the effects of limited English proficiency and use of interpreters on the quality of psychiatric care. Methods A systematic literature search for English-language publications was conducted in PubMed, PsycInfo, and CINAHL and by review of the reference lists of included articles and expert sources. Of 321 citations, 26 peer-reviewed articles met inclusion criteria by reporting primary data on the clinical care for psychiatric disorders among patients with limited proficiency in English or in the providers’ language. Results Little systematic research has addressed the impact of language proficiency or interpreter use on the quality of psychiatric care in contemporary US settings. Therefore, the literature to date is insufficient to inform evidence-based guidelines for improving quality of care among patients with limited English proficiency. Nonetheless, evaluation in a patient’s non-primary language can lead to incomplete or distorted mental status assessment whereas assessments conducted via untrained interpreters may contain interpreting errors. Consequences of interpreter errors include clinicians’ failure to identify disordered thought or delusional content. Use of professional interpreters may improve disclosure and attenuate some difficulties. Diagnostic agreement, collaborative treatment planning, and referral for specialty care may be compromised. Conclusions Clinicians should become aware of the types of quality problems that may occur when evaluating patients in a non-primary language or via an interpreter. Given demographic trends in the US, future research should aim to address the deficit in the evidence base to guide clinical practice and policy. PMID:20675834

Supporting the Language Development of Limited English Proficient Students through Arts Integration in the Primary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brouillette, Liane

2012-01-01

This article looks at how arts integration can boost the language development of limited English proficient students in kindergarten through second grade. I first review existing research on how young children learn and describe the special challenges faced by children who must learn in an unfamiliar language. I then identify arts-based mechanisms…

Large-Scale Assessment of Language Proficiency: Theoretical and Pedagogical Reflections on the Use of Multiple-Choice Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Argüelles Álvarez, Irina

2013-01-01

The new requirement placed on students in tertiary settings in Spain to demonstrate a B1 or a B2 proficiency level of English, in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL), has led most Spanish universities to develop a program of certification or accreditation of the required level. The first part of this…

Conceptualizing Accessibility for English Language Proficiency Assessments. Research Report. ETS RR-16-07

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guzman-Orth, Danielle; Laitusis, Cara; Thurlow, Martha; Christensen, Laurene

2016-01-01

This paper is the second in a series from Educational Testing Service (ETS) that conceptualizes next-generation English language proficiency (ELP) assessment systems for K-12 English learners (ELs) in the United States.The first paper articulated a high-level conceptualization of next-generation ELP assessment systems (Hauck, Wolf, & Mislevy,…

Use of veterinary services by Latino dog and cat owners with various degrees of English-language proficiency.

PubMed

Landau, Ruth E; Beck, Alan; Glickman, Larry T; Litster, Annette; Widmar, Nicole J Olynk; Moore, George E

2016-03-15

To characterize patterns of dog and cat ownership and veterinary service use among Latino dog and cat owners with various degrees of English-language proficiency. DESIGN :Cross-sectional telephone survey. Data from 393 Latino pet owners. Telephone surveys were conducted with Latino dog and cat owners from a random sample of US households to determine the number of dogs and cats owned, factors associated with veterinary service use, and satisfaction with veterinary care. 393 of 1,026 (38.3%) respondents were pet owners. Two hundred fifty-nine of 330 (78.5%) dog owners and 70 of 115 (60.9%) cat owners reported taking their pet to the veterinarian in the past 12 months, most commonly for vaccination or examination or because of illness. Respondents were most satisfied with veterinary care provided, least satisfied with cost, and moderately satisfied with quality of communication. English-language proficiency was not significantly associated with whether owners sought veterinary care. A large proportion of respondents who wanted to receive pet health information in Spanish described themselves as speaking English well or very well. Although having limited proficiency in English was not associated with Latino pet owners seeking veterinary care, opportunities exist for veterinary personnel to improve communications with these clients. Personnel can assess their clients' language needs by asking each about the language in which they would prefer to receive their pet's health information.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Reasons Underlying Arab Student-Teachers' Inadequate English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Issa, Ali S. M.; Al-Bulushi, Ali Hussain; Al-Zadjali, Rima Mansoor

2017-01-01

Despite the emphasis laid on demonstrating English language proficiency by Non-Native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs), research has shown that for various reasons English language teachers graduating from a state-owned university in an Arab country for the past 25 years or so have been found lacking communication skills due to reasons pertinent…

Lexical Noun Phrases in Texts Written by Deaf Children and Adults with Different Proficiency Levels in Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Beijsterveldt, Liesbeth Maria; van Hell, Janet

2010-01-01

We report an analysis of lexical noun phrases (NPs) in narrative and expository texts written by Dutch deaf individuals from a bimodal bilingual perspective. Texts written by Dutch deaf children and adults who are either proficient in Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) or low-proficient in SLN were compared on structures that either overlap in…

Age, Marital Status and Time in U.S. as Correlates to English Language Proficiency of Male Arab University Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Addou, Ibrahim Hassan; Hodinko, Bernard A.

A study examined the difficulties that 400 male Arab students, attending five universities in the District of Columbia, experienced with academic English while seeking college degrees. A survey investigated problems with nine aspects of English language proficiency: (1) expressing ideas correctly, (2) understanding lectures, (3) taking class…

United States Special Operations Command’s Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus at ILR 1/1+: Initial Review and Recommended Changes to Improve Results and Lower Cost

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

to be useful for proficiency development, and with the limited research available, Doughty found that instructed language learners moved further...absolute speaking proficiency in languages taught at the Foreign Service Institute. Arlington, VA: Author. SOFLO Support Project USSOCOM’s Foreign...on language and linguistics 1999: Language in our time: Bilingual education and official English , ebonics and standard English , immigration and the Unz

The Relationship between Language Learning Strategies, Proficiency, Age and Self-Efficacy Beliefs: A Study of Language Learners in Botswana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magogwe, Joel Mokuedi; Oliver, Rhonda

2007-01-01

This research seeks to extend our current knowledge by exploring the relationship between preferred language strategies, age, proficiency, and self-efficacy beliefs. Responding to the call for more replication of strategy research and for research in different cultural contexts, this research was undertaken in Botswana between 2002 and 2005. The…

Executive and Phonological Processes in Second-Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engel de Abreu, Pascale M. J.; Gathercole, Susan E.

2012-01-01

This article reports a latent variable study exploring the specific links among executive processes of working memory, phonological short-term memory, phonological awareness, and proficiency in first (L1), second (L2), and third (L3) languages in 8- to 9-year-olds experiencing multilingual education. Children completed multiple L1-measures of…

Correlating Aptitude with Oral Proficiency: A Quantitative Study of DLAB and OPI Scores across Four Language Categories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santizo, Isabelle Poupard

2017-01-01

This quantitative study focuses on the relationship between foreign language learners' aptitude and proficiency test scores. Four groups of 136 beginning students received six months of Initial Acquisition Training (IAT) in four different language categories, according to the level of complexity for an English speaker: French (Category I),…

Learning Strategies in Alleviating English Writing Anxiety for English Language Learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Chia-Pei; Lin, Huey-Ju

2016-01-01

This study utilized the Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and an English writing anxiety scale to examine the relationship between learning strategies and English writing anxiety in 102 university-level English language learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in a university in Taiwan. Kruskal Wallis Test…

The Effect of Number and Presentation Order of High-Constraint Sentences on Second Language Word Learning.