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The present study investigated the potential of writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) for language learning by manipulating cognitive task complexity based on related models and hypotheses. English essays written by 59 Chinese postgraduate EFL students from different subject areas were analysed with reference to writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Results showed that task complexity had no significant effect on EFL learners' lexical complexity but had an influence on their syntactic variation in EFL writing. Findings suggest that manipulating writing task complexity could be a feasible means to promoting and enhancing EFL learners' language learning. Such findings might broaden our understanding of the relationship between EFL writing and language learning in an EFL learning context. The interplay of EFL writing and EFL learning is also pedagogically relevant to those who are interested in appropriately sequencing tasks for more effective language teaching.

Background: Dialogic reading (DR) is an effective shared reading technique based on the prompts-evaluate-expand-repeat (PEER) sequence, which fosters children's language development. This study examines the effects of its elements by comparing shared reading with prompts with minimal feedback (PMF) and PEER. Methods: This study included 364 typically developing Chinese kindergarteners and used a randomised control trial design. The children and their parents were divided into three groups, namely, the PMF, PEER and control groups. The children were pre- and post-tested on their language skills and reading interest measures before and after the intervention. Results: Results showed that after a 12-week intervention, the children in the PMF group outperformed those in the control group in terms of receptive vocabulary, character reading and listening comprehension. Meanwhile, the children in the PEER group outperformed those in the PMF and control groups not only in terms of the above measures but also in their expressive vocabulary and reading interest. Conclusions: These results highlight the contribution of parents' questions and the additional benefits of their systematically corrective feedback on kindergarten children's language and reading interest development. This study supports the literature on cognitive engagement theory related to young children's individual language and reading interest development through interactive parent-child DR activities.

The goal of this study was to examine the relation of morphological skills with reading fluency in 2nd grade Greek-speaking children and if phonological awareness and vocabulary mediate their relation. The sample consisted of 105 2nd grade Greek-speaking students (46 males; Mage = 7.83 years, SD = 3.31). Morphological awareness was assessed with four tasks, examining inflectional and derivational morphology both at an epilinguistic and metalinguistic level. Reading fluency was assessed with oral and silent measures. Results of path analyses indicated that inflectional and derivational morphology contributed to reading fluency through multiple pathways, controlling for the effect of Rapid Automatized Naming. Phonological awareness fully mediated the relation of inflectional and derivational morphology with text reading fluency. Vocabulary partially mediated the relation of inflectional and derivational morphology with silent reading fluency. Furthermore, derivational morphology directly affected silent reading fluency. Overall, the relation of morphological awareness with reading fluency appeared to be dynamic and varied depending on the morphological awareness skill and measure of reading fluency. Regarding the mediating role of phonological awareness and vocabulary, the results showed that children in lower elementary grades in a transparent orthography with a rich morphological system used morphological skills as activators to existing phonological and semantic skills in supporting reading fluency processes.

This study addressed the critical gap in research on the academic English vocabulary knowledge of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students at the college level, with a specific focus on academic English verbs. An English vocabulary test was developed to assess knowledge of academic verbs at three distinct corpus-defined lexical frequency ranges. The test was administered to the DHH students along with two comparison groups of college peers--students of English as an Additional Language (EAL) and hearing native-English-speaking students. Results revealed near-ceiling performance by hearing native speakers but significant vocabulary challenges in the DHH and EAL learner groups, who exhibited parallel lexical knowledge. Learner group performance increased as verb frequency range increased and as overall English proficiency level increased. The findings demonstrate that lexical frequency effects guide English verb acquisition in the targeted populations.

Based on a sociocultural theory and a plethora of experiential studies on the efficacy of scaffolding on foreign language learning, the goal of this research article is to examine the effectiveness of diverse types of scaffolding on university students' lexical digesting and reading perception from a sociocultural standpoint. Using the Harvard Placement Test, 40 EFL students from a total of 70 were selected and divided into two experimental groups and a single control group. The first group (G1 Exp.) was given teaching with instructor scaffolding, the second group (G2 Exp.) received instruction with peer scaffolding, and the control group (G3 Cont.) received conventional instruction without any external enhancement. Pretests for lexical digesting and reading perception were administered to the three groups. Following the treatment, post-tests for lexical digesting and reading perception were administered. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to examine the collected data. The results showed a significant difference between instructor and peer scaffolding, with the peer scaffolding group outperforming the instructor scaffolding group. Both experimental groups outperformed the control group in lexical digesting and reading perception. Regarding various kinds of scaffolding, this study provided some advice for psycholinguists, curriculum designers, and language instructors.

This study investigated what features undergraduate EFL learners perceive as affecting the difficulty of model paragraphs. Four hundred and seventy-five Vietnamese undergraduates participated in a partial least squares structural equation model design. They ranked five paragraphs from easiest to most difficult and responded to a 10-point Likert questionnaire regarding 11 features (titles, paragraph length, vocabulary, vocabulary in context, rhetorical organization, paragraph structure, sentence length, punctuation, signal words, interest, background knowledge). The results showed that eight variables (titles, vocabulary, vocabulary in context, sentence length, rhetorical organization, paragraph structure, interest, background knowledge) had a significant direct effect and four variables (vocabulary, sentence length, rhetorical organization, background knowledge) had mediating effects. The model accounted for 0.508 R[superscript 2] of students' perceptions, with a moderate to high predictive relevance (Q[superscript 2] = 0.35). The paper also discusses the results' implications for those in writing studies and the publishing industry. Suggestions for future study are also presented.

Understanding cognitive effort expended during assessments is essential to improving efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility within these assessments. Pupil dilation is commonly used as a psychophysiological measure of cognitive effort, yet research on its relationship with effort expended specifically during language processing is limited. The present study adds to and expands on this literature by investigating the relationships among pupil dilation, trial difficulty, and accuracy during a vocabulary test. Participants (n = 63, M[subscript age] = 19.25) completed a subset of trials from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test while seated at an eye-tracker monitor. During each trial, four colored images were presented on the monitor while a word was presented via audio recording. Participants verbally indicated which image they thought represented the target word. Words were categorized into Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty. Pupil dilation during the Medium and Hard trials was significantly greater than during the Easy trials, though the Medium and Hard trials did not significantly differ from each other. Pupil dilation in comparison to trial accuracy presented a more complex pattern, with comparisons between accurate and inaccurate trials differing depending on the timing of the stimulus presentation. These results present further evidence that pupil dilation increases with cognitive effort associated with vocabulary tests, providing insights that could help refine vocabulary assessments and other related tests of language processing.

This study investigated the effects of assisted oral reading on EFL learners' oral reading rates and took into account repetition times, passage features (length and type), and language proficiency. Forty-nine students from a university of technology took part in a 27-week oral reading program. Teaching assistants were assigned to assist individual students' oral reading and offered immediate feedback for their performance. Students read a total of 27 texts, one per week. The texts involved 9 short- and 9 long-conversational texts, and 9 monologic texts. Each text was read six times and the time for each oral reading was recorded. The collected data were analyzed with HLM. The dependent variable was students' oral reading rates, and three fixed factors were repetition times, text features, and students' language proficiency. The results showed that students' oral reading rates significantly improved with times of repetition increased. Text length (shorter or longer) did not affect students' oral reading rates but text types (conversational vs. monologic) did. Higher-level students read significantly more fluently than those in the lower-level. Implication of the study results was discussed.

We describe an activity that introduces school-aged children to clinical trials, that presents the terminology associated with randomized controlled trials, and that reveals how the findings from clinical trials are applicable to everyone everywhere.

The impact of globalization and technologization has continued to reverberate in the translation industry, causing seismic changes in the translation process, output, and client expectations. Consequently, several approaches and models have been adopted to align training with these changes. Prominent among these is project-based learning, where most research has focused on collaborative practices that mirror authentic translation scenarios in the industry. However, despite the high volume of research on collaborative translation within the training environment, two significant lacunae remain perceptible--there is limited research comparing collaborative teams and individual trainees, and the use of video ethnography as a research methodology is scarce. This study intends to bridge this gap by comparing the performance of collaborative teams and individual trainees in accomplishing several computer-assisted translation (CAT) tasks. The study quantitively analyzes data from video recordings of four collaborative teams and 25 individual trainees performing three computer-assisted task blocks, eight subtasks, and three sub-subtasks. The study investigates compliance with instructions, task completion time, translation output quality, terminology research, and workspace management. The findings reveal that, to different degrees, teams and individual trainees failed to comply with instructions (even though teams spent more time working on the tasks), and teams had higher assessment scores and also enjoyed more downtime. In contrast, individual trainees had less downtime and lower average assessment scores though they consulted more terminological resources than teams. Furthermore, correlations were established between the final assessment score, task completion time, and compliance with instructions. The findings informed our practical and pedagogical reflections on CAT course design, particularly with regard to the training outcomes for collaborative teams and individual trainees.

Second language (L2) research on input manipulation has focused mainly on increasing the salience of target structures, but presentation formats of L2 input can be another important aspect for manipulation. This study compared the horizontal, vertical, and adjacent formats for presenting the characters, pinyin, and English meaning of L2 Chinese vocabulary, by recruiting 69 English native speakers to study 30 Chinese words in these formats. Learning outcomes were indexed with vocabulary gain scores from pretest to posttest. Learner perceptions of the learning process were recorded with ratings and reasons for preference among these formats. The quantitative results showed the adjacent format generally led to higher gain scores than the other two formats and that L2 proficiency also contributed positively. To learners, the adjacent format was the least preferred, but preference ratings were not associated with gain scores. The qualitative findings suggested format familiarity and layout features as main factors of learner preference.

This study investigated coded data retrieved from clinical dashboards, which are decision-support tools that include a graphical display of clinical progress and clinical activities. Data were extracted from clinical dashboards representing 256 youth (M age = 11.9) from 128 practitioners who were trained in the Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP) system (Chorpita & Daleiden in BF Chorpita EL Daleiden 2014 Structuring the collaboration of science and service in pursuit of a shared vision. 43(2):323 338. 2014, Chorpita & Daleiden in BF Chorpita EL Daleiden 2018 Coordinated strategic action: Aspiring to wisdom in mental health service systems. 25(4):e12264. 2018) in 55 agencies across 5 regional mental health systems. Practitioners labeled up to 35 fields (i.e., descriptions of clinical activities), with the options of drawing from a controlled vocabulary or writing in a client-specific activity. Practitioners then noted when certain activities occurred during the episode of care. Fields from the extracted data were coded and reliability was assessed for Field Type, Practice Element Type, Target Area, and Audience (e.g., "Caregiver Psychoeducation: Anxiety" would be coded as Field Type = Practice Element; Practice Element Type = Psychoeducation; Target Area = Anxiety; Audience = Caregiver). Coders demonstrated moderate to almost perfect interrater reliability. On average, practitioners recorded two activities per session, and clients had 10 unique activities across all their sessions. Results from multilevel models showed that clinical activity characteristics and sessions accounted for the most variance in the occurrence, recurrence, and co-occurrence of clinical activities, with relatively less variance accounted for by practitioners, clients, and regional systems. Findings are consistent with patterns of practice reported in other studies and suggest that clinical dashboards may be a useful source of clinical information. More generally, the use of a controlled vocabulary for clinical activities appears to increase the retrievability and actionability of healthcare information and thus sets the stage for advancing the utility of clinical documentation.

There is a need for a continued focus on language learning in advanced language classes beyond the foundations that are formed in the beginning and intermediate levels. Despite this need, little work exists on how to implement language-focused instruction in upper-level courses. As one possible solution, this paper outlines a functional, meaning-based approach to teaching language that could be easily adopted by all instructors, regardless of their professional training and/or research interests. As an example of this approach, the study described in this paper investigates the instruction of Subjunctive 1 through its function as indirect speech in a literary context. Eight participants in a fourth-semester German course engaged with the Subjunctive 1 form through a lesson focused on Kafka's authorial choices in the text "Vor dem Gesetz" that create a sense of uncertainty. This approach complements the traditional teaching of Subjunctive 1, such as in journalistic contexts, by centering it as a tool for meaning making in an author's lexicogrammatical toolkit. An analysis of pre/posttests that included both quantitative and qualitative data was used to assess the effectiveness of the approach. The results indicate an overall positive effect for the instruction but also individual variation by the learner. These findings support both the utility of and need for functional, meaning-based approaches in upper-level courses. Finally, I discuss how this type of approach could be adopted for any linguistic feature and by any instructor teaching advanced courses to support students' linguistic growth throughout the curriculum.

Digital reading facilitates L2 development by allowing anytime-anywhere learning with various digital resources. Although there has been increasing research exploring the role of digital reading on L2 vocabulary learning, synthesized evidence regarding the overall facilitating power of digital reading is still lacking. This meta-analysis aggregates 21 important empirical studies published within the last 20 years and indexed in scholarly recognized databases, so as to provide a comprehensive panoramic assessment of how effectively digital reading has enhanced second and foreign language vocabulary acquisition with diversified learner backgrounds and learning environments. A total of 77 effect sizes were yielded across different studies, and random-effect modeling was employed for analyzing the study-level heterogeneity and sub-group variability. Results demonstrate that digital reading had an overall significant effect (dimmediate = 1.45, p < 0.01; ddeleayed = 2.98, p < 0.01) on L2 vocabulary learning of between-subject studies. For within-subject studies, digital reading was found to have an upper-medium (d = 1.39, p < 0.01) and medium (d = 0.86, p < 0.01) effect on immediate and delayed L2 vocabulary post-tests. Moderating factor analysis results show that L2 proficiency, vocabulary test formats, and digital resources could robustly explain the variance of effect sizes. The findings have strong pedagogical implications on the effective design for digital reading tasks, including the development of adaptive learning algorithms and personalized lexical glosses. Recommendations for future research in the field are provided by pinpointing where to improve in terms of experimental design and the focus of the learner group.

Identifying wordlike units in language is typically done by applying a battery of criteria, though how to weight these criteria with respect to one another is currently unknown. We address this question by investigating whether certain criteria are also used as cues for learning an artificial language--if they are, then perhaps they can be relied on more as trustworthy top-down diagnostics. The two criteria for grammatical wordhood that we consider are a unit's free mobility and its internal immutability. These criteria also map to two cognitive mechanisms that could underlie successful statistical learning: learners might orient themselves around the low transitional probabilities at unit boundaries, or they might seek chunks with high internal transitional probabilities. We find that each criterion has its own facilitatory effect, and learning is best where they both align. This supports the battery-of-criteria approach to diagnosing wordhood, and also suggests that the mechanism behind statistical learning may not be a question of either/or; perhaps the two mechanisms do not compete, but mutually reinforce one another.

According to the IELTS official website, IELTS candidates usually score lower in the IELTS Writing test than in the other language skills. This is disappointing for the many IELTS candidates who fail to get the overall band score they need. Surprisingly enough, few studies have addressed this issue. The present study, then, is aimed at shedding some light on why IELTS candidates usually score lowest in writing by investigating IELTS candidates' problems with the IELTS Academic Writing test. To this end, 10 Iranian IELTS candidates were interviewed concerning the difficulties they had with this test. The interview summaries were subjected to thematic analysis. The results suggested that IELTS candidates may face four main problems with the IELTS Academic Writing test: insufficient time, unclear and difficult-to-understand task instructions, "distant" topics, and overvaluation of advanced vocabulary and grammar in the scoring system. The study suggests that IELTS candidates' problem of scoring lowest in the Writing test may not be entirely due to deficiencies in their writing skills, and that certain features of the IELTS Academic Writing test may aggravate undesirable testing outcomes. The implications of the results of the study are discussed.

Speaking proficiency has special value anywhere in the world. It needs to be possessed by every individual to bring change to society. This clenches the amplified direction of the current study, where its primary objective is to assess the speaking skills of the SHS-HUMMS students of the DNHS. This study envisioned identifying the speaking factors in terms of grammar, vocabulary, aspects of discourse, pronunciation, and interaction. It utilizes the quanti correlational descriptive method, which uses the purposive sampling procedure. Standardized rubrics for speaking skills were utilized, tabulated, and interpreted using the appropriate tools. This was further validated by the concurrent opinions of two language experts in the area of linguistics. Overall, the findings revealed a speaking peculiarity in proficiency. This surfaced after the data were treated with statistical measures using frequency and percentage, Kruskal-Wallis H-value for pairwise comparison, ANOVA, and Shapiro-Wilk for multi-variant normality. This was explained using a contingency table. Furthermore, the results showed no significant difference between the levels of indicators affecting speaking skills. Two factors that affected the respondents' speaking skills, however, were pronunciation and interaction. Overall, an intervention program was put in place in order to address the speaking problem of the respondents.

Current higher vocational English textbooks have limitations in providing timely work-related information, representing the nature of vocational education, preserving authenticity of text materials, and using technology to enhance textbook interactivity. To address the limitations of current higher vocational English textbooks, this study adopts corpus-based approaches to developing a loose-leaf textbook for higher vocational English, a new form of textbook that delivers timely, authentic, job-oriented content enhanced by digitalization. Upon an on-the-job investigation, this study builds CECLOTED, a corpus congruent with the typical job tasks for cross-border E-commerce operations. Based on corpus data analysis upon metrics of frequency, keyness, dispersion, collocation and colligation, this study strikes a balance between authentic text feature and linguistic complexity appropriate for higher vocational English learners. This study also develops an online learning platform coherent with the printed textbook with B/S architecture so as to present information in a ubiquitous, dynamic and interactive manner. Compared with the conventional textbook, the loose-leaf textbook which comprises learning texts, vocabulary lists, learning tasks and an online learning platform is more conducive to enhancing language proficiency and job-related skills.

The communicative component of language learning has gained importance in line with the needs of the 21st century. So, different factors which influence the communicative ability of language learners has caught the attention of the researchers. Willingness to communicate (WTC) is one of these individual variables which affects the communicative ability of learners and various aspects of this construct are widely investigated in different language learning contexts. However, the number of studies in Turkish English as a foreign language (EFL) context is limited. Thus, the primary goal of the study was to investigate L2 WTC in Turkey. 711 preparatory school students at a state university completed measures of WTC, communication confidence, motivation, ideal L2 self, learner beliefs, classroom environment, and a vocabulary test. According to the results of the structural model, the relationships of classroom environment with both WTC in English and communication confidence were fully mediated by motivation to learn English, ideal L2 self, and learner beliefs. Moreover, the relationships of learner beliefs and ideal self with WTC in English were fully mediated by communication confidence. Motivation to learn English directly influenced WTC. Lastly, vocabulary size indirectly influenced WTC through communication confidence. [The publication year (2022) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct publication year is 2023.]

This study aims to identify foreign-origin words found in reading texts in secondary school Turkish textbooks. The study was conducted in a qualitative research design and the research object is Turkish textbooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education Publications for the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades of secondary school. A total of 95 reading texts found in these textbooks were evaluated within the scope of the research. The texts were analyzed using the document analysis technique. According to the findings obtained from the reading texts, there are a total of 1995 foreign-origin words (604 different) from 12 languages in the 5th Grade Turkish Textbook; 2537 foreign-origin words (725 different), from 13 languages in the 6th Grade Turkish Textbook; 2851 foreign-origin words (645 different), from 11 languages in the 7th Grade Turkish Textbook; and 2809 foreign-origin words (731 different) from 10 languages in the 8th Grade Turkish Textbook. In all of the books included in the study, it was determined that there were a total of 10192 loanwords, 1565 of which are different, from 15 different languages. The most frequently used origin language of the words were detected as Arabic (57,91%), Persian (25,07%) and French (10,41%), and the most frequently used foreign-origin words were found as ve (f=625), her (f=168), zaman (f=156), insan (f=144), ki (f=143), ama (f=139), sey (f=122), kadar (f=110), saat (f=109), hiç (f=101), ya (f=98), kitap (f=89), adam (f=87), dünya (f=82), efendi (f=81), hep (f=72), bisiklet (f=70), köy (f=70), can (f=65), hâl (f=61), hemen (f=59), renk (f=59), hasta (f=56), kahve (f=55), ebru (f=54), dost (f=50), hareket (f=50) and hem (f=50), respectively. [Note: The publication year (2022) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct publication year for this article is 2023.]

Teaching speaking in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes at Indonesian vocational high schools has not been extensively studied from teachers' perspectives. This paper reports on findings from interview data from four EFL teachers in an Indonesian vocational high school regarding the challenges they encounter on teaching EFL speaking and how they deal with these in the classroom. A case study design which enables researchers to explore a particular issue within a specific context deeply was used. The participating teachers in this study were voluntarily recruited for in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed with thematic analysis to capture emerging themes from the participants' own words. The results of this study suggested that the participants experienced a number of challenging issues in teaching speaking to their students. They perceived that students' lack of vocabulary and poor pronunciation were the major problems they encountered while teaching speaking in class. Furthermore, psychological factors such as a lack of confidence and low motivation were also factors hindering communicative speaking activities during class. Based on the findings, policymakers should reframe the current curriculum for speaking classes in the Indonesian vocational high schools.

The pandemic brought a whole newfound collection of words into our everyday language, some of which had been terms that were infrequently used outside academic and medical settings. However, as familiar as this new pandemic vocabulary has become, there are still several terms that often get mixed in everyday conversations, media communications, and even in the medical field. Some of these terms are often mistaken, which may lead to issues in the understanding of important concepts. Science communication, as a facet of scientific literacy, intends to educate people in an easy-to-understand manner, and this communication is even more important in health care, when a literate patient's medical decisions depend frequently on this process. In this article, we explore the use and misuse of some of the most common terms utilized during the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic by nursing and medical students, i.e., future health care professionals, in the hospital environment. This single-center hospital-based cross-sectional study, performed throughout September 2022, included 30 medical and nursing students. All participants completed a self-administered 15-item anonymous questionnaire at a single time point. Nine multiple-choice questions evaluated knowledge, diagnosis, disease manifestations, and vaccines related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Six questions provided demographics and quality assessment information. The analysis of the answers indicated that for at least 75% of the population surveyed, COVID-19 literacy was better for terms related to technology and actions (3/5 questions answered correctly) than for terms related to the disease (1/4 questions answered correctly). The overall median score for questions 1 to 9 was 4.5 of 9 points in total. Based on the results, the language used in the questionnaire was considered easy to understand, with an easy to medium level of complexity, and the perceived time required to complete the questionnaire was less than 5 min. In conclusion, our results showed that efforts need to be made in continuous professional education to increase the knowledge in COVID-19 literacy in the health care environment for medical and nursing students. Larger studies are recommended to identify and to fulfill the challenges that COVID-19 brought to medical and nursing education.

This mixed method study was designed to discover the relationship between male and female Iranian EFL students' cultural schemata and their performance on three types of cloze tests. It also investigated the relationship between gender and Iranian EFL students' degrees of cultural familiarity with culture-specific cloze texts. In addition, the male and female students' understanding of eight culture-specific words provided in culture-specific cloze texts is explored. The subjects of the study were 42 EFL university students (19 males and 23 females). Three different cloze tests with identical content with terms related to marriage, but different types of schemata, were developed. These included a cloze test with culturally neutral schemata of marriage terms, a cloze test with cultural schemata of marriage in Islam, and also a cloze test with cultural schemata of marriage in English. All three types of cloze tests were administered to the subjects in two sessions. Degrees of cultural familiarity were measured through a cultural familiarity questionnaire. A semi-structured interview was also used to explore both the males' and females' understanding of the eight culture-specific words provided in the culturally specific cloze tests. To analyze the data, an independent sample t-test and a paired sample t-test were used. The results of the study showed that females performed better than males on all three types of cloze tests. Furthermore, both males and females performed better on the second cloze test, the third, and the first cloze test respectively. The results also indicated that gender did not significantly affect the degrees of cultural familiarity.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the variations in vocabulary and syntax in Instagram posts relating to food among younger and older men and women in the United Kingdom. The study sought to determine if differences in these linguistic features would affect the expression of users on the platform, which was the dependent variable under assessment. To achieve this aim, Instagram posts about food, posted by a sample comprising 37 young adult men and 43 young adult women aged between 18-24 years and by 47 older men and women aged 59 years or older, were collected and analyzed for their vocabulary and syntactic features. Vocabulary was measured in terms of the number of words used in the posts and their mean values, given that the number of posts varied by gender and age group. Syntactic characteristics were measured by counting the presence or absence of a subject and verb, the quality of adjectives used, and any reference to time or location concerning food quality. The results were presented using tables and charts, and examples were provided for each observation presented in the results section. The findings of the study support the view that gender and age influence social media posts concerning vocabulary and syntax. The study discovered that younger men and women tend to use a more extensive range of words and adjectives of varying quality, while older people tend to use fewer words and unique quality adjectives. Memory loss, which affects older people, could explain the observed tendency of using fewer words. This research highlights a few areas for future research, such as exploring the relationship between the use of slang words and age or gender and examining the effects of age and gender on social media use in different cultures. Additionally, the study acknowledges limitations such as the small sample size and the limitations of using Instagram as a representation of social media behavior as well as confining the study to a single country affecting its generalizability. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that age and gender are significant factors influencing the linguistic features of Instagram posts on food. This research is a valuable addition to the current literature on social media communication and provides useful insights for marketers and social media users.

Manuscripts are known to transmit cultural heritage across generations along with thoughts, knowledge, customs, and people's behaviors. The current study aimed to examine the influence of Arabic manuscripts on the Malay and the Acehnese tradition with the spread of Islam. For this purpose, an Acehnese manuscript, "Kitab Tauhid" (KT), was sampled as the primary data to find out the orthography of Acehnese and the Malay language, a domain that has so far been underrated and understudied. This qualitative study used a descriptive research design and note-taking method, i.e., transcribing and translating for retrieving the absorption of the Malay language and the Jawi orthography. The objective was to obtain a deep analysis of the sampled text and classify the Jawi Script and Malay language into the description. The retrieved data was analyzed by classifying them into different types of loanwords and to examine the Jawi script's orthography and the variety of Malay used in the KT manuscript. The results revealed that after Islam's arrival in Nusantara, the Jawi scripts were influenced by the Malay language. This influence included using diacritical marks or "harakat" as vowel markers being removed and replaced with "alif," "wau," and "ya." The implications include evidence of the Arabic vocabulary and the influence of Arabic phonemes and phrases in the KT manuscript.

Traditional Mongolian Language evolved through the history taking in its purview the Buddha's teaching of the Dharma through the route of the Tibetan language. This research study examined the chronology of the evolution of the Mongolian language and literature, the influence of Tibetan on its grammar and on the written Mongolian. The focus of the study was however on the creation of a written Mongolian language based on the translations of the ten sutras of knowledge of the Tripitaka and the words of foreign origin borrowed from Sanskrit and Tibetan into Mongolian. The findings revealed that the Mongolian grammar, often compared with the content of Sumju, was influenced by the primary grammar of Tibetan and Ogtorgui Maani, the main grammar of written Mongolian. The study also revealed that "Sumdag" which comprised two sutras, Sumju and Dagjug, assisted in the translations of the Buddhist scriptures into Tibetan and Mongolian languages. The "Sumdag" also enriched the Mongolian vocabulary by classification of vowels and consonants; and revived the grammar of ancient texts by developing new grammatical terminology and definitions. This study would provide useful insights to linguists, teachers and students about the influence of "Sumdag" on Traditional Mongolian Language and Dharma Literature.

The present study investigates the impact of meaningful input on L2 learners' vocabulary use and their fluency in oral performance (immediate and repeat tasks), as well as whether the effects are mediated by learners' prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory. Ninety university students learning English as a foreign language were randomly assigned to one of three groups: input (N = 29), input repetition (N = 32), and no-input (i.e., baseline group) (N = 29). The input group watched L2 videos prior to performing an immediate oral task, whereas the input repetition group watched the same videos not only before but also after the immediate oral task. The no-input group only performed the oral tasks without watching the videos. The three groups repeated the same oral task after two days. Results did not show a significant effect of task repetition, input, and input repetition on learners' lexical use and fluency. However, the fluency and lexical complexity in learners' L2 speech can be predicted by their receptive vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity to some extent.

This paper reports on the creation of specialized word lists in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is a discipline using vocabulary across languages (i.e., Chinese and English) and involves learners with different L1 backgrounds. First, a TCM Word List of 2,778 specialized words was established from corpora of TCM textbooks and journal articles. Selection criteria included specialized meaning, keyness in a corpus of general written English compared to the TCM Corpora, and frequency. The resulting TCM list covered 36.65% of the TCM Corpora but had low coverage over corpora of general written English and medical English. The TCM Word List was then divided into three sub-lists based on frequency, and graded into three levels. Level 1 contains high-frequency lexical items in English (e.g., "organ," "coating"); Level 2 contains items that are mid-, low-frequency, or beyond any frequency levels (e.g., "pericarpium," "metabolism"); and Level 3 contains Chinese loan words (e.g., "qi," "yang"). Last, there is an overlap of 309 word families between this list and an earlier TCM list by Hsu (2018), which excludes words from the 1st-3rd 1,000 word families in English. Suggestions for teachers and future research are provided.

Mobile learning has extensively influenced students' learning gains and motivation due to the hardware and software development of mobile devices and applications in recent decades. On-the-go learning increases the capacity for flexible and joyful learning and guarantees access to the instructional content anywhere, anytime. Despite their potential benefits, the presence of mobile applications in students' every educational activity can be detrimental to their cognitive abilities as misuse or overuse of specific applications may influence students' concentration and critical thinking. One such downside is reported for overusing automatic spelling correction software, known as AutoCorrect (AC), in language learning. Uncertainty regarding the educational values of AC has increased as students' spelling skills and vocabulary knowledge have declined. The main problem this study addressed is examining the relationship between EFL learners' AC use and their vocabulary size; and if their academic self-regulation mediates this association. Data were gathered from 101 foreign language learners who completed the measures of AC use, academic self-regulation, and vocabulary size. The results showed significant positive correlations between AC use, vocabulary size, and self-regulation. Further, testing the model supported a mediating role for self-regulation in the relationship between AC use and vocabulary size, suggesting that AC use can lead to more knowledge of English words in the condition of deploying self-regulatory strategies. The study signifies how academic self-regulation can assist learners in exploiting mobile learning (m-learning) to their advantage and attaining their educational goals more efficiently.

This study examined Thai senior high school EFL learners' receptive and productive knowledge of English polysemous phrasal verbs. The research employed the framework developed by Garnier and Schmitt (2015), which is the most widely acknowledged and functional concept of English polysemous phrasal verb knowledge. A battery of tests measuring the participants' receptive and productive knowledge of English polysemous phrasal verbs and vocabulary size were administered. The results indicated that Thai EFL high school learners had an intermediate understanding of polysemous English phrasal verbs. On the receptive knowledge test, participants scored higher than on the controlled and uncontrolled productive knowledge assessments. In addition, the results demonstrated a positive correlation between vocabulary size and receptive / productive knowledge of English polysemous phrasal verbs. The correlation analysis also revealed that a number of English polysemous phrasal verb knowledge dimensions were interrelated. This study provides empirical evidence that Thai EFL learners' knowledge of English polysemous phrasal verbs develops along a continuum from receptive to productive use. This research also suggests that polysemous phrasal verbs are multidimensional and progressive. Longitudinal experiments with varying L1 and education levels would be beneficial for future research.

English is an international language with diverse varieties around the world that are referred to as Global Englishes (GE). Numerous studies demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of integrating GE-informed materials in English Language Teaching (ELT) practices but in the context of the Gulf countries, particularly in Saudi Arabia, such studies are relatively rare. Furthermore, ELT in the Saudi setting is heavily predicated on native-speakerism, with few courses adopting materials informed by GE, which in any case are also limited. This study addresses this gap by exploring the impact of a course delivered on English as a World Language to Saudi postgraduate students using a critical pedagogical approach. The study assesses how such a course can contribute to students' awareness of their own English as well as GE in general. This qualitative research study investigated the perceptions of Saudi students taking the optional course as part of their Master's English degree at Jouf University in Saudi Arabia. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. The findings revealed positive attitudes towards incorporating GE into English learning and teaching and an improved understanding of linguistic diversity after taking the course. The pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed, and recommendations are given for integrating GE into current ELT practices. The study explores whether incorporating a critical pedagogical approach can not only enhance students' awareness of English varieties, but also improve their attitudes towards such diverse forms of English as well as their own English variety.

It is thought that the results of a study examining the articles published in peer-reviewed journals on technology in science education in terms of many criteria will provide important information to researchers. For this purpose, bibliometric network analysis was chosen as a method. The purpose of choosing this research method is to clearly summarize the relationship between science education and technology in order to identify technology in science education. In order to answer the research questions, bibliometric data consisting of 8511 articles in the Scopus database were evaluated using the bibliographic data obtained with the VOSviewer program. In addition, Pareto Law, Price Law, Lotka Law were used within the scope of citation analysis in the research. The results obtained from the research are presented.

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the contribution of morphological awareness to the prediction of content-area vocabulary knowledge and understanding of historical terms. The target group consisted of 35 university students with or without learning difficulties (LDs), in Years 1-4, enrolled in a teacher education program. Because there are no standardized measures of morphological awareness and content-area vocabulary for university students in Greek, such measures were developed and validated. The results showed that students' performance in morphological awareness is related to their performance in understanding historical terms irrespective of student achievement status. This study makes theoretical, empirical, and practical educational contributions. It shows the relationship between morphological awareness and content-area vocabulary as well as establishes the plausibility of a long-lasting link between morphological awareness and historical understanding. In practice, this study contributes valid measures for assessing morphological awareness and historical understanding in Greek at the university level.

The purpose of this study is to examine the vocabulary included in listening texts in the textbooks used in teaching Turkish to foreigners according to their types. The study was limited to New Istanbul Turkish For International Students Course Book-A1 level. Accordingly, a total of eighteen listening texts in six units were analyzed. The document analysis method was used in the study. For this purpose, the words in the listening texts were analyzed as nouns, verbs, and phrases according to the distinction in the word list in the source of the study. In the analysis of the texts, the word types in the listening texts were compared with the word list shared with the reader at the end of each unit, and this ratio was reflected in the word types of tables with numerical values. Accordingly, a total of 592 words were included in eighteen listening texts. Of these, 429 are nouns, 129 are verbs and 34 are phrases. While a total of 957-word types are included in the word lists given in the book, 754 of them are nouns, 179 of them are verbs and 24 of them are phrases. When the word types within the listening texts in the book were analyzed, it was found that 149 out of 592-word types were used again. Another comparison is related to common uses. The word types in the listening texts were compared with the word lists in the textbook and 137 common word types were found. When at the distribution of word type preferences in the listening texts from the first unit to the last unit, it is observed that nouns, verbs, and phrases are partially distributed in a balanced way.

This study investigated the contribution of vocabulary size and depth to second language (L2) writing performance. For this purpose, 53 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) postgraduate students took the Vocabulary Levels Test (VST) and the New Vocabulary Levels Test (NVLT), to measure vocabulary size, and the Word Associates Test (WAT) and the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (PVLT), to assess vocabulary depth, as well as an argumentative writing task. The results of correlational and stepwise regression analyses indicated that the PVLT and the WAT significantly predicted the overall L2 argumentative writing performance, while both vocabulary size and depth were correlated to overall writing performance. Vocabulary depth was also predictive of the vocabulary component of L2 argumentative writing, and both vocabulary size and depth were correlated with the vocabulary component. Although vocabulary size and depth were essential for L2 writing performance, the current findings highlight the predictive role of vocabulary depth over and above vocabulary size in L2 argumentative writing. This is likely due to the criteria used to assess L2 writing and vocabulary, which emphasizes vocabulary diversity, complexity, and quality. The pedagogical implications of these results and suggestions for future studies are also discussed.

Although there is robust research on vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs), little is known about the strategies that learners use in pair work. Therefore, this study examines the VLSs employed by 40 Saudi undergraduate students whilst working in pair tasks. This study also investigates whether there is a relationship between using certain strategies and the type of task undertaken. Two tasks were used: reading comprehension with multiple-choice questions and reading comprehension with 'filling in the gaps'. All the pairs' conversations were audio recorded. The results showed that there were mainly three VLSs used in the pair tasks: "asking for help from the other student", "guessing the meaning from context" and "using a dictionary". Also, there was a statistically significant relationship between the task type and certain strategies including asking for help and guessing the meaning from context strategies.

This study investigated the connection between translanguaging and reading comprehension of Filipino ESL intermediate learners. The respondents were intermediate pupils enrolled in the selected central schools in Bicol, Philippines. The respondents' ages range from 8 to 12 years old, and 124 students (27.55%) were males while 326 students (72.44%) were females. The descriptive-correlational method was used in the study. The descriptive method was used to describe the reading performance of the ESL intermediate learners and their translanguaging factors, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the relationship between the two variables. The primary instruments used were validated teacher-made reading comprehension test and translanguage factors survey questionnaire. Data disclosed that the general reading comprehension of the ESL intermediate learners along with vocabulary, drawing inferences, and getting the main idea, are very satisfactory. Meanwhile, the different translanguaging factors, along with personal, teacher, and social, were surveyed and identified in the study. The statistical test revealed that the reading comprehension of the respondents was significantly correlated with the identified translanguaging factors. Thus, it is recommended that teachers should promote group discussions and allow open interactions in the classroom. Teachers should allow the use of both the home language and English; employ translanguaging pedagogy in teaching reading; foster an understanding and acceptance of linguistic differences; promote multilingualism, and allow indigenous languages to be used in education to facilitate meaningful learning.

Despite evidence on the interaction between cognitive individual differences (IDs) and task complexity, our knowledge of how affective IDs, such as foreign language enjoyment (FLE), interact with task complexity and other factors is limited. Since tasks and activities were found by Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014) to be most relevant to FLE, and since task complexity might interact with learners' perceptions of task difficulty, it is important to investigate how task complexity impacts FLE changes. Informed by the complex dynamic systems theory, this study employed a mixed-methods multiple case study design to study patterns and causes of high and low FLE arousals. The participants were four pairs of Taiwanese high-intermediate EFL university students who were engaged in simple or complex storytelling tasks with speech acts of refusals. The speakers' interactions were triangulated with an individual learner's rating of FLE on a per-second scale and stimulated recalls. Results revealed idiosyncratic patterns of FLE fluctuations of peer interlocutors and a high degree of overlap in sources of low and high FLE in both groups. Speakers reported high FLE as a result of interesting storylines inherent in task design and created by peers, the use of picture prompts, peer collaboration, and task performance. Performance problems, failure to retrieve appropriate vocabulary, task design, and lack of ideas led to low FLE arousals. The findings suggest that task complexity combined with other task-induced, social, and individual factors to affect the fluctuations of FLE. Implications for task design and oral communication instruction to promote FLE are discussed.

Panahi and Mohebbi review James Dean Brown's 50-years of research in language testing, curriculum development and research statistics with reference to an impressionistic framework for analysis containing two components with their subcomponents: Annotations (i.e., briefing and implications) and main concepts and themes (i.e., testing and teaching terminology, research design, research instruments, data analysis, and domains). The review was carried out in two phases: In Phase I, we (Ali Panahi and Hassan Mohebbi) reviewed Brown's all works and extracted approximately 1100 main concepts and themes leading to 28 main entries for testing and teaching terminology. The issues he has examined are much more extensive; the first 10 topics and themes most widely investigated, in the order of frequency, are language testing and assessment, research and statistics, curriculum development and language programs, cloze tests, CRTs and NRTs, TESOL, ESL, applied linguistics and language testing, placement, standardized and proficiency tests, connected speech and reduced forms, pragmatics tests and issues, and reliability and validity. In Phase II, JD Brown provides a discussion and his personal reflections on the systematic review.

The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of MALL application using in the classroom. One of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) application used is Quizlet. The study employs a Classroom Action Research approach to assess the impact of Quizlet on third semester of Business Management students' vocabulary mastery. The data collection techniques in this research are observation and test. The result of this research show that MALL/Quizlet contribute to a substantial improvement in vocabulary test scores and leading students to enhance their vocabulary proficiency. The use of technology-based tools like Quizlet not only facilitated self learning but also improved pronunciation and contextual usage of words. The accessibility of devices like stability of internet connections, students self motivation, and effective supervision emerged as critical element impacting the efficiency of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), particularly the utilization of Quizlet for enhancing vocabulary mastery.

This study examines lexical density, lexical diversity and academic vocabulary use in the dissertation abstracts written by EFL (English as a foreign language), ESL (English as a second language) and English L1 (Native Speakers) postgraduate students to find out whether these lexical features differ across different English language backgrounds of writers. The data for this study came from a total of 75 dissertation abstracts (n=25 per group) which were about English Language Teaching and related areas. The abstracts were analyzed whereby automated text processing tools and the mean differences were compared between groups with ANOVA and post hoc analysis. A correlation analysis was also computed between the investigated variables. According to the findings, lexical diversity index produced statistically significant differences between EFL and NS groups, however, the subtle mean differences of lexical density and academic vocabulary use were not found significant. On the other hand, the correlations co-efficient scores offered insights into the nature of relationships of the variables in question. The findings are discussed within the framework of idiosyncratic context of 'abstract genre'.

This study aimed to explore the role of inference making in the relation between vocabulary knowledge (breadth and depth) and reading comprehension for 487 ninth-grade Chinese EFL students who were categorized as either struggling or adequate. Path analysis was used to examine both direct and mediated effects. The results indicated a statistically significant indirect effect of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension, mediated by inference making, for the entire participant group. However, there were notable differences between the struggling and adequate readers, as evidenced by distinct path diagrams. For struggling readers, the indirect effect of vocabulary breadth on reading comprehension through inference making was significant, while that of vocabulary depth was not significant. For adequate readers, both vocabulary breadth and depth directly explained reading comprehension. These results are discussed in the EFL context, encompassing assessment and instructional implications for EFL readers with varying levels of reading abilities.

This study aims to examine the relationship between the productive knowledge of some lexical and phraseological indices and the quality of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing. A sample of 120 expository essays, written by semesters 1 and 5 university students in a less proficient EFL context, are rated by human evaluators and automatically examined for the target indices. The results show that, unlike the index of lexical diversity, both indices of content word frequency and range could significantly discriminate between different proficiency levels. For the phraseological indices, both the proportions of rare and frequent bigrams yielded between-group differences, with higher proficiency students performing significantly better in both categories. Using a regression analysis, the results show that the use of rare and contextually restricted content words and the production of larger proportions of rare and frequent bigrams could be considered indicators of better writing proficiency. The study suggests implications for the teaching of EFL.

This article reviews conversation analytic research on explanations in pedagogical interaction, particularly in language learning classrooms. In reviewing this literature, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive account of what is interactionally involved when giving pedagogical explanations so that future research investigating the effectiveness of these kinds of explanations can be appropriately measured. The paper first discusses characteristics of explanation as interactional phenomena, namely that they are sequentially organized, either planned or unplanned, and either monologically or dialogically organized. Then, the paper details how explanations in three particular linguistic domains (i.e., pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary) are accomplished interactionally. In doing so, this paper highlights similarities and differences across linguistic domains that are frequently found in language learning classrooms. The paper ends by identifying patterns across pedagogical explanations and by suggesting directions for future research.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in children's development. For those with a learning disability (LD), developing EI is particularly important, as it can have a positive impact not only on their academic performance but also on their social-emotional development, mental well-being, and physical health. By fostering EI, educators can create a supportive and inclusive learning environment that addresses the unique needs of these students. However, many teachers may face challenges in finding effective ways to foster EI in children with LD. A rapid review was undertaken to offer practical and actionable recommendations for classroom use. These suggestions encompass adapted language tasks and informed communication strategies that teachers can readily apply. By accessing this research, educators can gain valuable tools and guidance to better support the overall growth of their students.

Previous research in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has revealed that deviations in lexicogrammar are not always random, but a result of underlying communicative processes (Cogo & Dewey, 2012; Guziurová, 2020; Jafari, 2021; Ranta, 2013, 2022). Most previous studies relied upon spoken interactions, particularly in business and academic contexts; however, little attention has been paid to written communication in tourism contexts where the use of ELF has constantly increased. In order to understand how a communicative process motivates innovative forms in the lesser studied area of written communication, this study examines the kinds of lexicogrammatical features associated with the process of explicitness that underlies Thai ELF tourism writing. Data were based on a corpus of listing descriptions of 200 Thai hosts, compiled from the Airbnb website. The findings indicate that Thai hosts made use of 14 nonstandard lexicogrammatical features which were motivated by explicitness in order to improve the clarity of their messages and promote intelligibility. The three most frequently found non-standard lexicogrammatical features in the data included the addition of a preposition after a transitive verb, the extended use of the progressive aspect, and marking of the plural -s on an uncountable noun. The findings of this study render further support to the claim that communicative processes, namely explicitness, play a significant role in the use of deviant features and in achieving mutual understanding in lingua franca communication. Pedagogically, teachers are recommended to introduce the concept of ELF and language variations to their students in order to prepare them for actual interactions in today's multilingual society.