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Despite extensive research on assessing collocational knowledge, valid measures of academic collocations remain elusive. With the present study, we employ an argument-based approach to validate two Academic Collocation Tests (ACTs) that assess the ability to recognize and produce academic collocations (i.e., two-word units such as key element and well established) in written contexts. A total of 343 tertiary students completed a background questionnaire (including demographic information, IELTS scores, and learning experience), the ACTs, and the Vocabulary Size Test. Forty-four participants also took part in post-test interviews to share reflections on the tests and retook the ACTs verbally. The findings showed that the scoring inference based on analyses of test item characteristics, testing conditions, and scoring procedures was partially supported. The generalization inference, based on the consistency of item measures and testing occasions, was justified. The extrapolation inference, drawn from correlations with other measures and factors such as collocation frequency and learning experience, received partial support. Suggestions for increasing the degree of support for the inferences are discussed. The present study reinforces the value of validation research and generates the momentum for test developers to continue this practice with other vocabulary tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics has released its first regular issue of 2024, featuring six articles and two book reviews. The articles cover a range of topics, including reading development in young French learners, language support screening procedures, native speaker evaluations of second language learners, and the role of language educators. One article focuses on a study of phonological awareness intervention for English-speaking kindergarteners in a French immersion program, while another discusses a remedial program for prosodic skills in French-speaking students. Additionally, there are articles on screening-diagnostic assessments for college students, the comprehensibility of expressions by French second language learners, and the perspectives of educators in French immersion programs and multilingual pedagogy in an international school. The issue also includes book reviews and announces a future special issue on written corrective feedback. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the ongoing debate in education known as the "reading wars," where differing opinions on how children should learn to read have resurfaced. It defines two key terms: the "Science of Reading," which encompasses research from various disciplines related to reading. It mentions the need for a complex framework for understanding adolescent reading that considers factors such as background knowledge, motivation, vocabulary instruction, and disciplinary literacy practices.

For the purpose of developing a new kind of auxiliary learning method or tool, the author puts forward a kind of personalized mobile EFL learning system based on Android and vocabulary learning. The system consists of Remote Management Server, Client Mobile Learning System and Data Synchronization Intelligence Agent. This system has carried on the corresponding design in view of the different student, the different new word level, the different study, the different memory stage. The study found that there were 15 multiple choice questions before and after the exam, and 15 closed questions, with a full score of 30. In order to ensure accurate testing, the difficulty levels of both tests are controlled within a similar range. Although learners' academic performance in multiple choice questions did not significantly improve, their vocabulary ability in cloze tests significantly improved. It has been proven that the proposed system can effectively improve English learning performance, and the simulation also verifies the effectiveness and practicality of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of adopting more interactive and inclusive methods for assessing literacy, especially for children with neurodiversity. Topics include the use of drawing tasks, drama activities, and games as effective tools for assessing comprehension and vocabulary development in diverse learners; and the need for flexible strategies that incorporate kinaesthetic and interactive approaches to enhance literacy learning.

Published work on vocabulary assessment has grown substantially in the last 10 years, but it is still somewhat outside the mainstream of the field. There has been a recent call for those developing vocabulary tests to apply professional standards to their work, especially in validating their instruments for specified purposes before releasing them for widespread use. A great deal of work on vocabulary assessment can be seen in terms of the somewhat problematic distinction between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. Breadth refers to assessing vocabulary size, based on a large sample of words from a frequency list. New research is raising questions about the suitability of word frequency norms derived from large corpora, the choice of the word family as the unit of analysis, the selection of appropriate test formats, and the role of guessing in test-taker performance. Depth of knowledge goes beyond the basic form-meaning link to consider other aspects of word knowledge. The concept of word association has played a dominant role in the design of such tests, but there is a need to create test formats to assess knowledge of word parts as well as a range of multi-word items apart from collocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to understand international students' learning experiences in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) courses in a private Korean university. By using mixed-method research, this study collected two data sources, including 1) an online survey (n=46) and 2) an individual in-depth interview (n=4) at the end of the 2022 Spring semester. The study results are summarized as follows. First, EMI courses could enhance international students' content knowledge development effectively. Second, EMI courses could improve international students' English proficiency in terms of reading and vocabulary ability. Third, international students showed high satisfaction with EMI courses and are willing to take EMI courses continuously. However, the interview analysis showed that it was challenging for a few international students to improve their English speaking ability due to limited opportunities to speak English during graduate-level courses. These study results suggest several recommendations to provide practical EMI courses for teaching diverse international students, including English language learners in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language proficiency is assumed to play a role in achievement in tertiary education. When requirements for university entrance are low or demographic changes in the population take place, universities often employ post-admission language assessments to screen all incoming students. In this study, we will look at the predictive validity of a practical, low-stakes, web-based academic reading and vocabulary screening test. Additionally, we will investigate the predictive value of the screening test when other known predictors are controlled for. Our results confirm prior research that academic language proficiency is a small but meaningful predictor of achievement in that it can detect the students that are at-risk because of lower language proficiency. The result correlates modestly with our measure of achievement, credit completion rate, with a correlation coefficient of around.30. When other predictors are controlled for in a multiple regression analysis, demographic background variables do not seem to have a large impact on the predictive value of the language screening test. In our sample of mostly native speaking monolingual students, the academic language proficiency measure does appear to reflect students' educational background variables. As a low-stakes instrument, it is useful as an early-alert signal, prompting further diagnosis or remedial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are faced with the challenge of quickly and accurately identifying children who present with speech sound disorders (SSD) compared to typically developing (TD) children. The goal of this study was to compare the clinical relevance of two speech sampling methods (single-word vs. connected speech samples) in how sensitive they are in detecting atypical speech sound development in children, and to know whether the information obtained from single-word samples is representative enough of children's overall speech sound performance. Method: We compared the speech sound performance of 37 preschool children with SSD (Mage = 4;11 years) and 37 age-sex-matched typically developing children (Mage = 5;0 years) by eliciting their speech in two ways: (a) a picture-naming task to elicit single words, and (b) a storyretelling task to elicit connected speech. Four speech measures were compared across sample type (single words vs. connected speech) and across groups (SSD vs. TD): intelligibility, speech accuracy, phonemic inventory, and phonological patterns. Results: Interaction effects were found between sample type and group on several speech sound performance measures. Single-word speech samples were found to differentiate the SSD group from the TD group, and were more sensitive than connected speech samples across various measures. The effect size of single-word samples was consistently higher than connected speech samples for three measures: intelligibility, speech accuracy, and phonemic inventory. The gap in sample type informativeness may be attributed to salience and avoidance effects, given that children tend to avoid producing unfamiliar phonemes in connected speech. The number of phonological patterns produced was the only measure that revealed no gap between two sampling types for both groups. Conclusions: On measures of intelligibility, speech accuracy, and phonemic inventory, obtaining a single-word sample proved to be a more informative method of differentiating children with SSD from TD children than connected speech samples. This finding may guide SLPs in their choice of sampling type when they are under time pressure. We discuss how children's performance on the connected speech sample may be biased by salience and avoidance effects and/or task design, and may, therefore, not necessarily reveal a poorer performance than single-word samples, particularly in intelligibility, speech accuracy, and the number of phonological patterns, if these task limitations are circumvented. Our findings show that the performance gap, typically observed between the two sampling types, largely depends on which performance measures are evaluated with the speech sample. Our study is the first to address sampling type differences in SSD versus TD children and has significant clinical implications for SLPs looking for sampling types and measures that reliably identify SSD in preschool-aged children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the effectiveness of incidental vocabulary acquisition and using direct vocabulary instruction to improve tertiary students' academic vocabulary. Research has shown that Malaysian tertiary students lack exposure to academic vocabulary prior to their tertiary education and that they have an insufficient vocabulary size for tertiary education. Hence, this study explored the feasibility of providing direct vocabulary instruction with gamification through an intervention programme which the researcher named the Accelerated Vocabulary Acquisition (AVA) programme as a method to improve tertiary students' academic vocabulary. Marzano's three-phase framework for vocabulary instruction was adapted and gamification was incorporated through the use of the gaming platform Kahoot!. This study used a quantitative approach and adopted the non-randomized control group, pretest-posttest design. The participants were 180 tertiary students studying for their diploma in various fields. The academic section of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) by Schmitt et al. was used to measure the students' academic vocabulary. The results showed that the AVA programme is a feasible framework to improve tertiary students' academic vocabulary as tertiary students who underwent the AVA programme outperformed the students in the control group who learnt academic vocabulary incidentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates associations between trajectories of children's vocabulary development and subsequent behavioral and emotional difficulties via two potential mediating mechanisms; literacy and peer problems. Nationally representative data from 4,983 Australian children were used to examine trajectories of receptive vocabulary (4-5, 6-7, and 8-9 years) and hyperactivity-inattention, conduct problems and emotional symptoms (8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15 years), and literacy and peer problems (8-9 years). Lower growth in vocabulary was related to trajectories of hyperactivity-inattention, conduct problems, and emotional symptoms. Literacy was a key mediator explaining these associations. Results were consistent for children below the 50th percentile for vocabulary at 4-5 years compared to the full sample. These findings suggest that early literacy-based interventions may alleviate declining academic, emotional and behavioral functioning in adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines four of the most commonly-used core mathematics curricula in the USA for evidence of support for research-based instructional strategies for mathematics vocabulary in first and second grade. Content analyses of the teachers' editions of two units for each grade level were analyzed per curriculum (n = 16). Statistically significant differences among curricula were found for number of target words (range 6–51 per unit), level of difficulty of terms (basic to technical), and number of support strategies per word. Multiple means of representation varied in terms of verbal and non-verbal strategies for target terms. These differences indicate children are experiencing substantially different mathematics vocabulary learning opportunities, which may impact later mathematics achievement. Implications for practice, curriculum development, and future research are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is increasing evidence that learners pick up new words while viewing video with captions (i.e. L2 subtitles), little is known about the role of instructional interventions prior to viewing. This study uses eye-movement registration to investigate the effect of pre-learning vocabulary before watching a captioned video. Thirty intermediate L2 learners of French watched a captioned video that contained ten pseudo-words in a within-subject design; five pseudo-words were pre-learned, the other half only appeared in the video. We investigated the effect of pre-learning on participants' attention allocation to the pseudo-words in the captions, the captions that contained a pseudo-word and the corresponding images as well as in two vocabulary post-tests (i.e. a form and meaning recognition test). Four types of eye-metrics were used to analyse learners' attention allocation: first and total fixation duration, fixation count, and regression count. Findings indicated that pre-learning does not affect participants' fixations and time spent on the pseudo-words in the captions, the captions, and the images. However, pre-learned pseudo-words were skipped more often than unknown pseudo-words in the captions. The effect of pre-learning was more pronounced on the vocabulary post-tests. Overall, participants spent more time on test items for unknown pseudo-words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, there has been a noticeable increase in the use of eye-tracking in second language (L2) learner process research. The previous reviews of eye-tracking language research have focused primarily either on providing guidelines for using this technological data source and/or on highlighting selected eye-tracking studies in one or two second language acquisition (SLA) areas. Thus, there is still a need for a review that covers the research and methodological issues of using eye-tracking in multiple L2 learner process areas. Addressing such gap, this paper reviews the eye-tracking L2 learner process studies published between 2011 and 2018. Specifically, the paper focuses on reviewing the eye-tracking L2 learner process research areas, the issues addressed by the studies in each area, and the data collection and analysis approaches used in these studies. It was found that eye-tracking has been used in eight L2 learner process research areas: vocabulary processing and learning, listening comprehension, syntactic processing, written text production, reading comprehension, text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC), oral communication, and data validation. The paper reveals that data collection and analysis approaches have differed from one area to another, and it provides some research and methodological suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a sample of 7,752 fourth- to seventh-grade students in 25 schools which were randomized at the school level to condition, this article reports experimental impacts of an enhanced version of Word Generation on student outcomes at the end of Year 1 and of Year 2. Word Generation employs analysis, synthesis, critique, and problem-solving activities to build students' academic language, perspective taking, and ultimately their reading comprehension. Results indicate that the program improves the proximate outcome of academic vocabulary included in the curriculum after the first and second year of implementation for all students (Y1 effect size (ES) =.22, Y2 =.28 for fourth and fifth graders; Y1 ES =.13, Y2 =.16 for sixth and seventh graders). For those in the fourth and fifth grades, their perspective positioning skills also improved at the end of the first year (ES =.14), and their academic language skills (ES =.06), perspective articulation and positioning skills (ES =.12,.19), and reading comprehension (ES =.15) improved at the end of the second year. Among sixth and seventh graders, there were improvements in perspective positioning skills (ES =.19) and reading comprehension (ES =.10) at the end of Year 2. Effects after both Years 1 and 2 were stronger in high-exposure classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethiopia's productive safety net is the second largest Social Protection Program in sub-Saharan Africa and has been rolled out to almost 10 million beneficiaries since 2005; its effects are therefore of general interest. We provide the first estimates of its impact on children's cognitive abilities. To identify impacts of this program, we exploit four rounds of data on a cohort of children surveyed repeatedly between 2002 and 2013. We find a small but significant positive effect of the programme on both numeracy skills and vocabulary. This is driven mainly by children in households that had graduated (left) the programme just before 2013. We argue that this is at least partially related to time allocation: graduates of the programme spent more time in school than continuing beneficiaries. We also find evidence that the maths (though not language) improvement is more pronounced for boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between parents' home literacy practices and the literacy skills of young children at risk for reading difficulties. Participants included 198 kindergarten and first-grade students and their parents. Children were enrolled in two Title I schools in an urban setting. Parents completed the Stonybrook Family Reading Survey, and children completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th edition, Expressive Vocabulary Test, 2nd edition, and Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. Results revealed that children with greater social capital in the form of more frequent home literacy activities demonstrated higher expressive and receptive vocabulary skills. These findings have implications for researchers, educators, and parents including the suggestion that school-based interventions should assess home literacy environment at the baseline to inform the design of instructional activities and to inform teachers on ways to enhance the home-school connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A controversial issue in the field of language acquisition is the extent to which general attentional or cognitive abilities play a role in individual differences in early language outcomes. Here we report a longitudinal study where we examined whether processing efficiency in a novelty detection task predicted later vocabulary size in a stable manner across time. We found that the novelty detection ability measured at 9 months was significantly predictive of later vocabulary size at 12, 14, 18, and 24 months. This study, therefore, emphasizes the importance of controlling for non-linguistic factors when assessing individual variability in language development. A more accurate assessment of language development may be obtained if general attentional and cognitive abilities are also taken into account in addition to linguistic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article examines whether syntactic and vocabulary abilities in American Sign Language (ASL) facilitate 6 categories of language-based analogical reasoning. Method: Data for this study were collected from 267 deaf participants, aged 7;6 (years;months) to 18;5. The data were collected from an ongoing study initially funded by the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences in 2010. The participants were given assessments of ASL vocabulary and syntax knowledge and a task of language-based analogies presented in ASL. The data were analyzed usingmixed-effects linearmodeling to first see how language-based analogical reasoning developed in deaf children and then to see how ASL knowledge influenced this developmental trajectory. Results: Signing deaf children were shown to demonstrate language-based reasoning abilities in ASL consistent with both chronological age and home language environment. Notably, when ASL vocabulary and syntax abilities were statistically taken into account, these were more important in fostering the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities than were chronological age and home language. We further showed that ASL vocabulary ability and ASL syntactic knowledge made different contributions to different analogical reasoning subconstructs. Conclusions: ASL is a viable language that supports the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities in deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of word internal morphological form variation on adult first language (L1) (n = 20) incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were given a 37,611-token English novel containing pseudo words, placed throughout the text by the novelist. Two unexpected vocabulary assessments were administered at the completion of the reading task. Findings: Results showed statistically significant effects for morphological form variation, with the readers having incidentally acquired more words whose tokens did not vary in form (i.e. no exposure to inflectional or derivational variants). However, a large effect size was present only for low-frequency words (two-four exposures). Originality/value: Discussion of the results is given regarding the feasibility of enhancing adult L1 college readers' morphological awareness through extensive reading and attention-drawing tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considered the involvement of the mesial temporal lobe (MTL) in language and verbal memory functions in healthy children and adolescents. We investigated 30 healthy, right-handed children and adolescents, aged 7-16, with a fMRI language paradigm and a comprehensive cognitive test battery. We found significant MTL activations during language fMRI in all participants; 63% of them had left lateralized MTL activations, 20% exhibited right MTL lateralization, and 17% showed bilateral MTL involvement during the fMRI language paradigm. Group analyses demonstrated a strong negative correlation between the lateralization of MTL activations and language functions. Specifically, children with less lateralized MTL activation showed significantly better vocabulary skills. These findings suggest that the mesial temporal lobes of both hemispheres play an important role in language functioning, even in right-handers. Our results furthermore show that bilateral mesial temporal lobe involvement is advantageous for vocabulary skills in healthy, right-handed children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to describe receptive language skills in children with intellectual disability (ID) and to contribute to the debate on deviant versus delayed language development. This is the 1st study of receptive skills in children with ID who speak a Slavic language, providing insight into how language development is affected by disability and also language typology. Method: Twenty-eight Slovak-speaking children participated in the study (14 children with ID and 14 typically developing [TD] children matched on nonverbal reasoning abilities). The children were assessed by receptive language tasks targeting words, sentences, and stories, and the groups were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: The groups showed similar language profiles, with a better understanding of words, followed by sentences, with the poorest comprehension for stories. Nouns were comprehended better than verbs; sentence constructions also showed a qualitatively similar picture, although some dissimilarities emerged. Verb comprehension was strongly related to sentence comprehension in both groups and related to story comprehension in the TD group only. Conclusion: The findings appear to support the view that receptive language skills follow the same developmental route in children with ID as seen in younger TD children, suggesting that language development is a robust process and does not seem to be differentially affected by ID even when delayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentence-level grammar skills are of the important foundations in the mastery of reading skills in second language (L2). Previous studies showed inconclusive findings about the effect of grammar knowledge on L2 reading. This study examines the relationship between L2 reading outcomes and reader-based grammar knowledge as it is moderated by text-based features of vocabulary difficulty. Participants were EFL students (n = 71) in the second year of their English major at an Indonesian university. The participants' grammar knowledge was measured using a test of sentence-level grammatical knowledge. Text-based vocabulary difficulty was assessed using VocabProfile software (Cobb, 2010). During the data collection period, the participants completed four reading texts, each reflecting a unique combination of two levels (high vs. low) of lexical frequency. This study reveals that reader grammar knowledge influenced L2 reading outcomes. It also shows that text vocabulary difficulty significantly moderated the relationship between reader grammatical knowledge and L2 reading, indicating that the relationship between grammar knowledge and L2 reading for high lexical frequency texts was significantly greater than for low lexical frequency texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from an intervention across sixth and seventh grades to teach academic words to middle school students. The goals included investigating a progression of outcomes from word knowledge to comprehension and investigating the processes students use in establishing word meaning. Participants in Year 1 were two sixth-grade reading teachers and 105 students (treatment n = 62; control n = 43) and in Year 2, one seventh-grade reading teacher and 87 students (treatment n = 44; control n = 43) from the same public school. In both years, results favored instructed students in word knowledge, lexical access, and morphological awareness on researcher-designed measures. In Year 2, small advances were also found for comprehension. Transcripts of lessons shed light on processes of developing representations of unfamiliar words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age moderation of genetic and environmental contributions to Digits Forward, Digits Backward, Block Design, Symbol Digit, Vocabulary, and Synonyms was investigated in a sample of 14,534 twins aged 26 to 98 years. The Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium contributed the sample, which represents nine studies from three countries (USA, Denmark, and Sweden). Average test performance was lower in successively older age groups for all tests. Significant age moderation of additive genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared environmental variance components was observed, but the pattern varied by test. The genetic contribution to phenotypic variance across age was smaller for both Digit Span tests, greater for Synonyms, and stable for Block Design and Symbol Digit. The non-shared environmental contribution was greater with age for the Digit Span tests and Block Design, while the shared environmental component was small for all tests, often more so with age. Vocabulary showed similar age-moderation patterns as Synonyms, but these effects were nonsignificant. Findings are discussed in the context of theories of cognitive aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the impact of task-based instruction (TBI) and traditional instruction (TI) on the motivation and vocabulary development in secondary language education. The focus of the study was to also find out the perceptions of teachers about implementing these two instructional methods in their teaching practices. The participants were 97 students and 2 teachers engaged in the 7th grade EFL program at a private school in Istanbul, Turkey. Data was collected quantitatively from a vocabulary check test and motivation scale, as well as qualitatively from semistructured interviews. The findings revealed that implementing TBI had positive impact on students' vocabulary development as well as their motivation. In line with these findings, it was also suggested that teachers perceived TBI to be a more effective method to be incorporated in secondary grade language practices. Based on the gathered findings, suggestions for redesigning and implementing the existing 7th grade EFL program were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There is an established association between children's oral vocabulary and their word reading but its basis is not well understood. Here, we present evidence from eye movements for a novel mechanism underlying this association. Two groups of 18 Grade 4 children received oral vocabulary training on one set of 16 novel words (e.g., ‘nesh’, ‘coib’), but no training on another set. The words were assigned spellings that were either predictable from phonology (e.g., nesh) or unpredictable (e.g., koyb). These were subsequently shown in print, embedded in sentences. Reading times were shorter for orally familiar than unfamiliar items, and for words with predictable than unpredictable spellings but, importantly, there was an interaction between the two: children demonstrated a larger benefit of oral familiarity for predictable than for unpredictable items. These findings indicate that children form initial orthographic expectations about spoken words before first seeing them in print. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/jvpJwpKMM3E. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile devices are considered as the most widely used information and communication technologies. They have provided great advantages in language learning. This study reports a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of using mobile devices on vocabulary learning. A meta-analysis was conducted on research that compared the outcomes from students learning vocabulary using mobile devices to those learning vocabulary using traditional ways of learning. The meta-analysis examined how effect sizes varied based on learners’ age, type of vocabulary learning (receptive or productive), and aspects of vocabulary used (form, meaning, and use). This meta-analysis examined the effect of using mobile devices on vocabulary learning by reviewing 16 studies involving 986 participants. The use of mobile devices in learning vocabulary was associated with greater achievement in comparison with traditional ways. The findings of the meta-analysis indicate a medium effect of using mobile devices on vocabulary learning (g = .67). Major findings of the current meta-analysis include the following: (a) Mobile devices have moderate effect sizes on both ways of vocabulary learning (productive and receptive), (b) adult learners get benefit from using mobile devices in vocabulary learning better than young learners, and (c) mobile devices have moderate effect on all aspects of vocabulary learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to clarify the expected oral proficiency level for secondary school English teachers in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (hereafter MEXT) encourages public secondary school English teachers to reach a threshold level of the Pre-1st Grade of Eiken (an English proficiency test). However, the number of teachers attaining those levels has yet to reach MEXT's target. An analysis of the Pre-1st interview tests can give an indication of what MEXT expects Japanese English teachers to be able to do in oral communication. In this paper, a brief history of Eiken is reported, and the proficiency level of the Pre-1st Grade and the test contents are summarized. Then, features of the picture cards and questions used for the second-stage interviews from 2007 through 2015 are analyzed: (1) a series of four pictures for story narration (in total 54 cards), and (2) four questions to be asked afterwards (in total 216 question items). Some unique linguistic features are found as well as popular test topics. Also, interview questions have several featured sentence patterns and many basic-level words, as well as topic-related vocabulary items. This research will be of some help for understanding the threshold level of speaking abilities for secondary school English teachers in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing is a task that entails high cognitive and linguistic efforts, especially when producing academic texts. Academic language might be one of the factors influencing the quality of written texts, given that prior research has shown its impact on reading comprehension. The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of Spanish Core Academic Language Skills (S-CALS) and academic vocabulary to the quality of written argumentation and explanation. For this study, 126 Chilean 8th grade students produced an argumentative text and an explanatory text about the same topic. In addition, their academic vocabulary was assessed with the S-AVoc-T test and their CALS with the S-CALS-I test. Results show that both CALS and academic vocabulary are significantly and positively correlated with both writing tasks. Even though these instruments make different contributions to the predictive models in each discursive genre, a Principal Component Analysis revealed that the model that best explains writing quality are those which combine both language variables, namely Spanish Core Academic Language and Vocabulary Skills (S-CALVS). In argumentation, the S-CALVS model explains 29% of the variance, after controlling by gender. In contrast, in explanation, S-CALVS explains 35% of the variance. It is concluded that it is relevant to develop situated writing in each discursive genre and, upon that basis, to work with both CALS and academic vocabulary, because they have a specific impact on academic texts writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effectiveness of a software that supports formative assessment in real-time of learners' vocabulary knowledge through an interactive highlighting method. Students in a classroom are given a passage on their computer screen and asked to highlight the words they do not understand. This information is summarized on the instructors screen by highlighting in red the words most highlighted, in orange the second most highlighted, and in yellow the third most highlighted, with a superscript showing the number of students who selected each word. The instructor projects this summary on a screen for the whole class and use it to guide activities on how to comprehend the passage. In Experiment 1, college students who learned with interactive highlighting in a single-session study scored higher on a vocabulary test (d = 1.14) but not on a comprehension test as compared to a control group that studied the same passage without interactive highlighting. In Experiment 2, high school students who learned with interactive highlighting across a 10-week program scored higher on a standardized reading comprehension test as compared to a control group that studied without interactive highlighting (d = 1.60 in school 1, d = 1.17 in school 2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tasks with a high involvement load would induce a higher success rate of retention and recall of target words for learners. A high task-based involvement load is defined by the need to focus on target words, the mental search for target word meanings by guessing from context, and to select and decide on the word meanings that are most appropriate in context. This study investigates the efficacy of codeswitched reading, a high involvement load task, in raising the lexical retention-retrieval performance of EFL learners, who were late Chinese-English bilinguals. An experimental group (n = 78) was learning vocabulary from reading codeswitched texts. A comparison group (n = 76) was reading graded readers without lexical glossing. An immediate retrieval test was conducted without prior notice followed by a delayed retrieval test a week later. Independent-samples t -test results show that the EFL learners in the experimental group significantly outperformed the comparison group in lexical retention-retrieval. The experimental group's recall scores were higher than those of the comparison group. The higher involvement load of codeswitched reading tasks and the visual salience of codeswitched target words accounted for the higher retention-retrieval scores of the experimental group than those of the comparison group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents empirical evidence aimed at informing approaches to vocabulary development for the purpose of supporting L2 listening comprehension. Inferential statistics were used to analyze the relationship between second language (L2) aural vocabulary knowledge (AVK), L2 listening comprehension and the overall L2 proficiency among 247 tertiary level L2 learners of English. Three frequency based levels of AVK were measured. Measures of level 1 (0–2000 frequency range) and level 2 words (2001–3000 frequency range) tapped AVK of high frequency words, and level 3 words (3001–5000 frequency range) tapped AVK of words just beyond the high frequency range. Listening comprehension was measured with a version of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Regression modeling showed that AVK at each of the three levels contributed uniquely to the prediction of L2 listening for the entire cohort. Only measures of level 2 and 3 AVK were uniquely predictive of L2 listening for a relatively high proficiency subgroup, whereas only level 1 AVK offered a unique contribution to the prediction of L2 listening scores for a relatively low proficiency subgroup. Results are interpreted in order to provide a range of pedagogical recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children are growing up in a digital age with increasing exposure to television and touchscreen devices. We tested whether exposure to screen media is associated with children’s early language development. One hundred and thirty-one highly educated caregivers of UK children aged 6–36 months completed a media exposure questionnaire and vocabulary measure. 99% of children were read to daily, 82% watched television, and 49% used mobile touchscreen devices daily. Regression analyses revealed that time spent reading positively predicted vocabulary comprehension and production scores at 6–18 months, but time spent engaging with television or mobile touchscreen devices was not associated with vocabulary scores. Critically, correlations revealed that time spent reading or engaging with other non-screen activities was not offset by time spent engaging with television or mobile touchscreen devices. Thus, there was no evidence to suggest that screen media exposure adversely influenced vocabulary size in our sample of highly educated families with moderate media use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: To effectively implement a response to intervention approach, there is a need for timely and specific information about student learning in response to treatment to ensure that treatment decisions are appropriate. This exploratory study examined responsivity to a supplemental, Tier 2 vocabulary intervention delivered to preschool children with limited language abilities. Method: A secondary analysis of a cluster-randomized trial of a supplemental vocabulary intervention was conducted. Responsivity (e.g., adequate learning) to the intervention was examined, and learning in the 1st few weeks of intervention was evaluated as a possible predictor of response to intervention. Results: Using a criterion of learning of 20% of target vocabulary, nearly one third of participants were identified as poor responders. A 1st unit benchmark was identified that maximized the sensitivity to identification of children who were likely to respond to the intervention. Conclusions: Even for generally effective interventions, there is likely to be a substantial proportion of children who are not responsive. Learning in the 1st few weeks of intervention may be a useful indicator of appropriate response to treatment and could inform instructional decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity has been considered to support vocabulary learning in typical children and adults, but evidence for this link is inconsistent for studies in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). The aim of this study was explore the role of processing demands on the association between verbal STM and vocabulary measures in DS, by comparing receptive vocabulary measures with high STM processing demands to productive vocabulary measures with low STM processing demands. Method Forty-seven adults with Down syndrome were administered receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary tasks, as well as measures of verbal STM abilities and intellectual efficiency. Results Bayesian regression analyses showed that verbal STM abilities were strongly and specifically associated with receptive vocabulary measures but not productive lexical abilities after controlling for intellectual efficiency, and this is despite the fact that vocabulary abilities as measured by receptive and productive vocabulary tasks were closely associated. Conclusions In Down syndrome, verbal STM abilities may be predictive of specific task demands associated with receptive vocabulary tasks rather than of vocabulary development per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to test cognitive skills underlying the association between inattention and reading in early primary school. Teachers rated inattention symptoms when children (N = 523–962) were 6–7 years old. Children were assessed at age 7–8 on phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), rapid auditory and bimodal processing, vocabulary, and reading (decoding and comprehension). Phonological awareness, RAN of numbers, and vocabulary mediated the association between inattention and both decoding and comprehension. Rapid bimodal processing mediated the association between inattention and decoding, while RAN of colors mediated the association between inattention and comprehension. This study highlights mediators underlying inattention-reading associations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explored the differences in receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in terms of word frequency level and vocabulary size in undergraduate learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). A total of 90 first-year undergraduate engineering students from a semi-urban region in India participated in the study. Two quantitative vocabulary tests, the Receptive Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt et al., 2001) and the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation, 1999), were applied sequentially to the students. The first test focused on identifying receptive vocabulary size, while the second test measured productive vocabulary size. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicate that the students' receptive word knowledge is higher than their productive word knowledge. Similarly, the students' receptive vocabulary size is larger than their productive vocabulary size. Furthermore, the difference between their receptive and productive vocabulary size is 27.69%. In order to bridge this gap and increase their vocabulary knowledge and size, we recommend an activity-based, explicit vocabulary teaching approach through self-learning, group learning and mutual learning in the regular classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regression modeling is an increasingly important quantitative tool for second language (L2) research. While superior in many ways to more traditional methods, such as ANOVA, regression modeling, like all procedures, still has limitations, ranging from small sample sizes to a lack of screening for outliers and influential data points (Plonsky and Ghanbar, 2018). Since these limitations are common features in L2 research, this raises concerns that existing studies using regression may overfit the data, perhaps inflating effect size estimates. These issues can be partially alleviated via robust statistics, such as validation. This paper provides L2 researchers with an overview of these issues and an instructive look at one robust validation method: bootstrapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this replication study was to examine the impact of the Teacher Study Group (TSG) professional development in vocabulary on first-grade teachers' knowledge of vocabulary instruction and observed teaching practice, and on students' vocabulary knowledge. Sixty-two schools from 16 districts in four states were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. A total of 182 first-grade teachers and their 1,811 students formed the sample. Treatment teachers received the TSG professional development from October to March. Teachers in the business-as-usual control condition received school/district professional development. A multilevel analysis was conducted to detect impacts. Significant impacts were found for teacher knowledge and observed teaching practice. No impacts were found at the student level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: This investigation was conducted to determine whether young children with autism spectrum disorders exhibited a canonical neural response to word stimuli and whether putative event-related potential (ERP) measures of word processing were correlated with a concurrent measure of receptive language. Additional exploratory analyses were used to examine whether the magnitude of the association between ERP measures of word processing and receptive language varied as a function of the number of word stimuli the participants reportedly understood. Method: Auditory ERPs were recorded in response to spoken words and nonwords presented with equal probability in 34 children aged 2-5 years with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder who were in the early stages of language acquisition. Average amplitudes and amplitude differences between word and nonword stimuli within 200-500 ms were examined at left temporal (T3) and parietal (P3) electrode clusters. Receptive vocabulary size and the number of experimental stimuli understood were concurrently measured using the MacArthur- Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Results: Across the entire participant group, word-nonword amplitude differences were diminished. The average word- nonword amplitude difference at T3 was related to receptive vocabulary only if 5 or more word stimuli were understood. Conclusions: If ERPs are to ever have clinical utility, their construct validity must be established by investigations that confirm their associations with predictably related constructs. These results contribute to accruing evidence, suggesting that a valid measure of auditory word processing can be derived from the left temporal response to words and nonwords. In addition, this measure can be useful even for participants who do not reportedly understand all of the words presented as experimental stimuli, though it will be important for researchers to track familiarity with word stimuli in future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether the word-learning challenges associated with developmental language disorder (DLD) result from encoding or retention deficits. Method: In Study 1, 59 postsecondary students with DLD and 60 with normal development (ND) took the California Verbal Learning Test--Second Edition, Adult Version (Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 2000). In Study 2, 23 postsecondary students with DLD and 24 with ND attempted to learn 9 novel words in each of 3 training conditions: uncued test, cued test, and no test (passive study). Retention was measured 1 day and 1 week later. Results: By the end of training, students with DLD had encoded fewer familiar words (Study 1) and fewer novel words (Study 2) than their ND peers as evinced by word recall. They also demonstrated poorer encoding as evinced by slower growth in recall from Trials 1 to 2 (Studies 1 and 2), less semantic clustering of recalled words, and poorer recognition (Study 1). The DLD and ND groups were similar in the relative amount of information they could recall after retention periods of 5 and 20 min (Study 1). After a 1-day retention period, the DLD group recalled less information that had been encoded via passive study, but they performed as well as their ND peers when recalling information that had been encoded via tests (Study 2). Compared to passive study, encoding via tests also resulted in more robust lexical engagement after a 1-week retention for DLD and ND groups. Conclusions: Encoding, not retention, is the problematic stage of word learning for adults with DLD. Self-testing with feedback lessens the deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: This study examined associations between the expressive vocabulary of classroom peers and children’s own vocabulary knowledge using conceptual scoring in a linguistically diverse sample of 4-year-olds who attended universal preschool programs in a metropolitan area. Higher peer conceptually scored expressive vocabulary was associated with higher conceptually scored expressive vocabulary for all children. The association was stronger for children who were dual language learners (DLLs), such that higher peer ability was associated with stronger growth in conceptually scored expressive vocabulary for DLLs across languages than for children fluent in English.Practice or Policy: This research suggests that policymakers may want to investigate the advantages of setting aside slots in targeted programs for children who have stronger conceptual vocabularies. Administrators should consider conceptual and verbal ability and classroom composition when assigning children to classes. This research also suggests that greater use of intentional pairs or small groups and strategies such as coaching peers in supporting one another’s conceptual vocabulary may be particularly important for DLLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a four-step process which aims to engage students in structured word work in any elementary classroom or foreign language classroom including connecting words and completing sentences.

The world community committed to support universal access to basic education in 1990. Since then, schools have been built and teachers hired and trained. Twenty years later, many more students were in primary school, but learning assessments showed that most were not learning how to read well enough to use reading to learn. The world com- munity turned its attention to improving instruction. As instruction improved, more students could decode words and read with improved speed and accuracy. However, reading comprehension was still low. Now is the time for the world community to come together and make a commitment that all students will learn to read with sufficient comprehension to use reading to learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]