Aspects Of Language Proficiency Research Articles

A hierarchical clustering analysis of classroom emotional profiles of Grade-4-to-5 EFL learners: Classroom emotions, motivation, family backgrounds, and proficiency development

Although research into emotions has flourished in second language (L2) / foreign language (FL) learning in recent decades, few attempts have been made to examine learners as clusters based on their emotional profiles. The current study set out to first investigate the nature of 98 Grade-4-to-5 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ emotional profiles, as represented by classroom anxiety, boredom, and enjoyment. The hierarchical clustering analysis revealed three distinct profiles: Negative Emotion (NE; 21.43%), High Enjoyment (HE; 46.93%), and high in both Enjoyment and Anxiety (EA; 31.63%). We then analysed FL motivation and family background (household income and parental education) between the three groups. We also compared the FL proficiency levels (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) between the three groups from three perspectives: baseline scores (T1), scores one year later (T2), and growth (from T1 to T2). Multiple significant differences were found. The most common pattern was HE demonstrated higher scores than NE (e.g. in various aspects of language proficiency). EA also had higher scores than NE in some areas. HE and EA were largely similar, the only significant difference being HE having higher listening and speaking motivation than EA did. Interestingly, no significant differences were found in family background between the three groups.

Investigating Developmental Language Disorder among Young Kurdish Students and its Impact on Learning English as a Foreign Language

This study aims to understand the difficulties young Kurdish language learners face with developmental language disorder in bilingual settings and to evaluate their impact on English as a foreign language acquisition. Underscoring the significance of this research, the study’s primary objective is to determine the characteristics of developmental language disorder in this context and their implications for academic assimilation. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals assessment was selected to achieve this primary objective due to its suitability for assessing the British population’s linguistic characteristics and age group. Seven subtests were chosen to comprehensively evaluate various aspects of language proficiency, allowing for a thorough evaluation of the participants’ language skills. This research expands its significance. These initiatives include more extensive investigations, innovative participant recruitment methods, exploration of cultural influences, longitudinal studies to discover long-term effects, critical analysis of intervention strategies, examination of the complex relationship between emotional regulation and language development, investigation of genetic and environmental factors contributing to developmental language disorder, and evaluation of the far-reaching consequences. Upon analysis of the collected data, several significant findings shed light on the efficacy of individualised approaches in mitigating communication and academic difficulties in individuals with developmental language disorders.

Quantifying vocabulary learning belief and strategy - A validation study of the Vietnamese version of Gu's (2018) vocabulary learning questionnaire

BackgroundThe field of language teaching and learning has long recognized the role of vocabulary knowledge in all aspects of language proficiency and indicated that vocabulary beliefs and learning strategies play a pivotal role in learners' vocabulary development. As a result, understanding learners’ beliefs and strategies in vocabulary learning is of paramount importance to language teachers. The Vocabulary Learning Questionnaire (VLQ) developed by Peter Gu in 2018 could be considered the most recent, validated instrument for the measurement of vocabulary learning beliefs and strategies. However, the VLQ contains too many items and is only available in English. The objectives of the study, therefore, are (1) to develop and validate a Vietnamese version of the VLQ which can exclude construct-irrelevant noises related to L2 comprehension, and (2) to reduce the number of items while retaining the key factors in the instruments. Methods722 Vietnamese university students took part in the study. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were examined with the free software Jamovi 2.3.13. Both Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega were employed to evaluate the factors' internal consistency. ResultsSeparate EFAs confirmed the two dimensions of vocabulary beliefs, explaining 62.6% of the total variance, and seven factors of vocabulary strategies, predicting 72.1% of the total variance. CFAs confirmed the hypothesized 9-dimensional structures of different vocabulary learning beliefs and strategies and offer cross-validation evidence for the Vietnamese VLQ. Reliability metrics demonstrated acceptable internal reliability for vocabulary belief and strategy sub-scales. ConclusionThe Vietnamese VLQ provides a validated measure of vocabulary beliefs and strategies. The 30-item version of the Vietnamese VLQ serves as a starting point for future research in the field of vocabulary learning and teaching in Vietnam.

„Vocational School is not like a German language course …“ – Young Refugees’ perspectives on Vocational School in Germany

This article deals with young refugee’s experiences at vocational schools in Germany. It focuses on the aspect of language proficiency in German and the challenges that come with entering vocational schools in Germany for language learners. First results are presented on the basis of a qualitative empirical research project in which young refugees attending vocational schools were interviewed. Based on their reports, it is discussed how multilingualism can be dealt with in a way that promotes learning instead of preventing it.

Arabic Learning Management at Islamic Boarding Schools in Lampung

This study was focused on exploring the management of Arabic learning at Islamic boarding schools that have different characters, namely Usuluddin, al-Hikmah, and Nurul Huda Islamic Islamic boarding schools in terms of planning, implementing, and evaluating the learning. This research was descriptive qualitative research where the researchers acted as the main instrument of the research. the data was also obtained from other sources, namely the religious teachers, students, scholars, and documents. The data was collected through data collecting techniques in the form of interviews, observation, and documentation. The results showed that there were differences emphasis on the Arabic learning management objectives in the three Islamic boarding schools. The Usuluddin Islamic boarding school emphasized listening and speaking skills where various programs were facilitated to enable the students to speak fluently and listen to routine speeches, Arabic debates, muhawarah, and yaumu al-lugah. At the Al-Hikmah and Nurul Huda Islamic boarding schools, the Arabic learning management emphasized the reading and writing skills as well as translating turas books. It is recommended for the Arabic learning management to focus on four aspects of language proficiency so that the students can be proficient in the comprehensive language (active and passive).

The C-test as predictor of the academic success of international students

ABSTRACT The present article gives an overview of several studies on the predictive validity of the C-test. In the first part of the article, we discuss the construct validity of this test format. Only if the underlying construct of this test is understood, can a justification for high predictive validity be made. In the second part, we discuss several previous studies where the C-test format is used to predict the study and training success of international students. The third part discusses the findings of two as yet unpublished studies on the predictive validity of the C-test. We wish to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the validity of the C-test and argue that it is not only a language test, but also a test of processing speed which is related to working memory. For international students, processing speed in English as a foreign language is related to vocabulary knowledge, which includes statistical knowledge about the probability of words occurring in a given context as well as the probability of words following or preceding each other. The C-test taps precisely into these aspects of language proficiency which explains its high predictive validity for the study success of international students.

The CEFR and the dynamics of second language learning: trends and challenges

This paper discusses the pedagogical implications of Dynamic Systems Theory approaches to second language development. The main question addressed is whether it is possible to describe a learner's level of proficiency with a simple and unambiguous label, and if so, whether the CEFR can provide such a label. It is argued that considering the dynamic and multidimensional nature of second language development, only an approach that values the relevance of variability will be able to capture the crucial time dimension of development. When learning is defined as self-organization that follows the perturbation of a system, language learning cannot be seen as development that follows a predetermined sequence, but must ultimately be regarded as a contextualized individual trajectory. When this observation is applied to language teaching and language testing, it must be concluded that a longitudinal approach using a language portfolio that captures a range of language skills as proposed by the CEFR is of considerably greater value for the learner than a rigid assessment of some aspects of language proficiency at one moment in time.

Foreign-born Teachers in the Multilingual Classroom in Sweden: The Role of Attitudes to Foreign Accent

The teaching profession is of particular interest as a testing ground for questions of the role of attitudes to foreign accented speech in a multilingual society, that is in virtually all societies. The school is a central institution of the nation state, and the goal of the school is to socialise young people to be productive, informed citizens and members of the local community. This paper will report on some results of a series of modified matched-guise tests measuring the attitudes of school principals, pupils and other judges in Sweden towards foreign-born teachers' language proficiency and suitability to teach in the Swedish school. The results indicate that all groups of judges are quite accurate in their judgements of degree of accentedness. Prosodic deviations seem not to play a more major role than segmental deviations in determining these judgements, contrary to our expectations. Listeners' judgements of grammatical correctness and of lexical richness did not, however, match more objective measures of these aspects of the speakers' proficiency. Rather, the degree of accentedness plays an important role in determining listeners' judgements both of these and other aspects of language proficiency and of suitability to work as a teacher.

The Language Proficiency of Turkish Returnees from Germany: An Empirical Investigation of Academic and Everyday Language Proficiency

This study analyses the everyday and academic language proficiency of German-Turkish bilinguals who grew up in Germany as children of Turkish immigrants and learned German as a second language. They attended German schools before returning to Turkey, where German formed part of the school curriculum. The bilinguals of our sample were all univeristy students of German philology. Although the returnees' command of German seemed to be native-like at a surface level, their teachers and lecturers frequently complained about their academic language proficiency. Therefore, their everyday and their academic language proficiency was measured with two different C-tests, developed on the basis of Cummins' distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS) and cognitive-academic language proficiency (CALP). The scores obtained were compared with those of a control group of Turkish university students who had spent their childhood in Turkey and learned German at school. Statistical analysis of the data yielded the following results: (1) the C-tests were a useful means of measuring different aspects of language proficiency; (2) the returnees showed significantly higher scores for everyday language proficiency in German compared to the control group; (3) the main predictor variables were school type and length of time spent at a German school; and (4) attrition of everyday language proficiency in German depended on the length of time since return to Turkey.

Cultural Stereotyping and Intercultural Communication: Working with Students from the People's Republic of China in the UK

This paper considers the problem of cultural stereotyping in work on intercultural communication. Recent interest in culture in relation to language learning is described, and the problematif the concept of culture is discussed. A recent study of Chinese students attitudes towards academic study is described and the results are presented of a small-scale attempt to test the geners findings: 12 Chinese visiting scholars were given the opportunity to reflect upon and respond in writing to some comments from the earlier study. It is concluded that Chinese attitudes to toc study are diverse. It is argued that the results support the view of culture as a contested area of discourse. It is suggested that ideas about Chinese culture should be set in historical coe historical description is given. Sources are quoted regarding the recent history of English language teaching in China. It is argued that communication problems may be more economically expls of aspects of language proficiency rather than cultural differences.

Evaluational Reactions to Speech: The Role of Ethnic-Linguistic Status

Two groups of native Swedes listened to short stories, related in Swedish by Greek and American immigrants in Sweden, and rated the speakers on 15 personality traits as well as on five aspects of language proficiency. American speakers were rated more favorably than Greek speakers on two traits, namely, educated and capable. On language proficiency, Greeks and Americans were rated similarly except for the “grammar” aspect on which the latter obtained higher ratings. Speakers' time of residence in Sweden was strongly underestimated by raters, more for Americans than for Greeks. Correlations between ratings of personality and ratings of language proficiency were positive and significant on both affective and competence-related traits for the Greek speakers, while there were no significant correlations for the American speakers. The results are seen as giving support to the assumption that in judging personality from spoken language, attitudinal rather than linguistic factors play a major role, particularly if the speakers' ethnic-linguistic status is high.

Age on Arrival and Immigrant Second Language Learning in Canada: A Reassessment1

The popular notion that younger children are better second language (L2) learners than older children, or as expressed by Penfield and Roberts (1959), that there is an optimal prepubertal age for L2 learning, has often been supported by contrasting the native-like fluency of young immigrant L2 learners with the obvious non-native L2 proficiency of many adult immigrants. In the present paper this popular notion is challenged on the grounds that 'language proficiency' is not a unitary construct; specifically, some aspects of language proficiency, such as reading skills, are strongly related to cognitive and academic development, whereas others involving such basic interpersonal communicative skills as oral fluency and phonology, are less related to cognitive and academic development. Because of older children's greater cognitive maturity, we would expect them to display an advantage over younger children in acquiring those aspects of L2 which are strongly related to cognitive and academic skills. However, no advantage would necessarily be predicted for older learners in acquiring aspects of L2 which are unrelated to cognitive maturity. First the recent literature on this issue will be reviewed and then data from one of the lesser-known studies, that of Ramsey and Wright (1974), will be reanalysed in the light of these hypotheses.