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This study investigates the acquisition of null subjects by Mandarin Chinese native speakers (‘Chinese NSs’ hereafter), with different levels of L2 English proficiency, at initial stages of L3 Ital...

As a global city, English proficiency in Hong Kong is seen as a form of cultural capital in everyday life, particularly in the labor market. Studies have substantiated that in Hong Kong, white priv...

The English language is widely disseminated globally, where it is the major medium of cross-communication in international/intercultural contexts. The purpose of this study is to assess (1) non-Eng...

As the number of international students in the United States increases, many researchers show interest in understanding how international students adapt to the local society and what factors influe...

Chinese international students (CIS) in American universities encounter serious mental health issues, and they also underutilize campus mental health care services. The current study examined several factors which result in this phenomenon, such as Chinese face concerns, self-stigma of seeking help for mental health services, as well as English proficiency and language discrimination. A survey with 433 CIS in multiple U.S. universities was conducted to analyze the relationships between these factors above, help-seeking intentions, and mental health problems (depression and anxiety). The SEM results suggested that face concerns increased the risk of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety and also increased self-stigma toward seeking mental health services. However, face concerns positively influenced help-seeking intentions. The self-stigma had a negative effect on help-seeking intentions. Perceived English discrimination increased mental health problems while English proficiency increased help-seeking intentions. Meanwhile, both linguistic factors above were significantly associated with face concerns. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed to investigate how to address mental health problems among Chinese international students.

This paper reports on a study aimed to investigate students’ development in English proficiency over a four-year partially English-taught programme that did not integrate any explicit language lear...

Over 11 million students enter school speaking a language other than English. Due to their emerging English proficiency, many English Learners (ELs) struggle with English literacy, which impacts th...

Reading ability has had a prominent role in English language education in Taiwan. The comprehension of materials and teacher instruction in English depends on students’ English proficiency, and the...

Latin American players comprise of a large portion of Major League Baseball (MLB). As of Opening Day 2019, 26.5 percent of MLB was from a Latin American country. Since the Latino influence is large...

Vocabulary is a building block of understanding, especially in science classrooms where language abilities are mixed. To reduce academic inequalities, approaches to vocabulary instruction need to d...

As the de facto language of science, English proficiency often serves as a gatekeeper for aspiring medical students in Puerto Rico because they encounter English-language instruction, textbooks, an...

Focused on the health literacy of two subgroups of Asian immigrants, Korean (N = 118) and Vietnamese (N = 105), this study examines the interrelationships among demographics, health literacy, self-...

The current study adopted a thematic-analysis approach to investigate 14 international teaching assistants’ (ITAs) stigma experience in a U.S. university. Link and Phelan’s (2001. Conceptualizing s...

The Duolingo English Test (DET) is a computer adaptive test of English proficiency that is increasingly used for English-medium university admissions purposes. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020,...

As globalization has brought about increasingly large numbers of English learners, the demand for assessing their English proficiency is ever growing. And, assessing speaking proficiency has become...

Speakers of languages other than English are positioned as problems within education systems and ‘low’ academic English proficiency is viewed as something to be fixed. Alternative education program...

Augmented reality (AR) deepens learning interactions by imposing digital information on top of physical settings. This study implemented an AR-enhanced theme-based contextualized learning and aimed...

Federal law requires states and school districts to institute accountability systems that report disaggregated student data to ensure that all children make academic progress. However, one of the m...

Objective: There is substantial evidence that refugees' employment experiences are marred by a range of hurdles as they settle in their host country. This study investigated the relationship between a range of independent variables such as, demographic factors, acculturation, acculturative stress, and resilience and the dependent variable that is the employment status of former refugees. Method: Questionnaire data were gathered from 169 participants from the Ethiopian, Congolese, and Myanmar communities settled in Brisbane, Australia. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to investigate the factors that predicted employment status. Results: Resilience and demographic variables such as age, education, gender, and country of origin were not associated with being employed. Length of stay and English proficiency increased the likelihood of being employed. Surprisingly, an increase in acculturation was associated with the likelihood of being unemployed, while an increase in acculturative stress was associated with the likelihood of being employed. Conclusions: These findings indicate that unemployed participants perceived themselves to be acculturated and integrated, while those who were employed reported more acculturative stress. Furthermore, employment despite its positive impact can also be stressful. The study has practical and theoretical implications for stakeholders involved in the employment of refugees.

Multilingual speakers’ ability to communicate effectively and intelligibly in the language of their country of residence is crucial to their participation. This study explored multilingual speakers...

Many previous studies have examined metacognitive strategy use among ESL students in offline reading settings, but very few have linked them to a gender context, especially among EFL students when reading online English texts. This research, therefore, explored gender differences in metacognitive strategy usage among Indonesian EFL students in relation to online reading abilities and English proficiency. It enlisted the participation of 426 female and 176 male students from the University of Borneo Tarakan. The data was collected using the OSORS (Online Survey of Reading Strategies), a self-rated online reading ability question, and an English proficiency test. An independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation, and simple and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Significant gender differences were discovered in overall, problem-solving, and support strategy usage, despite the small effect size values, with the female students scoring better on average than the males. For self-assessed online reading ability and online English proficiency, no gender difference was identified. Among the less skilled readers, significant gender differences were identified in overall and support strategies, whereas among the skilled readers, no significant gender differences were observed in both overall and category strategies. There were no gender differences in online English proficiency among the less skilled and skilled readers. Overall strategy use among the females predicted online reading abilities and online English proficiency, while among the males only predicted online reading abilities. These findings add to the growing body of research demonstrating female dominance in EFL online reading programs and have pedagogical implications.

The current longitudinal study set out to investigate the development of working memory and English language skills of 5–6 year old English Language Learners. These English Language Learners are al...

The aim of this article is to reveal the ways in which six 14- to 15-year-old second language (L2) learners, two each of high, mid, and low English proficiency levels were cognitively engag...

This study investigated the relationship between Chinese international students’ social networks in the United States and their musical tastes. Based on concept of homophily, this study used a self...

The purpose of this study was to explore General Practitioners' experiences and perspectives about asthma management of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people with asthma, particularly with reference to Arabic-speaking patients with low English proficiency (LEP).Semi-structured interviews guided by an interview protocol were conducted with general practitioners who deal with CALD patients with asthma. Participants were recruited from medical practices in Melbourne, Australia. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, followed by an inductive thematic analysis.Data saturation was achieved after 21 interviews. Interviews lasted on average 30 minutes. Thematic analyses of the interview transcripts highlighted five key emergent themes: self-autonomy, language issues, accessibility and engagement, health literacy, and cultural/beliefs issues. Many participants highlighted that CALD patients do not self-manage their asthma. Miscommunication was mentioned by some participants as stemming from language barriers. Patients' difficulty in engagement with the health system, lower accessibility to health care, social isolation, and non-acclimatization were other issues participants highlighted as problems in providing effective asthma care to CALD patients. Participants reported finding it more difficult to treat CALD patients with asthma compared to local patients.General practitioners perceived that treating culturally and linguistically diverse patients with asthma is difficult and many key barriers were observed to affect treatment. Cultural competence training for health professionals, as well as improving asthma and health system awareness in CALD patients with asthma and their carers, are key interventions that may address asthma management gaps in CALD patients.

This article examines to what extent i-TEPS (Test of English Proficiency developed by Seoul National University) incorporates perspectives of English as a lingua franca into its construction and ac...

Drawing on ecological perspectives, this study examined the foundational assumption behind the negative stereotypes that surround children of mixed parentage in South Korea; namely, that their alle...

Despite the wide use of language tests as a basis for awarding English language course credits at Japanese universities, little has been published about how universities set policies on awarding credits according to external test scores. To narrow this gap, the characteristics of such policies were investigated in relation to the EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency (EIKEN), the Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTM (TOEFL®), and the Test of English for International CommunicationTM (TOEIC®). Analyses of 18 national and 28 private universities showed that each university had a median of 58.50 EFL courses for which credits were offered on the basis of external test scores. Moreover, approximately one-third of cases of credit awarding showed a discrepancy between skills targeted in courses and those measured on the tests used in credit-awarding policies, suggesting that credit awarding based on these proficiency measures seems overall adequate. However, credit-awarding policies were problem...

The existing literature suggests that worker’s cognitive and non-cognitive abilities have a significant impact on wages. However, presently there is little research in this area of ​​China’s labor force, due to scanty data. To this end, this Paper conducted a CEES-based data research, which found that, the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of male, skilled workers have a greater impact on their wages, as compared with those of the female, unskilled workers. The OLS regression based on the Mincer Wage Equation found that, the impact of non-cognitive abilities on wages is generally larger than that of the cognitive abilities. All cognitive abilities have a positive impact on wages, wherein English proficiency has the greatest elasticity of wages, which is 12.1%. Of all non-cognitive abilities, Conscientiousness has the highest wage elasticity, which is 13.6%, whereas Agreeableness has a negative wage elasticity of −6.32%.Abbreviations: CEES: Chinese Employer-Employee Survey OLS: Ordinary least s...

This study explored 42 English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduates’ self-regulated learning with and without technology in a university in northwest Taiwan. Based on the conceptual framework on Zimmerman’s (Zimmerman, B. J. 2000. “Attaining Self-regulation: A Social Cognitive Perspective.” In Handbook of Self-Regulation: Theory, Research, and Applications, edited by M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, and M. Zeidner, 13–39. San Diego, CA: Academic Press) self-regulated learning model, the data analysis of the participants’ final projects, videos of self-regulated learning, and questionnaire concluded the following two major findings. First, participants’ instructional strategies for self-regulated learning followed the 3Ps, presentation, practice, and production. Second, participants regarded instructional strategies without technology as more effective, compared to those implemented with online resources and Apps. Third, age, gender, English proficiency, and age that participants began to learn ...

English proficiency remains a vital component when studying the assimilation of immigrants within the destination country. The proposed research defines English proficiency as the immigrants’ ability to speak, read, write and understand English in the US. Grounded in assimilation theory and utilizing the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, this study reveals that among Caribbean immigrant youth; girls are more proficient in English compared to boys, and parents' socio-economic status remain a salient fact as immigrant youth assimilate into American society. Remarkably, the research also illustrates that, even in the presence of perceived discrimination, immigrant youth are still gaining upward mobility through proficiency in English.

This article discusses the impact of the worldwide trend to introduce English as a foreign language (EFL) into primary schools at ever younger ages. This trend has gained momentum in recent years, affecting millions of children in countries throughout Asia. A policy decision of this kind has far-reaching implications but it is often made without consideration of the availability of human and material resources for its implementation. The result is that children may end up learning little or no English, frustrating the intentions of national governments to develop English proficiency amongst the wider population which is, in turn, supposed to contribute to economic development. Drawing on evidence from India and Thailand, this article questions the economic rationale for introducing English into primary schools and argues that decisions on the starting age at which to teach English should, instead, be considered from an educational perspective, taking into account system constraints.

This study examined the effectiveness of a bilingual education program in social science majors in Chinese education at tertiary level. Participants were 53 undergraduate students enrolled in their third year of an Early Childhood Education program at a university in northwestern China. Students’ English proficiency and their attitudes toward the bilingual education programs were investigated. A mixed-methodological approach was used to better understand the efficacy of bilingual education programs. Both quantitative and qualitative results suggested that the bilingual education model successfully enhanced students’ level of English proficiency. However, the mastery of subject knowledge in the bilingual education program was questioned. Students’ English language ability appeared to be the strongest predictor associated with learning outcomes in the bilingual course. Teaching quality was considered to be another important factor associated with the bilingual education program. Strengths and weakne...

This study investigated the use of the Spanish subjunctive in bilingual children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). Using an elicited production task, we examined: (1) the potential of the subjunctive as a grammatical marker of SLI in Spanish-English bilingual children, (2) the extent to which degree of bilingualism affects performance, and (3) the specific patterns of errors across groups. The participants in this study were 16 children with SLI and 16 typically developing children (TD) matched on age, English language proficiency, and mother’s education level. Bilingual children were selected based on their English proficiency and were classified either as Spanish-dominant children with intermediate English proficiency (asymmetrical bilinguals, AsyBi), or near-balanced bilinguals (BalBi). A completion task elicited the subjunctive in complement, purpose and temporal clauses. Results suggest that (1) level of bilingual proficiency, language clinical status, and age predicted of the accurate production of the subjunctive, (2) temporal clauses might have a better potential to discriminate between TD children and children with SLI in bilingual settings, and (3) tense underspecification errors were common in children with SLI. This study provides general support for grammatically targeted approaches to assessment in bilingual populations, and for theoretical approaches that link SLI to tense deficits.

This study investigates how participants in English as a lingua franca (ELF) situations at lower English proficiency level employ communication strategies in resolving problems in understanding, focusing on both verbal and non-verbal aspects. Two dyads of interlocutors were investigated in a Japanese university context: Japanese university students interacting with international students from Malaysia and with students from Saudi Arabia. Through sequential analysis, we found that a minimal response ‘oh’ made interpretation difficult for the recipient, but collaborative repair would then be employed in order to address these gaps. Furthermore, the participants also attempt to close the understanding gap by employing multimodal resources other than language when they encounter difficulty in expressing themselves verbally. In other words, difficulty in hearing or understanding causes may make the speaker or recipient employ various means to facilitate shared understanding; participants engaged in col...

To determine whether English proficiency and/or the frequency of interpreter use impacts on health outcomes for inpatient stroke rehabilitation.Retrospective case-control study.People admitted for inpatient stroke rehabilitation. A high English proficiency group comprised people with native or near native English proficiency (n = 80), and a low English proficiency group comprised people who preferred a language other than English (n = 80).Length of stay (LOS), discharge destination and Functional Independence Measure (FIM).The low English proficiency group showed a greater improvement in FIM from admission to discharge (p = 0.04). No significant differences were found between groups in LOS, discharge destination and number of encounters with allied health professionals. Increased interpreter usage improved FIM efficiency but did not significantly alter other outcomes.English proficiency does not appear to impact on health outcomes in inpatient rehabilitation with a primarily in-house professional interpreter service. However, there is a need for a larger powered study to confirm these findings. Implications for rehabilitation People with low English proficiency undergoing inpatient stroke rehabilitation in a setting with a primarily in-house professional interpreter service, achieved similar outcomes to those with high English proficiency irrespective of frequency of interpreter usage. A non-significant increase of 4 days length of stay was observed in the low English proficiency group compared to the high English proficiency group. For patients with low English proficiency, greater change in Functional Independence Measure efficiency scores was observed for those with higher levels of interpreter use relative to those with low interpreter use. Clinicians should optimise use of interpreters with patients with low English proficiency when possible.

Immigrants continue to settle in metropolitan areas across the United States and bring significant changes to various urban labor markets. Using American Community Survey (ACS) data for 2007 and 2011, we trace the employment outcomes of immigrants compared to native-born workers before and after the recent Great Recession across the 100 largest metropolitan areas and examine individual-level and metropolitan-level factors that shape their employment outcomes. We find that low-skilled workers in general and immigrants without English proficiency and those who are new entrants or earliest arrivals are harder hit in the recession. Latino immigrants and black workers fare worse in areas with high immigrant concentration. Latino immigrants experience employment gains, however, in the South, large urban economies, as well as new immigrant gateways. Asian immigrants see declines in employment likelihood in areas with a large construction sector, while areas with a large trade sector hurt native-born white workers.

There is a widely held belief that Hong Kong as a community is suffering from an ongoing decline in its standard of English. A very cursory search in the Internet directs readers to many articles lamenting the purportedly poor English standard of Hong Kong people. Appeals for Hong Kongers to improve their English are easy to find. These often originate out of concerns over the unwelcoming possibility of losing out to their close economic competitors such as Singaporeans and their compatriots from China, owing to the importance of English in international trade and communication. However, through reviewing publicly available data, this article reveals that the critique directed at Hong Kong people’s English standard does not always hold up against scrutiny. This article aims to demythologise the issue and points readers’ attention to the possibility of the emergence of a new standard which helps perform important sociolinguistic functions in Hong Kong society.

The authors' objective was to investigate the association between Chinese immigrant mothers' authoritative parenting and their children's socioemotional and behavioral difficulties. Participants were 136 first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers with 3-5-year-old children residing in the United States. Authoritative parenting was associated with lower socioemotional and behavioral difficulties in children as reported by preschool teachers. Further moderation analyses revealed that immigrant mothers' English proficiency moderated the association between authoritative parenting and children's difficulties. Specifically, authoritative parenting was significantly associated with fewer total difficulties only for children with mothers who reported higher English proficiency.

This paper compares the importance of English proficiency (EP) on earnings among the foreign-born immigrants from 1980 to 2000 and shows its importance varied over time. The key issue examined is changes in the impact of being in a minority-language enclave and its interactions with the return to EP. Results show that the negative effects of enclaves were the greatest in 1990 and such effects were significantly stronger among those fluent English speakers. The relationship between EP and the enclave effects is explored, which confirms their strong interaction in 1990. However, the evidence of fluent speakers' large migrations from enclaves between 1990 and 2000 is not strong, as of the 24 foreign language groups, 13 showed decreases in fluency in enclaves relative to non-enclaves, while 11 showed increases in fluency in enclaves relative to non-enclaves. This may relate to non-wage benefits of living in enclaves, such as social benefits.

An increasing number of international Chinese undergraduate students enrolled in United States.colleges and universities in the past few years. Many began their journey in an intensive English program of a four-year university due to lack of English proficiency. Instead of continuing their study at the same institution, a considerable number of students transferred to community colleges for the language study. The purpose of this study was to explore the rational of these students reversely transferring from a four-year university to a community college and their learning experiences in both institutions. The findings of the study revealed both advantages and disadvantages of studying at each type of institution and provided recommendations to community colleges for better practice.

Based on survey data on college students from 20 higher education institutions in Jiangsu Province, the effects of family capital on the academic performances of college students is analyzed. The study finds that family capital, place of origin, and birthplace clearly affect the academic performance, the chances of being appointed student cadres, the odds of receiving awards, and the English proficiency of college students. Based on this, the authors claim that the theory of social reproduction and theory of joint effect of family and school are relevant to explain the links between academic performance of college students and their family backgrounds.

Korean immigrant elders in North America experience a high level of depression. This study explored the correlates of depression among a sample of 245 Korean immigrant elders living in metropolitan cities in Canada (n = 128) and a southwestern state in the United States (n = 117), using a stress-coping framework. Results revealed discrepancies between the 2 subgroups. Years since immigration and number of health concerns were positively associated, and English proficiency was negatively associated with depressive symptoms among Korean immigrant elders in the United States; only health status was significant among Korean immigrant elders in Canada. Implications of the study are presented.

Although many scholars have used SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) and other methods to assess students’ language learning strategies (LLS), not many of them have used multiple methods or collected data over a lengthy period of time. Furthermore, only a few have considered the cultural sensitivity issue of SILL, and still fewer of them have assessed LLS of nursing students for the four main English skills. In this study, an embedded mixed methods approach was used to find out the LLS use of 208 undergraduate nursing students, and the cultural sensitivity issue of SILL was analyzed. Significant differences were found among students’ background, their LLS use, and gender. With better understanding of students’ LLS use, implications for EFL teaching and curriculum development are discussed.

The metacognitive awareness and reading strategy use by Korean university students in Korea was investigated. The relationships between reading strategy use, self-rated English proficiency, and self-rated reading proficiency were examined. Differences in reading strategy use were also explored by gender and academic classification. Problem-solving strategies were the Korean students’ most preferred strategies. The relationship between strategy use and reading proficiency was linear, while a curvilinear relationship between strategy use and English proficiency was found. While no significant difference in strategy use between females and males was found, senior and junior level students reported higher use of strategies.

More than 25% of the master's degrees in Denmark are taught using English as a medium of instruction (EMI), but not all university lecturers feel they have the appropriate academic English proficiency to meet the standard required. Based on interviews conducted at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), this article sheds light on the challenges faced by a selection of these lecturers. The interviews formed part of the projectStudents' Perceptions of the English of Academics, which examines the use of EMI at CBS. Audio recordings were made of 33 lecturers. Questionnaires were distributed to almost 1800 students on a range of issues, including the lecturer's English proficiency. The lecturers themselves also completed a questionnaire. Subsequently, 17 of them were interviewed, five of whom belonged to the group with the weakest skills. Inspired by a categorisation used by Marschan-Piekkari, Welch, and Welch for their recommendations for managing English as a corporate language, the literature review in the present paper discusses university language management under the headings of staff selection, training and development, international assignments and performance appraisal. The insights gained from the interviews address issues such as attitudes to EMI policy, experience with EMI teaching, student evaluations and support.

This study seeks to demonstrate the benefits of bilingual instruction, story drama, and play with low-income preschool children. Sixty-five percent of the children in the study were dual language learners (DLLs). The investigation took place in a state-funded, public, universal prekindergarten program implementing Tools of the Mind (Tools), a Vygotskian play-based curriculum. Teachers read aloud fairy tales twice a week. Children in three classrooms were exposed to one of three read-aloud conditions: English-only, bilingual and no play, or bilingual and play. The results indicated that the classroom that provided bilingual instruction and play had significantly higher English proficiency and story recall scores than either of the other two classrooms. Providing opportunities to play and reenact fairy tales seemed to have positive effects on English proficiency and story recall for low-income preschool children.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of language barriers during medical 9-1-1 calls, on the time to dispatch and level of medical aid (Basic or Advanced Life Support).All 9-1-1 medical calls to two large call centers during one week for each of the months of August, October, December 2010 and February 2011, were reviewed for a notation of language barrier (LB). Non-language barrier calls were identified from the same time period such that there were an equal proportion of LB and non-LB calls by dispatch code and dispatcher. A total of 272 language barrier calls were identified. The computer-assisted dispatch (CAD) reports for the LB and non-LB calls were abstracted by research staff using a standard form, including: Start time of call, time to dispatch of BLS, time to dispatch of ALS, dispatch code, interpretation service use, on-scene upgrade to ALS, and on-scene downgrade to BLS. 9-1-1 recordings were abstracted for LB calls only to obtain information about use of interpreter services. Difference between LB and English speakers in time to assignment of BLS and ALS was examined using linear mixed effects models with log time as the outcome; language barrier, call center and dispatch code as fixed effects and dispatcher as a random effect.The effect of language barrier on time to BLS assignment was, on average, 33% longer (p0.001) and time to ALS assignment 43% longer (P = 0.008). A majority of the effect was due to the effect of interpreter use, which increased time to BLS by 82% and 125% for ALS, when compared to non-language barrier calls. Data from the 9-1-1 recordings showed an average of 49 seconds between connecting to the service operator and connecting to the language interpreter. Language barrier calls were more likely to be up- and down-graded, only statistically significantly so for on-scene downgrades.Language barriers increase time to dispatch and the accuracy of the level of aid dispatched during medical emergency calls. Decreasing the time to connecting to an actual interpreter when using an interpretation service could minimize existing delays.

The predictive value of the English level on entry of non-native international hospitality management undergraduates recruited into a Swiss hospitality course that is taught in English is examined in relation to the students' 1st-year undergraduate leadership program (LP) achievement and their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Using secondary data relating to 349 students, we tested 3 hypotheses. Level of English on entry to the institution was found to be a statistically significant predictor of LP achievement at the 1st attempt and was positively associated with CGPA. Students who achieved the LP at the 1st attempt had statistically significantly higher CGPAs than their counterparts. The importance of achieving at least 1 grade above the minimum requisite entry English level is emphasized.