Automatically calculated measures correlated with L2 productive skill can be useful in rating speaking and writing, but many can be too complicated for L2 teachers and learners to understand, some are overly topic-specific, and others exhibit too much multicollinearity to aid predictive models. Therefore, novel measures of L2 productive skills that are relatively simple and valid across topics are still required. This paper examines the use of measures based on the number of discourse markers that signal a writer is providing evidence or details for main ideas. I created an automated tool that counts these words and phrases, and then calculates several transformations, finding that counts of two discourse marker lists (SDM and IDM scores), but not transformations were predictive of L2 writing scores and TOEFL ITP^® scores for L1 Japanese EFL learners across two data sets with different writing topics. Furthermore, I found that these measures could add a small amount of power to a predictive model when combined with other measures of length and complexity and that this tendency was steady across the data sets. However, the results also indicate that the two lists of discourse markers were quite different and that the creation of a new master list that combines the best elements of both would be helpful for both EFL teaching and rating in the future.

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The present study investigates how second language (L2) speaking performance is improved by two factors that may affect cognitive and psychological burden: planning and topic type. Thirty-one Japanese university students completed four speaking tasks, mostly via an online platform. Their speaking performance was investigated based on the Bilingual Speech Production Model (Kormos, 2006). In the 2 × 2 full-factorial design, the two within-participant independent variables were one-minute planning (planned or unplanned) and topic type (argumentative or expository). The four dependent variables were fluency, complexity, accuracy, and lexical diversity measures. This design aims to bridge the L2 acquisition field and English instruction at Japanese schools based on the domains of planned production and unplanned interaction with topic categories concerning daily and social issues. Multivariate analyses reveal that planning significantly increases the number of spoken words, suggesting that planning could facilitate L2 lexical encoding. Additionally, interaction effects between planning and topic types demonstrate that accuracy is enhanced significantly when personal issues are described in expository topics under the planned condition. This result indicates that facilitated lexical encoding might assist participants in paying more attention to grammatical and lexical accuracy. These positive effects hold pedagogical implications for the improvement of L2 speaking performance.

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Research has shown that phonological processing skills (phonological and prosodic awareness) play a critical role in reading development. The importance of phonological awareness in reading has been well-established for both first- and second-language (L2) environments, but prosodic awareness, the ability to recognize and manipulate prosody such as stress, rhythm, and intonation, has received little attention in L2 reading research. Therefore, this study investigates and clarifies the contributions of phonological and prosodic awareness to L2 reading comprehension among English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. A total of 44 Japanese EFL undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. Three types of tasks were conducted to assess phonological awareness, prosodic awareness, and L2 reading comprehension. The results of the correlation analysis showed that both phonological and prosodic awareness were correlated with L2 reading comprehension. Moreover, multiple regression found that only prosodic awareness significantly contributed to L2 reading comprehension. These findings have pedagogical implications for EFL learners’ reading.

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The present longitudinal study, conducted for eight and a half months, investigated the relationship between reading comprehension accuracy and fluency, and the relationship between reading comprehension and the components . A total of 119 technical college students in Japan were administered six types of tests : reading accuracy, reading fluency, vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, grammar knowledge, and listening comprehension. The results showed 1) the correlation between reading comprehension accuracy and fluency was moderate and that reading accuracy at the first stage predicted reading fluency at the second stage; 2) listening comprehension (r = .568 and .577 at the first and second stages , respectively), vocabulary breadth (.473, .546), grammar knowledge (.429, .434), and vocabulary depth (.282, .197) showed statistically significant correlations with reading accuracy; 3) at the first stage, grammar knowledge showed the highest correlation with reading fluency, but at the second stage, vocabulary breadth demonstrated the highest correlation with reading fluency; 4) vocabulary breadth at the first stage was a predictor of reading accuracy and fluency at the second stage, while grammar knowledge at the first stage predicted reading accuracy at the second stage, and vocabulary depth at the first stage predicted neither reading accuracy nor fluency at the second stage.

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This study investigates how vocabulary knowledge and reading skills affect the speaking performance of Japanese university EFL learners. A story retelling test is used to measure their speaking performance by means of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) indices in addition to a holistic rating. Correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between vocabulary, reading process skills, and speaking performance of 54 participants. Weak correlations were found between vocabulary, complexity, and the holistic rating. In addition, significant correlations were found between lower-level process skills in reading, fluency, and the holistic rating. No significant correlations were found between higher-level process skills and speaking performance. Multiple regression analysis showed vocabulary accounts for 14% of variance in the holistic rating of story retelling test. TOEIC scores as a reference, this study shows that the vocabulary and reading lower-level process skills relate more to the speaking fluency and story retelling holistic scales. The importance of basic reading skills for good speaking performance was suggested for novice and independent users of English.

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