Research has suggested that the type and frequency of learning strategies employed by successful listeners is greater than their less successful counterparts. Based on evidence that metacognitive strategies (e.g. listening-for-gist; inferring meaning) are more effective than cognitive ones (e.g. word-for-word translation), this study sought to measure the effect that rhymical training had on the listening comprehension acuity of 313 Japanese university students. The theoretical basis was that rhythmical priming assists learners parse the input based on prosody and identify salient words by stress. Small but significant increases were observed among students who were rhythmically trained, compared to a comparison group that received explicit instruction but no rhythm training, and a “true” control group that received no treatment. These results extend the feasibility of input enhancement, rhythmic priming, and perception-based instruction beyond the traditional grammar and pronunciation instruction domains.
<p align="left">Mobile-learning (m-learning), or mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), has been the object of a great deal of research over the last twenty years. However, empirical work in this area has largely failed to produce generalizable conclusions due to variation in methodology, target feature, and task-type (Burston, 2014, 2015). As schools in Japan begin to join the growing number of classrooms worldwide using mobile-based assignments, this study examined how Japanese EFL students’ writing task production differed depending on writing medium (i.e., handwritten on paper vs. tapped on a smartphone). Writing samples were collected from <em>N </em>= 1,449 participants, divided into smartphone- or paper-based groups, across a spectrum of English proficiencies. Handwritten submissions were found to be significantly longer than those composed on a smartphone (<em>p </em>< .001, <em>d </em>= .54), with differences being more pronounced for learners of higher proficiency than lower ones. Significance and effect sizes steadily dropped from <em>p </em>< .001, <em>d </em>= .66 for advanced learners to <em>p </em>= .168, <em>d </em>= .38 for beginners. These results indicate that care must be taken in designing m-learning activities, and that students must be given adequate training in smartphone-input skills (i.e., tapping) and time to acclimate before using such tasks for high-stakes assessments.</p>
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