Kara McBride

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Senior Education and Research Specialist at World Learning

Some of the most deliberate intercultural events happen in foreign language or second language (L2)1 classrooms. The professional organizations that set the standards and guidelines for L2 education in the United States (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and the European Union (European Council) define as central to the mission...

This study explores which features of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) pronunciation most impact raters' evaluations. Native Spanish speakers (NSSs) from regions with different pronunciation norms were polled: 147 evaluators from northern Mexico and 99 evaluators from central Argentina. These evaluations were contrasted with ratings from non-nat...

Este estudio se centra en el análisis de diferentes talleres, con un enfoque dirigido al español hablado y a la cultura, que han sido implementados en cursos universitarios de español de nivel básico e intermedio. El formato de cada una de estas lecciones tenía como base vídeos mashup: combinaciones de medios de comunicación sociales como Yo...

This study investigated the effects of training learners of English as a foreign language with different rates of speech and controls over speech rate. Subjects were put into one of four treatment groups: (A) trained on listening comprehension materials recorded at a fast speed, (B) trained on slow recordings, (C) given some choice about the speed,...

This article explores the integration of podcasts, originally not designed for second language (L2) instruction, into L2 classrooms to enhance listening comprehension and intercultural competence. It begins by defining podcasts broadly, discussing their potential as tools for language learning. The article emphasizes the dual importance of bottom-u...

This article reports on a study of 575 Chilean students of English as a foreign language. Participants were asked what kinds of activities they had experienced in their English classes and which of these they consider effective ways of studying a foreign language. Both qualitative and quantitative responses are reported, allowing us to glimpse the...

This volume explores contrastive rhetoric for audiences in both ESL contexts and international EFL contexts, exposing the newest developments in theories of culture and discourse and pushing the boundaries beyond any previously staked ground. The book presents a comprehensive set of empirical investigations involving a number of first languages; 13...

This paper investigates the impact that a teacher's virtual presence—or lack thereof—has on students' chat behavior with regard to error correction, uptake, target language use, and on-task behavior. The data come from beginning Ger-man students engaged in pair and small-group chatting activities at a major American university. Transcripts from cha...

We assessed whether violent or macabre interests (“sensational interests”) were related to mating effort and a higher-order personality construct reflecting the combined features of higher Extraversion, lower Psychoticism, and lower Neuroticism in 1321 participants from English-speaking (Tucson, Arizona, and Glasgow, Scotland) and Spanish-speaking...

This preliminary study investigates lexical retrieval of written English with native English speakers (i.e., hearing) and American Sign Language (ASL) signers (i.e., deaf) by using masked priming techniques. Repetition and pseudohomophone priming were tested. These types of priming were employed in order to investigate phonological and/or orthograp...