This article presents a case study of a university ESL program that was highly resistant to reform, despite substantial evidence that its curriculum and policies were ineffective. The author draws on surveys, interviews, and participant observation to show how remediation served not only as an instructional model, but as an institutional identity…

Two studies were carried out in order to create distinct motivational profiles of students, examine the way in which context had an effect on motivational styles, and attempt to collaborate these findings with the L2 Motivational Self-System. The research questions for this study were concerned with ascertaining whether or not it is possible to…

This was a pilot study that used the Tomatis Method to see the effects it had on L2 reading fluency in a group of Taiwanese learners. Eight volunteers participated in this study undertaking 40-hours of before-and-after-experimental treatments. The results from the analysis showed that the participants had significant improvements in the areas of…

The study reported in this article was conducted in 2009-2010 at the University of Helsinki Language Centre. Its purpose was to produce new information on the use of learning environments, specifically in a university language centre. Data collected from student questionnaires were analysed and interpreted. The study reveals that the central…

The Applied Language Centre at University College Dublin offers foreign language modules to students in ten languages at CEFR [Common European Framework of Reference for Languages] levels ranging from A1 to B2. Efforts have been underway in the Centre to standardise the assessment components across languages to ensure parity between module credits…

This article presents the results of an action research study whose purpose was to apply alternatives for the development of grammatical competence in a group of third semester students of a Morphosyntax I course in an English language teaching undergraduate program at a Colombian public university. Given the fact that the teaching of grammar has…

Among the plethora of studies conducted thus far to explore the factors affecting EFL reading effectiveness, scant attention seems to be paid to the why of poor reading comprehension of most EFL learners. In this regard, the present article capitalized on qualitative research on a small scale, for the purpose of addressing the not-so-often debated…

This study investigates the pragmatic knowledge of Turkish EFL students in using certain request strategies. Data were collected through a type of DCT, open item- verbal response only production questionnaire, as categorized by Kasper (2000) from 40 undergraduate students, studying at the Department of English Language Teaching, Faculty of…

The practical writing course aims at helping students have a comprehensive understanding of writing subjects and improve their abilities of analyzing and understanding texts. This paper has explored how writing textbooks are used in the writing course and pointed out that the aim should be to help students improve their ability of analysis and…

Experiments in Content Language Integrated Learning have been carried out most of the time at primary and secondary education. However, not much is known about what higher education institutions are doing in this respect. This article aims to present an experience that occurred in the Languages Department at Universidad Central (Bogotá, Colombia)…

This article aims to share with teacher-educators a pedagogical proposal which we have applied in the past year. This investigation analyzes issues linked to critical pedagogy using movies connected to educational themes and readings based on critical pedagogy. We have used this study to generate class discussions in order to analyze educational…

This article describes an action research project in which the members of a basic English class for adults over 50 at a Colombian public university undertook the mission of discovering their potentialities as autonomous learners. By means of the reflective use of the language portfolio, the members of this course guided the planning and execution…

The study investigated the effect of note-taking on comprehension of lectures by 44 undergraduate EFL students who are in the first year of their undergraduate level in the Department of Foreign Language Education in Middle East Technical University. The participants were divided into two groups, namely experimental and control groups. The…

The present study expands the design of Warschauer (1996) surveying freshman foreign language students at a Turkish university. Motivating aspects of computer assisted instruction in terms of writing and e-mailing are explored through an exploratory factor analysis conducted on the survey developed by Warschauer (1996). Findings suggest that…

Student attitudes toward the study of literature in a foreign language were examined, based on a survey of introduction to literature courses in French and Spanish. Most students revealed positive attitudes. A review of previous research and the survey instrument are included. (38 references) (LB)