There has been much debate in recent years about the future of primary language teaching in England, Scotland and Wales but relatively little discussion about the situation in Northern Ireland. This paper seeks to set the policy context in Northern Ireland where the provision for primary languages lags behind other regions of the United Kingdom…

Students' assessment of their academic experience is actively sought by higher education institutions, as evidenced in the UK's National Student Survey, introduced in 2005. Erasmus students, despite their growing numbers, tend to be excluded from these satisfaction surveys, even though they, too, are primary customers of a university. This study…

In monolingual areas such as the southern Spanish Autonomous Community of Andalusia, the progressive introduction of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes in a wide range of primary and secondary schools has probably produced the biggest turning point in Spain's modern educational history. CLIL is initially focused on…

This study has been prompted by a concern that the term intercultural understanding (IU) has appeared in English curriculum policy texts in order to address macro issues with scant pedagogical attention to its effective implementation at the micro level in the modern foreign languages (MFL) classroom. The article investigates pupils' perceptions…

The place of foreign language learning in education has a rich and diverse history since the introduction of compulsory schooling, with some countries including the learning of a foreign language as a compulsory part of the curriculum, whilst in others foreign language learning is seen as an optional subject suited for more academically minded…

Developing morphological awareness (MA) is an essential component of vocabulary growth, given that it can contribute to enhanced depth of vocabulary knowledge and provides a pathway to deeper associations with more members of a word family. Despite the considerable body of vocabulary research, specific relationships between different aspects of MA…

Following the Dearing Report on the provision and teaching of modern languages in England, there has been a drive to establish the teaching of modern languages in primary schools throughout England. This article looks at how the teaching of modern languages in the primary school (MLPS) in Scotland has developed since 1989--when the first pilot…

The fact that visual aids such as pictures or graphs can lead to greater comprehension by language learners has been well established. Nonetheless, the order of presenting visuals to listeners is left unattended. This study examined listening comprehension from a strategy of introducing visual information, either prior to or during an audio…

This article discusses "My UniSpace", an innovative project which involves undergraduate students in a British university mentoring online pupils aged 14-18 who are studying languages. The project was funded by Routes into Languages, an initiative aimed at increasing take-up in modern languages. "My UniSpace" offers pupils…

This article problematises certain aspects of methodology used for speaking practice and commonly applied in contemporary language teaching classrooms. It examines these particularly with relevance to diversity in adult learning groups. The aspects under scrutiny include the use of personal information in tasks, pair and group work, target…

When the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) asked the author to undertake a review of modern language provision in England, it was in response to concerns in the sector about falling numbers and diminishing funding. The challenge therefore given to him by HEFCE was both to review the situation and to make recommendations that…

To date, research results suggest that task repetition positively affects oral task performance. However, researchers have not yet shown the extension of the benefits of repeating the same task to performance of a new task. This article first provides an overview of the currently available research findings on task repetition and then presents the…

This comparative study, conducted in multicultural London, investigates the occurrence in interviews with a researcher and in constructed same-sex peer conversations of five linguistic features characteristic of London English in the speech of two groups of British-born adolescents: ethnic Bangladeshis and ethnic Chinese of Cantonese heritage. The…

This article reports on a collaborative research project which involved first-year distance learners of Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish at a New Zealand university. Drawing on the principles of Allwright's exploratory practice, the study aimed to gain an insight into the learners' experiences and conceptualisations in terms of their…

What drives students to study German at university level? Although motivational research has been booming in recent years, students' motivation to pursue a modern foreign language beyond school level has not received much attention in the UK. This article sheds light on the various reasons that drive students in the UK to pursue a modern foreign…