This study investigated teachers' classroom practices in teaching English writing skills through competence-based language teaching among secondary students in the Mtama district. It aimed to identify teachers' instructional strategies and explore the challenges faced in ordinary-level classrooms. Employing a qualitative case study design, the…

Using a randomized control trial, we evaluated the impact of a year-long professional learning (PL) program for teachers designed to support their multilingual learners' language and literacy skills. The PL included evidence-based instructional practices for literacy, a semi-structured model for collaboration, and a strengths-based approach in…

In this article the researchers explain a concept that they have termed "critical biliteracy instruction." Utilizing a sociocultural approach to literacy and language learning, they examine discourse theory and the four resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990) to support the approaches they describe. Then they explore research-based…

In this commentary, Flores states that language policing traps language-minoritized students in the position of having to reject their home language practices as inferior to the language practices of schooling. Language-minoritized students who are unable or unwilling to conform to these expectations, says Flores, are placed in the solitary…

A model-based approach for matching language learners to texts of appropriate difficulty is described. Results are communicated to test takers via a targeted reading range expressed on the reporting scale of an automated text complexity measurement tool (ATCMT). Test takers can use this feedback to select reading materials that are well matched to…

Despite the promise of research conducted at the intersection of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), natural language processing, and second language acquisition, few studies have explored the potential benefits of using intelligent CALL systems to deepen our understanding of the process and products of second language (L2) learning. The…

Of the four English language skills, speaking enjoys a superior status. Accordingly, it should be given high priority while teaching. In spite of its importance, teaching English speaking skill to Arab EFL learners has always been an exacting task for Arab teachers of English because it is considered a foreign language, i.e. not widely spoken or…

Miscommunications appear to offer powerful L2 learning opportunities. In particular, they often arouse emotions that facilitate event recall, and may motivate learners by providing implicit evidence of the communicative importance and personal relevance of underlying language features. This article reports on a pedagogical approach to utilizing…

This case study reports the results of a genre-based approach, which was used to explicitly teach the touristic landmark description to fourth-grade students of Spanish as a foreign language. The instructional model and unit of instruction were informed by the pedagogies of the Sydney School of Linguistics and an instructional model for…

This article explores a technique that can be used for almost any kind of classroom listening practice and with all kinds of classes. It seems to work well both in exam preparation and in regular textbook listening exercises.

Policy-makers and practitioners in Australian higher education increasingly view English language proficiency (ELP) as a tripartite construct consisting of English proficiency for academic study, interpersonal communication, and more recently, the workplace. This paper examines this assumption and identifies the significant implications it has for…

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of two landmark articles concerning the "good language learner". In the years since, vigorous debate has revolved around both theoretical issues (including definition, classification, theoretical foundation, and the relationship of strategies to successful learning) and…

Being driven by the hypothetico-deductive mode of inquiry, previous studies have tested the effectiveness of theory-driven interventions under controlled experimental conditions to come up with universally applicable generalizations. To make a case in the opposite direction, this data-driven study aims at uncovering techniques and strategies…

Dynamic systems theory (DST) is presented in this article as a suitable approach to research the acquisition of second language (L2) because of its close alignment with the process of second language learning. Through a process of identifying and comparing the characteristics of a dynamic system with the process of L2 learning, this article…

My paper situates literacy in the pre-symbolic implications of the maternal relation. Turning to child psychoanalysis, particularly Melanie Klein's theories of infancy and symbolization, my paper discusses the role the child's inner life plays in her engagements with literacy. Citing cases of second language learning, I pose literacy as…