In order to create long-term academic success for their students, it is critical for classroom teachers and administrators in language immersion settings to be effectively trained in best practices for teaching a second language. The purpose of this outcomes-based program evaluation was to explore the perceived effectiveness of the professional…

The program entitled "English in Action (EIA)", 9 year period DFID funded project in Bangladesh, was launched in 2008, for the desire to bring a change in the learning of English language. EIA works to reach a total of 25 million primary and secondary students and adult learners through communicative language learning techniques and the…

The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of stakeholders (leadership of Concordia Language Villages, staff members and villagers of "Lac du Bois", the French Language Village of Concordia Language Villages), related to achievement of the mission statement. The research question was: How do stakeholders in "Lac du…

While Chinese language learning in Australian schools is characterised by predominantly second language programs for learners who have had no prior exposure to the target language, there is increasing participation by Australian-born children who speak Putonghua (Mandarin) or another dialect at home. Curriculum and assessment frameworks and…

The study reported here investigates the predictive validity of language assessments by "Direct Entry" programs at an Australian University--programs developed on site for Non English Speaking Background international students, principally to provide (i) pre-entry academic and language preparation and (ii) language assessment for…

In this article, the author critiques the MLA Report. His first response to the MLA report is that it clearly identifies a number of the problems facing modern languages departments today. Enrollments and majors are declining in most modern languages departments throughout the U.S. Other academic departments do not strongly enforce language…

This article reports on the implementation of the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) in an Early Foreign Language Learning program. The goal of this research was to examine the performance of grade 4 and 5 students of Spanish on the IPA. Performance across the three communicative tasks is described and modifications to IPA procedures based on…

This article presents selected findings from an ethnographic study of classroom-based assessment practices in languages classrooms (Indonesian) in the final year of primary (Year 6) and the first year of secondary (Year 7), respectively. In particular, the paper focuses on differences between the respective year levels in how learning was assessed…

Although researchers have begun to explore the implementation of dynamic assessment (DA) with foreign language learners, few of these studies have occurred in the language classroom. Whereas DA is typically implemented in dyads, promising research in the field of foreign language learning suggests that DA may promote development with groups of…

This article reports on an online collaborative project between English language teachers pursuing a degree in TESL/TESOL from three universities in Malaysia--Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). A total of 142 teachers were involved in the study and about three to eight…

The aim of this study was to investigate vocabulary knowledge and growth across two different language-learning programmes in Hong Kong. The two programmes compared were English immersion programmes (IM) and regular English second-language programmes (RL2). While previous research has identified an overall advantage to IM with respect to language…

As universities in English-speaking countries recruit and enroll international students, a variety of forms of support are typically offered on and off campus to help students make a successful transition. The most common challenges for nonnative English-speaking international students are linguistic and cultural. In spite of meeting English…

Reading Comprehension is one of the four components tested by the "MUET" (Malaysian University English Test) for Sixth-Form students in Malaysia, and school teachers are charged with the task of helping these students improve. This article discusses how "reciprocal teaching strategies" could help low-proficiency Sixth-Form…

This article reports on the results of a project which used a social network site to support students on a year abroad and foster informal learning, particularly in the area of intercultural communication. The project employed a peer-mentoring structure to solve the problem of role conflict, in which users of these sites may feel some tension as…

The focus of this study is the development and implementation of the Iterative Needs Assessment/Evaluation Model for use as part of an English curriculum reform project at a four-year university in Japan. Three questions were addressed in this study: (a) what model components were necessary for use in a Japanese university setting; (b) what survey…