This paper discusses the attitudes and motivation Iranian learners have toward learning EFL at their university level. Although research of a similar nature has been done in other countries, the present study complements others by following 500 university learners and it provides another avenue for examining the language situation in Iran. To…

In the field of vocabulary acquisition, there have been many studies on the efficacy of word lists. However, very few of these were based on research in a classroom setting, and therefore, their results may not be applicable to standard classroom situations. This study investigated which of the five types of word lists (synonyms, antonyms,…

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of fears concerning the status of English in Quebec. Unlike in the past, many now claim that it is francophones themselves who risk undermining the achievements of 30 years of successful status planning. The finger is pointed in particular at young francophones, accused of adopting an unfettered…

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…

The present study was an attempt to probe into the feasibility and effectiveness of a reading instructional approach called MCSR--Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading. Based on a pretest-posttest design, MCSR was implemented with 42 university-level EFL freshmen. They met once a week and received EFL reading instruction according to MCSR for…

Young modern language (ML) learners' heightened, yet temporary, phonological sensitivity suggests an aptitude for spoken communication with peer native target language (TL) speakers. Opportunities for this can be achieved through videoconferencing (VC). As researcher and specialist teacher at a primary school in England, I undertook a study of VC…

The present study investigated Japanese students' EFL vocabulary development through e-mail interactions with a native English speaker (NS), with primary focus on students' imitation of new words. According to sociocultural theory, learners can internalize new linguistic knowledge by imitating an expert's expressions to create his/her own…

In recent years, the emphasis in second language (L2) oral proficiency assessment has shifted from linguistic accuracy to discourse strategies such as the ability to initiate, respond, and negotiate meaning. This has resulted in a growing interest in the discourse analysis of students' performance in different oral proficiency assessment formats.…

The demand of responsibilities among teachers has evolved not only in classroom management but also to the extent of promoting communication and interpersonal skills. Social media is integrated in schools and higher learning institutions for communication and reflection of learning which enhance teachers' performance in leadership quality and…

Seventy-eight native English speakers rated the foreign-accented speech (FAS) of 24 international students enrolled in an Intensive English programme at a public university in Texas on degree of accent, comprehensibility and communicative ability. Variables considered to potentially impact listeners' ratings were the sex of the speaker, the first…

This study examines the effects of learning context and age on second language development by comparing the language gains, measured in terms of oral and written fluency, lexical and syntactic complexity, and accuracy, experienced by four groups of learners of English: children in a study abroad setting, children in their at-home school, adults in…

The overwhelming weight of emphasis in language analysis in the teaching of English for Accounting (ESP) has been a concern for teachers of English at the College of Finance and Customs (CFC). In the ESP course, the teaching materials teach students to recognize the surface form by means of the specialist texts. The difficulties the students and…

The aim of this study was to find out the relationship between EFL students' social as well as cultural capital and their foreign language achievement, using Bourdieu's theories in the sociology of education as frames of reference. To this end, the Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ) was administered to 128 EFL learners majoring in…

Interaction in English as an International Language (EIL) setting provides myriad opportunities for negotiation of meaning, arguably beneficial for language acquisition. The present study aims at finding out how meaning is negotiated in EIL interaction among two groups of postgraduate TESOL international students from two Asian countries,…

This paper focuses on the views of twenty-six pre-service and eight in-service English teachers in Hong Kong concerning the information technology courses in their teacher education programmes. The findings of the study show that while both software applications and technological integration in teaching are highlighted in the course outline, the…