Investigated the effects of readers' gender, topic familiarity, enjoyment, and interest on second language reading. University students of Spanish completed a reading passage each day, a written recall comprehension task, and a questionnaire. Findings suggest that in addition to linguistic factors, other variables such as gender, passage content,…

Presents the results of a research project involving language teachers in Italy, their use of the target language (TL) and its interrelationship with collaborative and independent learning. The investigation was conducted by asking 21 Italian teachers of English to fill in a questionnaire concerning their beliefs regarding classroom use of TL. (15…

Priority goals and objectives of 1,373 intermediate-level college students of French and Spanish and their instructors were examined. Results show students' goal priorities to be related to oral/aural skills of speaking, listening, and pronunciation; instructors ranked speaking high but pronunciation low. The survey instrument is appended.…

Examines aspects of cross-cultural studies, delineates a concept of culture, explores the interplay of culture and ethics, and analyzes the shifting cultural and economic values as issues that either the economists or the humanists will deal with under the banner of the future global village. (Author/VWL)

A questionnaire was designed to elicit what adult learners disliked most about learning English. Seven dislikes were identified, including the following: textbooks in English only, role plays, drills, textbooks with no reading material or with artificial texts, homework, inflexible teachers, and audiotapes. (Author/VWL)

Describes a computer program developed for students learning Korean as a foreign language and reports on a small study concerned with the evaluation of the program. Presents practical considerations for the development and use of the program called "Reading & Dragging" and attempts to answer questions about students' behavior during the computer…

Presents findings of a study into the use of German as the main teaching medium in fourth- and fifth-form grammar school classes. The article focuses on pupil perceptions of the use of German in the classroom. Results indicate that students are aware of, and satisfied with, the extent to which German is used in their class. (27 references) (CK)

Examines students' views of an Initial Teacher (IT) Training component of a modern language course and their resulting attitudes toward the use of computers in the language classroom. Most of the students developed a positive attitude towards this use of computers and intended to use them in their future posts. (eight references) (CK)

Describes Greek language preparation for English students participating in an exchange program as part of their primary teacher training. It is concluded that the self-directed preparation can be improved by an outline of the stages in the learning of Greek, the availability of required support materials, progress checks, and testing of students…

Explores primary school teachers' perspectives on assessment in English in Singapore and discusses the impact of assessment on the importance of research into teachers' views on curriculum and assessment issues. Participants completed questionnaires and participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate teachers are strongly aware of…

Examines chemical engineering students' attitudes to text and other parts of English language textbooks. A questionnaire was administered to a group of undergraduates. Results reveal one way students get around the problem of textbook reading. (Author/VWL)

This study investigates whether proficient second language (L2) speakers of Spanish and English use the same parsing strategies as monolinguals when reading temporarily ambiguous sentences containing a complex noun phrase followed by a relative clause, such as "Peter fell in love with the daughter of the psychologist who studied in California."…

Although the use of translation in learning a foreign language is much maligned by language teachers, translation is widely used in learners' foreign language learning process. It appears that learners often use translation as a learning strategy to comprehend, remember, and produce a foreign language. However, relatively little research attention…

Although there is extensive research into what constitutes second language learning motivation and how it works, most of the existing work is carried out in ESL environments, and is mainly concerned with motivation to communicate using the target language. However, in EFL environments such as Japan, students have quite limited contact with target…

With an increasing number of Chinese learners pursuing higher education in Western universities, the characteristics of Chinese students have raised many discussions and debates (e.g. Carson, 1992; Watkins & Biggs, 2001). Two contradictory views are commonly reflected in the existing literature: being passive, quiet, submissive, or disciplined…