Symbolic competence, "the ability to actively manipulate and shape one's environment on multiple scales of time and space" (Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008, p. 667), offers researchers and educators the ability to understand how learners position themselves. This positioning involves a vying for semiotic resources as a means to question…

The study of foreign competence at the present stage of the higher education development becomes more relevant. The article emphasizes the organizational-pedagogical conditions, providing the formation of foreign competence in students with the features of linguistic giftedness. The way to reveal the students, who have the features of linguistic…

With Kazakhstan's accession to the Bologna Process, particular importance is attached to the professionally-oriented approach of teaching foreign languages to students, which facilitates formation of their foreign language communicative ability. The article deals with the problem of teaching English to students for the purpose of formation of…

Speakers of a second language (L2), regardless of profciency level, communicate for specifc purposes. For example, an L2 speaker of English may wish to build rapport with a co-worker by chatting about the weather. The speaker will draw on various resources to accomplish her communicative purposes. For instance, the speaker may say "falling…

Background: Research studies (e.g., Phakiti, Language Testing 25(2):237-272, 2008a; Phakiti, Language Assessment Quarterly 5(1): 20-42, 2008b; Purpura, Learner strategy use and performance on language tests: a structural equation modeling approach, 1999) conducted on the construct validation of Bachman and Palmer's (1996) strategic competencehas…

The aim of this article is to focus on university students' attitudes towards English and their anxieties concerning the use of English in the Basque Country, a multilingual context where exposure to English is limited but internationalisation is an important aim. Participants were 360 undergraduate university students of business (N = 180) and…

In Colombia, the development of communicative skills of English as a foreign language in students of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) is considered as a priority so the professionals can face the challenges of a globalized world. This project aimed to determine the effectiveness of using CLIL approach through the academic subjects in first…

There is a strong international demand for official certification of French competence. A range of tests are available to meet this goal. Among the recognized tests available for this purpose is the "DELF" ("Diplôme d'études en langue française"). The "DELF" has been awarded the Association of Language Testers in…

Corrective feedback (CF) and task complexity are two important pedagogical topics in second language acquisition research in recent years, but there is few research investigating effects of CF on speaking task complexity in China's university classroom settings. This research, through conducting different versions of speaking task experiments…

The current study aims to present a critical analysis of research on social networking sites (SNSs) in second language teaching and learning (L2TL) context. Twenty-two studies published from 2011 to 2017 were included in the analysis through the selection criteria devised by the researcher. The descriptive analysis reveals that Facebook was the…

Increasing EFL learners' willingness to communicate has always been a concern to teachers. This study aimed at investigating the effect of extended wait time in EFL classrooms on the learners' willingness to communicate. In order to carry out this quasi-experimental study, 60 adult EFL learners at a basic level of proficiency in English (CEFR A1…

In this conversation, two U.S.-trained German language and culture educators discuss their approaches to intercultural communicative competence (ICC). Working in different educational settings -- in a German and Global Studies program at a public university in the U.S., and at the Institute for Intercultural Communication of a German university…

To realize competence-based education in the university, the goals of the curriculum should be described according to competence, while measurement and performance should be managed using appropriate core competence diagnostic tools. The purpose of this study is therefore to identify and explore the improvement directions of curriculum through…

The goal of this paper is to enhance the quality of language teaching and improve language teacher training by making spoken interaction research accessible to practitioners. Research on teacher cognition has shown that basic beliefs and assumptions about language affect language teacher training programs and language teachers' priorities in the…

This paper describes a project-based oral activity trialled with Year 1 and Year 2 students of the Spanish Degree Programme at the University of York. The objective of the activity aimed to develop students' speaking confidence through the completion of an authentic task based on the concept of authentic assessment. This task was implemented…