Many studies that have investigated the educational value of online machine translation (MT) in second language (L2) writing generally report significant improvements after MT use, but no study as of yet has comprehensively analyzed the effectiveness of MT use in terms of various measures in syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and…

This paper presents a two-session teaching unit on German change-of-state tokens such as "oh," "ach" and "achso." Goal is to teach students the appropriate reaction through change-of-state tokens in various situations. Students are provided with authentic data based on empirical research in conversation analysis (CA).…

The current study set out to investigate the effect of dynamic assessment (DA) on the speaking accuracy and fluency of pre-intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. In contrast to static assessment, DA is conceptualized as an interactive approach towards assessment which combines teaching and testing in a unitary instructional…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of vocabulary enhancement activities on vocabulary learning in an ESP course. In designing the activities, technical terms on journal entries were chosen for the acquisition of language necessary for the successful implementation of accounting major's professional tasks. The desirable…

This study investigated the effects of three fluency-enhancing activities on interpreting learners' performance. Four groups of students took part in the experiment. They were assigned to one of the four task conditions: pre-task planning, task repetition, formulae acquisition, and a control group. A temporal approach was adopted to measure…

The University of KwaZulu-Natal has a bilingual language policy (2006) where students may receive instruction in isiZulu as well as in English. An online survey was carried out for all academic and support staff to gauge their linguistic capacity in isiZulu. Staff profiles were created in relation to their respective Colleges, Schools and…

Despite criticisms set against methods by postmethodologists who believe that teaching methods must be cast aside, new methods can be proposed that better meet learners' needs as a continuation of the chain of former methods introduced in the past. The present study proposes some language teaching techniques after introducing the theoretical…

This study describes how oral language was assessed in an advanced-level college foreign language (FL) conversation course. Learners used the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines to guide self-analyses of their oral production at intervals throughout the course. The intent was to provide opportunities for…

Previous studies on the effect of planning on language production have revealed that planning does have a positive effect on language performance in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy. The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of pre-task, on-line, and both pre-task and on-line planning on fluency, accuracy, and…

Discusses how understanding translation in new ways can enrich language programs and serve today's students' more practical needs, noting that learning to be fluent is not the same as learning to be a translator. The article offers suggestions for preparing students to understand what translation entails and shows how translation can stimulate…

This special issue consists of the following seven articles on communicative competence: (1) "Psycholinguistics and Language Teaching," by Elisabeth Ingram; (2) "Current Trends in Language Teaching at the C.R.A.P.E.L.," by Philip Riley; (3) "Who Needs a Teacher? - An Alternative to the 'Conversation Class'," by Ken…