This report evaluates a project to provide a year-long English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) institute for 100 ESL literacy providers and instructors in Pennsylvania in order to enhance the skills of the participants in the institute. The ESL Institute provides an intensive 3-day summer workshop followed up by two 2-day workshops and a spring 2-day…

This report is part of an annual national survey that examines salaries of full-time teaching faculty in 54 selected disciplines. Data for the study as a whole were collected from 305 public and 403 private institutions for the baseline year of 1997-1998 and the trend year of 1999-2000. This portion of the study covers salary data for faculty in…

This study stems in part from a desire to correct the misapprehension that Japanese students are somehow less autonomous than learners from other cultural backgrounds. The view that Japanese learners tend to be passive, obedient, and quiet is commonly accepted. Much of this "evidence" is anecdotal and comes from teacher observation of…

In this research synthesis, notions of literacy from a variety of inclusive rather than exclusive perspectives are presented. Notions of national literacies, mother-tongue literacies, multiple literacies, and bi-literacies are explored. Information and research pertaining to threatened languages, language shift, and language loss is presented,…

Anxiety is believed to affect foreign language learning and performance. This preliminary study investigates the role of high school Japanese learning experience in student anxiety while taking an introductory Japanese course in college. This study shows that the presence or absence of high school Japanese instruction affects levels and sources of…

Many teachers of adult learners of English have found dialogue journals, interactive writing with a teacher or other individual, to be an important part of their classes. Dialogue journals not only open new channels of communication, but they also provide natural contexts for language and literacy development. When adult learners write with their…

This paper documents the development and field testing of pedagogical materials needed for six 5-week modules of French language instruction and introduction to Quebec's Francophone culture and business practices. Presently available materials produced in the United States too often focus on France and French business practices. Similarly,…

Second language (L2) computer-adaptive testing (CAT) is a technologically advanced method of assessment in which the computer selects and presents test items to examinees according to the estimated level of the examinee's language ability. The basic notion of an adaptive test is to mimic automatically what a wise examiner would normally do.…

This paper details a 2-year study of exemplary uses of electronic texts (information displayed electronically on a computer screen) in two English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning contexts. Topics include the following: the need and desire to communicate; opportunities for topic control; and opportunities for planned and unplanned discourses.…

A study compared the language of interactions of teachers with students who are native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English in academic writing tutorial sessions. Data were gathered through discourse analysis of transcripts of 12 tutorials and interviews with the participants. Analysis of talk examined topic initiation,…

This paper reviews the history, definitions, descriptions, and current trends in whole language, an alternative language teaching philosophy. The entire construct of motivation is reviewed and defined. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the implementation of the whole language approach affects student motivation in an English as a…

This paper presents a very comprehensive overview of the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, presenting the views of critics as well as supporters. CLT views language as a vehicle for communication, and it recognizes as its aim the teaching of communicative competence, which includes grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and…

From our experience doing workshops and courses for teachers about cooperative learning, we have chosen ten of the most commonly asked nuts and bolts questions. The suggestions listed below come from our own ESL and EFL classes, ideas from colleagues and from the teacher participants in our cooperative learning workshops and courses, and from…

This article reports a study examining the presence of environmental issues in ELT coursebooks published since 1990. Seventeen randomly-selected coursebooks were analysed in order to find the percentage of activities related to environmental issues. Such activities were then examined to establish whether they involved participation in…

Everything changes over time, even languages. Despite language teachers, grammar books, and standardise exams, there's no way to stop languages from changing. One aspect of language change of particular interest to members and supporters of women's rights organisations is the ongoing shift from what some people call "gender-exclusive"…