This paper seeks to evaluate a specific implementation of a reflective approach to teacher education in a pre-service course in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) in a UK university. This implementation is the use of delayed debriefing (supervisory conference) after lesson observation, providing the student teacher with…

The unique magic of music in the English language learning classroom is explored, with emphasis on research, learning objectives, and rewards that come from using music regularly.

This article outlines an approach to explicit grammar instruction that uses literary texts as comprehensible, meaning-bearing input. In this approach, which employs strategies from the teaching of grammar and the teaching of reading, literary texts serve as the basis of the inductive presentation of new grammatical forms and as a springboard for…

Since China initiated its modernization program in the late 1970s, professional development of secondary teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) has been given much prominence because of the perceived important role that English can play in the modernization drive. This article provides a critical overview of secondary EFL teacher…

This study reports on Japanese university-level EFL teacher N50 and student N660 reactions to the notion of making English an official language, as proposed by an advisory board to Prime Minister Obuchi in 2000. The study also reports on beliefs about English language learning and teaching in general in terms of goals, proficiencies of Japanese…

Investigates use of a functional approach to discourse analysis--knowledge structure analysis, which focuses on meaning, form, and function simultaneously--to evaluate both writing development and content learning. Examined written texts in science, produced by English-as-a-Second-Language students with limited to intermediate English language…

Most studies in the field of synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) deal with interactions between language learners, while interactions between native speakers (NS) and learners have not been explored to the same extent, particularly to ascertain whether chatting with NS can provide a pedagogically sound bridge to conversation. Through…

Sandra Kouritzin's "Word from the Editor" in the last issue of this journal is a refreshingly heartfelt and honest appraisal of her own take on the subject positions second-language educators occupy in terms of class, race, or gender. In their relatively privileged profession, second-language educators have ambiguous relationships with…

Language questions are increasingly on the agenda in Europe. This paper addresses some problematic aspects of language teaching and learning that have come to the fore in the Baltic states after the European Union enlargement of 2004. First, the paper aims at providing relevant information about language policies in the former USSR and the…

The efficacy of teacher error/grammar correction in second language writing classes has been the subject of much controversy, including a published debate in an earlier volume of this journal [J. Second Language Writing 8 (1999) 1; J. Second Language Writing 8 (1999) 111]. In this paper, the state-of-the-art in error correction research in L2…

The written English vocabulary of 72 deaf elementary school students of various proficiency levels in American Sign Language (ASL) was compared with the performance of 60 hearing English-as-a-second-language (ESL) speakers and 61 hearing monolingual speakers of English, all of similar age. Students were asked to retell "The Tortoise and the Hare"…

This paper discusses findings from research conducted in an inner-city middle school in England where the majority of pupils spoke languages other than English as a first language. The research was motivated both by a belief that the language needs of English as an additional language (EAL) pupils are not properly addressed in the National…

This paper reports on the grammatical and programmatical production aspects of the "Hebrewer," a cross-platform web-based reference work in the form of a Hebrew inflection generator. The Hebrewer, a Java applet/servlet combination, is currently capable of generating 2,500 nouns in full declension and 500 verbs in full conjugation,…

Truly current, up-to-the-minute video by native speakers using the language for real communication can make the language and culture come alive for students. With the explosion of broadband Internet access through cable and DSL, better connections in schools, faster low cost computers, and better graphics adapters, access to authentic video on the…

This study focuses on the various playful uses of language that occurred during a semester-long study of two German language courses using one type of synchronous network-based medium, the MOO. Research and use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) have flourished in the study of second-language acquisition (SLA) since the late…