The inspiration for our project arose from a perceived gap between research in foreign/second language learning and classroom practice. In order to address this issue, we created a web site containing summaries of seminal articles in the area of CALL--computer assisted language learning. The summaries are useful for many teachers who do not have…

Active communication with others is key to human learning. This straightforward premise currently undergirds much theory and research in student learning in general, and in second language and literacy learning in particular. Both of these academic areas have long acknowledged communication's central role in successful learning with the exact…

Technological advances have brought about the ever-increasing utilisation of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) media in the learning of a second language (L2). Computer-mediated communication, for example, provides a practical means for extending the learning of spoken language, a challenging process in tonal languages such as Chinese,…

Language teachers need to provide students with a context for genuine communication (Sullivan, 2000). Project-oriented computer-assisted language learning (PrOCALL) attempts to achieve this by orienting learners towards tasks, which encourages them to communicate in the target language while working towards completion of a project (Debski, 2000).…

This study investigated the acquisition of speaking skills in an online distance education course of 19 first semester Spanish learners. The possibility of oral development in a strictly online course was examined based on students' pronunciation production in two types of recorded speaking activities and in two real-time conversations. Students…

This article describes the evolution of communication technologies, accompanying transformations in everyday communicative activity, and pedagogical possibilities these tools support in second and foreign language (L2) settings. We begin with an overview of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and uses of the Internet to mediate…

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) forms an integral part of the first-year Spanish course, "Spanish Without Walls" (SWW), designed for distance education. The CMC component of SWW supports bimodal (i.e., oral and written) interactions among students and the instructor and provides the same kinds of benefits as those in face-to-face…

The study of curriculum materials is of interest to social researchers seeking to understand the social constructions of reality. All texts embody a number of purposeful choices about how reality is to be represented, and these choices have consequences for what is "foregrounded, backgrounded, placed in the margins, distorted, short-cut,…

In collaboration with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Department of Education and Training, the Australian National University has been offering a professional development program for language teachers (called LIFT, or Language Inservice for Teachers) for more than ten years. As the program is specially tailored to meet teachers' current…

The paper discusses the relationship between learning objectives and testing procedures in the Department of English at the University of Botswana, based on an examination of some course outlines and examination papers. Observations show that course designs are deficient in the articulation of learner outcomes. This deficiency is reflected in the…

For immigrants and refugees, access to a national or majority language is an important issue. According to its immigrant language training policy, Canada offers its newcomers language instruction for the purposes of settlement and integration. One important aspect of settlement and integration involves literacy. Our study examined the concept of…

If it is to be argued that self-access language learning centres (SACs) provide an efficient and effective alternative or complement to more traditionally accepted modes of language learning and teaching, it remains a serious concern that there is no research-based framework specifically developed for their evaluation. It is within the context of…

This case study aims to investigate the role of teachers' personal practical knowledge in interactive decision making for three pre-service non-native ESL teachers. The research question is: What role does pre-service ESL teachers' personal practical knowledge (operationalized as teaching maxims in this study) play in their interactive decisions…

Reading and understanding a text presents a variety of processing problems for L2 learners. The organizational pattern of a text has been considered by some researchers to have an important influence in this process. This article describes an experimental study of a group of Hong Kong schoolchildren and presents evidence that learners reading in…

As a steady stream of recent papers indicates, ELT curriculum reform projects are not always as successful as they might be. One overall reason for this situation appears to be a failure to adequately take into account concepts and practices from the world of innovation management. This paper describes an attempt to contribute towards ameliorating…