In a neuroimaging study focusing on young bilinguals, we explored the brains of bilingual and monolingual babies across two age groups (younger 4-6 months, older 10-12 months), using fNIRS in a new event-related design, as babies processed linguistic phonetic (Native English, Non-Native Hindi) and nonlinguistic Tone stimuli. We found that phonetic…

This paper explores the attitudes of teachers, as adult learners, towards learning to do animation. A part of popular culture which second-language students enjoy, until recently, animation has been technically too demanding for non-specialists to learn. Adult learners can experience e-learning as transformative, but also as a barrier. Thus,…

Reading and vocabulary instruction can serve as an instructional process to respond to English language learner (ELL) needs. The purpose of this review of literature was to determine whether reading and vocabulary instruction should be used as core strategies for supporting ELLs requiring interventions as a response to the Texas English Language…

This article reports on the South African results of a study to identify and explain relationships between some major factors associated with successful reading at Grade 5. With 11 official languages, educational policy in South Africa advocates an additive bilingualism model, and students in Grades 1 to 3 are taught in their mother tongue.…

This study discusses the industrial training programme at the University of Malaya in Malaysia, specifically the issues that need to be addressed in order to enhance the employability skills of graduates. Findings from the feedback obtained from trainees and organizations in the 2008/2009 academic session were examined in terms of the extent to…

This study set out to investigate the relationship between quality of work life and teacher motivation among 160 secondary school English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Tehran, Iran. In addition, 30 of the participants were randomly selected to take part in follow-up interviews which asked why they felt the way they reported. The results…

In this commentary, Lardiere's discussion of features is compared with the use of features in constraint-based theories, and it is argued that constraint-based theories might offer a more elegant account of second language acquisition (SLA). Further evidence is reported to question the accuracy of Chierchia's (1998) Nominal Mapping Parameter.…

Scholars and practitioners have increasingly come to recognise the centrality of learner agency in generating learning opportunities. Such agency is most clearly observed in the initiatives that learners take in the language classroom. Despite the importance of learner initiatives, however, a precise and comprehensive understanding of what such…

Although the concepts of critical thinking and self-voice have been extensively discussed in a second language writing, little attention has been given, on the pedagogical level, to critical thinking and self-voice in college EFL writing instruction. To fill such a void, this paper attempts to propose some pedagogical tasks namely: persuasive…

Written by a WAC program director and second language writing studies scholar, this article raises questions about how second language writers are faring in WAC programs and the extent to which the fields of second language writing and WAC are informed by each other's scholarship. In this article, Cox draws from her review of 26 journal articles…

For a growing number of people around the world, the ability to speak English has become an important skill and an integral part of their lives, similar to the ability to use a computer. This, in turn, means that English is unquestionably no longer exclusively associated with the identities of nations traditionally referred to as…

Transfer has been discussed from different points of view since the advent of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis [13], [8]. Mishina-Mori [19] has defied transfer as merging grammatical properties from one language to another. The effect of transfer from a first language (L1) to a second language (L2) or a third language (L3) has been viewed…

This volume offers teachers in the ESL/EFL classroom some of the first published materials for guiding learners past grammar into authentic-sounding (conventional) utterances and sequences, replacing the scripted unnatural or stilted dialogue provided in textbooks. Teachers will find a range of pedagogical activities to put to immediate use in the…

Since Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) have the potential to be "an extremely powerful learning tool" (O'Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Russo & Kupper, 1985a, p.43), the use of LLSs helps the learners retrieve and store material, and facilitate their learning (Grander & Maclntyre, 1992), they are sensitive to the learning context and to…

This paper examines literacy and language learning across the lifespan within the context of immigrants in the Canadian context. It explores the process of improving literacy skills and acquiring second or third language skills through the systems of formal, non-formal and informal learning, as defined by the OECD [Organisation for Economic…