The purposes of this study were to examine the effectiveness of cooperative learning approach in reducing foreign language anxiety and to investigate its impact on language proficiency of 40 sophomore students enrolled in EN 211 course in the second semester of 2009 academic year at Bangkok University. Three instruments employed were the…

The purpose of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in gesture frequency and the extent to which exposure to two cultures would affect the gesture frequency of bilinguals when speaking in both languages. The Chinese-speaking monolinguals from China, English-speaking monolinguals from America, and Chinese-English bilinguals from…

The Curriculum Specifications for English, set out in the Ministry of Education Malaysia syllabus for Year 1, calls for instruction in phonemic awareness (PA) as part of the acquisition of word recognition skills. Students are expected to be able to learn individual letters of the alphabet and their sounds; read aloud consonants in initial…

Framed in a cognitively-oriented strand of research on corrective feedback (CF) in SLA, the controlled three-stage (composition/comparison-noticing/revision) study reported in this paper investigated the effects of two forms of direct CF (error correction and reformulation) on noticing and uptake, as evidenced in the written output produced by a…

This study investigated how immigrant parents describe and explain their family language policy concerning their child's preschool bilingual development, and also explored the factors linked to the parents' choice of bilingual or monolingual kindergarten for their child. The study design was based on a comparison of 2 groups of parents: those who…

A weblog (blog or Web log) has recently become one of the most widely used Internet applications. The current study concerns developing a blog specifically designed for learners learning English as a foreign language. The study investigated the effects of extensive writing by comparing the writing performance in the first three and the last three…

As the immigrant population in the United States steadily increases, so does the need for schools to support immigrant students and their families. Providing support serves the dual purpose of assisting the families and fostering a collaborative home-school relationship that benefits everyone. Principals can work with their student support…

In recent years, idioms have received overwhelming attention in language pedagogy. Experts in the field have sought ways to optimize learning and teaching of these prefabricated language chunks. It is now maintained that the meaning of idioms which was once deemed as arbitrary is somehow "motivated" by their literal, original usage.…

This study examines skillful EFL writers' and less skillful writers' EFL performance and perceptions of paraphrasing and inappropriate text borrowing, the extent to which their performance matches perceptions, and the factors behind their problematic text borrowing. Ninety-five postgraduates and undergraduates in Taiwan accomplished a paraphrasing…

Responses of Vietnamese undergraduate students majoring in English to the integration of a Moodle site during an upper intermediate macro-skill course highlight differences in learner autonomy and expectations. Students' general attitudes towards and participation in this online Web 2.0 environment provide the basis for the research reported in…

Previous research on blended learning (BL) implementation in L2 instructional settings considers L2 teachers' use of the incorporated CALL modes and learners' attitudes toward the CALL modes as critical factors, among other factors, for achieving successful BL implementation. In the literature, these two factors are suggested to be strongly…

A number of countries in Europe, including the UK, have adopted language and citizenship tests or courses as a requirement for granting citizenship to immigrants. To acquire citizenship, immigrants to the UK must pass a test on British society and culture, or demonstrate progress in the English language. For those with an insufficient command of…

In 2007, the presidents and chancellors of Hispanic-serving institutions identified 5 challenges that their institutions will face as the end of the first decade of the 21st century approaches. Almost 8 of 10 respondents listed lack of funding as the most important challenge. The 2nd most important issue was the poor academic preparedness of…

Reading difficulties and second language acquisition have attracted international interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years. This is because increased mobility between countries means that educators are faced with the problem of providing appropriate assessment and assistance for students with different linguistic and cultural…

Motivation is one of the most frequently discussed variables due to its crucial role in successful second or foreign language learning. Several studies have shown the construct of motivation and relationships between motivational components and language achievement. However, it is still unclear whether or not these individual-difference variables…