This is an action research report about the making of three dialogic learners, Cindy, Yori, and Leo at an arts-oriented university in China. It draws inspiration from Gao's dialogical communicator (2014), which is constructed on Bakhtin's dialogic theory (1981). These students, with their struggles and efforts, will hopefully become open-minded…

Teacher scaffolding plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of classroom learning, yet little is known about the effective features of scaffolding in classes using content language integrated learning (CLIL), especially in terms of its effects on learners' language and cognitive development. To address this issue, the study adopts a classroom…

The attention to fostering learners' critical thinking and creativity skills in secondary school and college students is growing in Western and non-Western countries. This study investigated the integration of a creativity and critical thinking course in an Intensive English Programs (IEP) to determine how the same course may contribute to…

This research compared the contributions of lexical inferencing, decoding, and listening comprehension to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking learners of English as a second language (ESL) enrolled in university bridging programs in the U.S. and Chinese-speaking university learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in mainland China.…

This study compared the effectiveness of deductive instruction and guided inductive instruction for developing semantic radical knowledge of Chinese characters. The evaluation was conducted through a quasi-experimental 3-week intervention involving 46 intermediate learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). The results indicated that guided…

The United States is faced with a serious shortage of linguistically and culturally competent students to meet the needs of our global population and economy. In order to address this deficiency, the US government has funded several initiatives to increase our nation's capacity to train teachers and students in critical languages. The Office of…

One fundamental way to determine the validity of standardized English-language test scores is to investigate the extent to which they reflect anticipated learning effects in different English-language programs. In this study, we investigated the extent to which the "TOEFL iBT"® practice test reflects the learning effects of students at…

"Open Doors"® is the only long-standing, comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars in the United States and on American students studying abroad for academic credit. "Open Doors" features graphics, data tables, and policy-oriented analyses, and is the essential resource for those concerned with…

"Open Doors" is a comprehensive information resource on the 764,495 international students in the United States in 2011/12 and on the 273,996 U.S. students who studied abroad for academic credit in 2010/11. The Institute of International Education (IIE), one of the largest and most experienced higher education exchange agencies in the…

This article explores teachers' identity formation through a narrative inquiry of the professional identity of an EFL teacher, Minfang, in the People's Republic of China. Drawing on Wenger's (1998) social theory of identity formation as a dual process of identification and negotiation of meanings, it examines the lived experience of Minfang as an…

Discusses two compulsory reading courses offered simultaneously for English language majors in China: Intensive reading (IR) and extensive reading (ER). Discusses how the role of IR has been challenged over the last two decades. Suggests that IR is still a valuable approach but that teachers need to revise their methods and procedures. (Author/VWL)