This paper presents the findings of a survey on research activities and research cultures across the CercleS network. The survey was conducted under the auspices of the CercleS Focus Group on Leadership and Management and aimed to explore the scope of research in Language Centres; the links between institutional factors such as staff contracts and…

This volume features current, innovative, and effective ways of developing instructional materials for diverse English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts. It is divided into four sections, each featuring pedagogical materials designed for specific groups of learners. The sections focus on materials for general English, ESP and EAP, CLIL, and ELT…

Due to recent unrest around the world, the number of refugees has increased dramatically in the last decade. In order to meet the needs of this population, host countries have had to quickly adapt to provide these refugees with basic needs. One such need is to have quality education for refugee children. The aim of this paper is to compare the…

Language skills are central to refugee integration and the availability of language courses could thus be a limiting factor. We explore how the most important provider of language courses in Germany, adult education centers (VHS), adapted their course supply to the refugee wave of 2015/2016. Our results highlight two channels through which the…

Poor literacy skills can result in exclusion and reduce people's capacity to participate in political, social, cultural and economic life. This is important for migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who seek to live and work in a dignified, safe and fair environment and to be engaged members of their new communities. The…

The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions and expectations of German language students, especially in terms of receptive skills. This study asks two main questions: (i) what are the expectations of students towards learning German and (ii) how are students' perceptions of German learning, especially reading and listening, the data…

For decades now, researchers and academics have lamented the mismatch between the representation of English in the classroom and the way the language is used in real-world contexts. Much of teaching is bound by curricula that determine not only the contents of their teaching but also the materials and assessment methods they use, they are crucial…

In this paper the results of an online survey (n=210) regarding the usefulness of Facebook for informal L2 learning will be presented. Participants were individual Facebook users who study either German (n=118) or Japanese (n=92). By using a combination of open and closed questions, the mostly quantitative findings of the survey indicate that for…

This paper outlines how digital technologies support innovation in teaching and learning the English language across Palestinian Higher Education Institutes. A European project collaborated to build staff capacity in knowledge and skills, shown here through the redesign of curricula, pedagogical training, the design and implementation of…

The increasing number of students with German as a second language (GL2) poses a great challenge for schools. Previous studies showed that especially young learners with a migration background are lagging behind in the acquisition of second language (L2) literacy. Experiencing problem behaviors (PB) in addition, might pose even greater challenges.…

The article presents the results of seventeen years (2001-2018) study of professors' familiarity with the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment" (CEFR), including the related publications, and the academicians' ability to use the developed common reference levels of language proficiency,…

We report on research conducted during a language assessment literacy (LAL) project set up for employees at a university language centre. Teachers, students and an external accreditation body requested a revision of the end-of-course exams to increase comparability, transparency and alignment to course aims. We used a collaborative approach where…

This paper explores ways to integrate social justice issues pertaining to decolonization and anti-racism into the world language classroom at all levels of instruction. It describes tasks designed to introduce language learners briefly to German colonialism, raise awareness of colonial legacies in contemporary German-speaking societies, and…

This papers looks at bilingual books for German-speaking learners of English and discusses their potential for vocabulary acquisition. Specifically, it focuses on bilingual books following a sociolinguistic structural principle, i.e. books in which the arrangement of languages reflects multilingual practices of non-monolingual language users. The…

Writing, as a highly complex strategic literacy skill alongside reading, is an essential prerequisite for learning and determines a student's educational success. In diverse contexts, a student's linguistic repertoire may involve multiple languages, which may serve as mutual resources in his or her multilingual writing skill development. Drawing…