Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is well known for providing authentic opportunities for second and foreign language (L2) skill development. However, for many learners the use of traditional grammar within TBLT lacks the functional support necessary to create accurate and fluent L2 output. The current study replaced traditional grammar…

Prior research showed that interleaved practice (studying multiple skills at once) is more effective than blocked practice (studying only one skill at a time). This study aims to replicate the benefits of interleaved practice on the proceduralization of second language (L2) syntax and further examines the role of working memory (WM) in different…

Spanning the vital temporal interval between birth and the elementary school education, the preschool period is one of the most critical times of human life due to its importance in the formation and nourishment of personality. Specifically the preschool education enables children to acquire and develop basic knowledge, skills and habits, thus…

This article examines personality and participation in an online intercultural exchange (OIE) between 57 university students in Japan (n = 28) and Taiwan (n = 29). The two-month OIE used Facebook (FB) as the medium of communication. During the online exchange, participants communicated linguistically using English as their common language and…

In this paper, I argue for more and better learning metrics in higher education, eventually through an international, comparative assessment of students' learning outcomes. Better learning measures may help to improve transparency in the system by addressing the information asymmetry problem. If not addressed adequately, the lack of transparency…

Opportunities to improve skills and opportunities to teach or train others may be associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational commitment. The analysis reported in this paper used a subsample of 823 employees within two Japanese and three American worksites. We tested not only the direct relationships of each type of…

Background: Sex education should include social skills, such as those that allow individuals to relate, socialise, and communicate with others, to assist people with intellectual disability (ID) to live life fully in the community. Objectives: We administered and investigated the effects of a program involving 8 interactive sex education sessions…

This first "OECD Skills Outlook" presents the initial results of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), which evaluates the skills of adults in 22 OECD member countries and two partner countries. The PIAAC survey was designed to provide insights into the availability of some key skills and how they are used at work and at home through the…

This article examines how recent history textbooks from the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea present the Korean War. The comparative analysis focuses on four areas: the causes of the Korean War, American involvement in the war, Chinese involvement in the war, and the results of the war. Analysis of the central story lines reveals that…

U.S. students have consistently lagged behind their peers in other nations on international science assessments--a performance increasingly at odds with the challenge of being able to live and compete in a global environment, powered by innovations in science, engineering and technology. A strong foundation in science is clearly critical if…

Large corpora such as the British National Corpus and the COBUILD Corpus and Collocations Sampler are now accessible, free of charge, online and can be usefully incorporated into a process writing approach to help develop students' writing skills. This article aims to familiarize readers with these resources and to show how they can be usefully…

A comparison of the socialization and skill development of engineers in France and Japan reveals clear differences in the education/training, status, and professional/career development of engineers in the two countries. In France, engineers complete more than 5 years of initial training after the baccalaureate degree and subsequent entry into…

A study examined the role of employer training in ameliorating skill shortages and enhancing productivity and competitiveness. The study established that formal training by specialized personnel accounts for only 5-10% of the time newly hired workers are engaged in training activities and that existing labor market research instruments fail to…

Workplace training strategies in selected foreign countries were examined from the standpoint of their relevance to development of a national training policy in the United States. Case studies of the following were conducted: apprenticeship training in Germany, enterprise-based training in Japan, stimulation of training by training taxes in France…

A bibliography on intercultural nonverbal communication contains citations of interest primarily to Japanese teachers of English as a second language. Citations are organized in these categories: general information; chronemics; proxemics; personal space and territory; physical appearance and clothes; kinesics (posture and gestures); tactile…