Authentic materials such as TED Talks have become an everyday presence in the ELT classroom, often for practice listening and taking notes. However, teachers can struggle to teach the sub-skills that are involved in notetaking, and instead often simply tell students to 'take notes'. This approach lacks the scaffolding required for the complex…

This study aimed to investigate how 33 preschool teachers' and 30 special educational needs teachers in Swedish preschools documented and described children's speech, language and communication development. The views on concepts as 'scientific basis', 'proven experience' and ways to follow language development for children in need of extra-support…

The present paper looks at the issue of standardization in L2 oral testing. Whereas external examiners are frequently used globally, some countries opt for test-takers' own teachers as examiners instead. In the present study, Sweden is used as a case in point, with a focus on the mandatory, high-stakes, summative, ninth-grade national test in…

The purposes of this study are to examine the relation between playing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games in the wild and L2 English vocabulary and to offer comparisons with non-gamers' vocabulary. Data were collected from two samples of teenage L2 English learners in Sweden, Sample A (N = 1,069) and Sample B (N = 16). Questionnaires and…

The main aim of this study is to analyze and discuss the similarities and the differences between English language teacher educational programs at universities in Turkey, and to identify the undergraduate students' ideas about their current curriculum. In addition to this, the study aims to compare the education of English language teacher…

Developing the skill to form derivatives is a slow incremental process even for native speakers of English, starting in elementary school and continuing through high school. In fact, it appears to be a universally challenging area of the lexicon. Nevertheless, studies have shown that it is one of the most important skills to possess for a learner…

This is the first collection of research studies to explore the potential for mixed methods to shed light on foreign or second language learning by young learners in instructed contexts. It brings together recent studies undertaken in Cameroon, China, Croatia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania and…

The present study explored data from a survey of students' performance in English at the end of compulsory school in 6 European countries. The aim was to gain deeper knowledge of the internal structure of the test and to discuss similarities and differences between the different settings regarding patterns in language proficiency. The analyses,…

The 25th European Association of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL) conference was hosted by Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, from the 23rd to the 26th of August 2017. The theme of the conference was "CALL in a climate of change." The theme encompassed the notion of how…

For the first time, the annual conference of the European Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL) took place in Sweden. The conference took place at the Faculty of Education on historic ground on the old fortification walls of Carolus Dux from the 17th century right in the centre of the city. This year's host comprised the…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

Negative influences on teaching practices and objectives in modern language programs, caused by certain final examination practices in Sweden, are pointed out and criticized in this paper. The needs of the Swedish student of languages are determined to be related to the use of language primarily as a means of everyday communication. The…

This news letter summarizes language research in composition, writing skills, and linguistic usage carried out over a three year period (Grades 4, 5, 6) with a sample of Swedish students. Subjective assessment of student compositions was carried out. The marks from these assessments will serve as criteria in evaluating various objective measures.…

This study was designed to outline possible forms of guided self-assessment in adult language learning and to suggest steps that might be taken in order to further develop methods judged to be suitable for use within the European unit/credit scheme for foreign language learning by adults. The report includes a review of relevant literature and…

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a screening instrument (the Swedish Communication Screening at 18 months of age; SCS18), derived from the Swedish MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, in identification of 18-month-old children who will be severely language disabled by 3 years of age, the authors (a) analyzed which SCS18's…