There appears to be a dramatic decline in attitude toward reading between 2006 and 2011 for ten year-olds taking the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) examination. This "decline", however, is probably not real but is the result of a change in the attitude questionnaire, mentioned only in the fine print in the 2011…

Think-Pair-Share, a cooperative discussion strategy developed by Frank Lyman and colleagues (1981), is often utilized in first language contexts but rarely in second language (L2) contexts. To investigate its usefulness in the L2 context, a traditional English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading class was transformed by integrating…

The recent trend of university internationalization has seen a rapid increase of English as medium of instruction (EMI) courses in Taiwanese tertiary education. Yet, few large-scale studies have been conducted to investigate student learning in EMI courses. This study surveyed 476 students from 25 EMI courses at six universities in Taiwan to probe…

Toastmasters is a widely recognized international club that aims to develop and enhance the art of public speaking by offering participants educational programmes and chances to speak before groups. This article reports on the integration of the Toastmasters approach to an EFL oral-communication class in Taiwan. As both the author of this study…

The paper illustrates an English for Specific Purposes design for English listening and speaking for students in hospitality fields, accompanied by an educational inquiry into its implementation in a bid to hold accountability to the course takers. The subject was 82 juniors and seniors at a national hospitality college in Southern Taiwan.…

The assessment of listening comprehension in a second language has received relatively little attention until recently. This study investigated the effectiveness of providing different types of listening support for learners in a foreign language environment with a low level of English proficiency. The research was conducted with 140 students…

Although the use of translation in learning a foreign language is much maligned by language teachers, translation is widely used in learners' foreign language learning process. It appears that learners often use translation as a learning strategy to comprehend, remember, and produce a foreign language. However, relatively little research attention…