This case study explored 18 Taiwanese novice elementary school English teachers' practice of critical friendship models as an avenue for professional development. Based on the thematic analysis of the interviews, documents, and observation, the following major conclusions were drawn. Participants spent most of their time with critical friends in…

English as a lingua franca (ELF) represents a substantial paradigm shift in ELT because it challenges the traditional norm of standard English. Despite this changing trend, there is a gap in research on incorporating ELF into in-service teachers' professional development (PD). Given the backdrop that (trans)disciplinary courses are expected to be…

Communicative approaches have been a dominant paradigm in foreign/second language teaching since the 1980s. However, they are not widely accepted by teachers in many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. The current study adopted an action research approach to study classroom practice in a Taiwanese EFL secondary school, to identify and…

The purpose of this study is to explore how participating in professional learning communities influenced teachers' curriculum design skills during the recent curriculum reform in Taiwan. A cohort of high school teachers in suburban areas participated in a semester-long professional learning community, strictly based on a well-planned agenda as…

Speech language pathologists (SLPs) play a leading role in overall augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) service delivery. Several changes (e.g., the provision of university AAC courses) related to AAC occurred in Taiwan in the past. However, little information of AAC services provided by SLPs in Taiwan is available. The purpose of the…

As researchers in the CALL teacher education field noted, teachers play the pivotal role in the language learning classrooms because they are the gate keepers who decide whether technology or CALL has a place in their teaching, and they select technology to support their teaching, which determines what CALL activities language learners are exposed…

This case study investigates the perspectives of four Taiwanese English ESL (English as a second language) teachers with regard to their participation in an online professional development course. To build a collaborative online professional development community, in which teachers acquire professional knowledge to improve teaching instruction and…

The definition of "English language classroom" is changing. When students have the opportunity to learn content and language at the same time, disciplinary boundaries overlap. Teachers are rethinking how they design courses, plan lessons, assess students, and collaborate with colleagues to support student learning and facilitate their…

The purpose of this study is to highlight the possibilities and challenges that underlie efforts to integrate blogs into teacher-education programs in Taiwan higher education. The participants were 12 pre-service teachers undertaking Master's level study in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. The outcomes of the blogging project were…

The purpose of the study is to build a model that predicts the level of Internet use by teachers of English as a foreign language in the northern Taiwanese higher education institutions. It examines interactional relationships among variables associated with barriers and issues of technology application as a means of analyzing the extent and the…

This document contains 123 papers from an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The papers focus on the following themes: (1) societal and ethical issues; (2) human resource development and personnel training; (3) international issues; (4) information technology in VET;…

This document contains 33 papers from a conference on research in adult, continuing, and community education. Representative papers include the following: "Highlander Folk School: A Commune Based on Intellectual Property" (Keith B. Armstrong, Donna J. Martin); "Women, Welfare and Mandated Education: An Analysis of Single Mothers'…