This short-form article describes a multimedia unit of study on social turmoil for students at the ACTFL Intermediate Mid and Intermediate High levels. It explains the rationale for the cultural products used based on current scholarship as well as ACTFL and MLA standards and provides explicit instructional guidance so that students with little…

This paper aims at proposing a technique for students learning English as a foreign language when they collaboratively write an argumentative essay in a wiki environment. A wiki environment and collaborative work play an important role within the academic writing task. Nevertheless, an appropriate and systematic work assignment is required in…

Using O'Dowd and Ritter's (2006) Inventory of Reasons for Failed Communication in Telecollaborative Projects as a barometer, this article details the considerations and procedures followed in a task-based, asynchronous email telecollaboration project between EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in Japan and Chile. In a climate where…

This article uses data from life-history interviews with English language teachers in Chile and California to illustrate methodological processes in teacher identity research through narrative analysis. To this end, the author describes the steps she took in identifying an issue to be examined, selecting particular narratives as representative of…

Pre-service teachers around the world face a unique challenge: bridging the gap between traditional teaching focused on grammar translation and receptive skills, and communicative teaching aimed at well-rounded communication skills. Many new EFL teachers learned English in a traditional context that emphasized memorization and grammar, but after…

This article presents the reports from the international research correspondents (IRCs) on the topic of second-language issues and multiculturalism through an informal polling using a questionnaire in six countries. The participating IRCs include: (1) Marta Infante of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile; (2) Anita Poon of Hong Kong…

Describes a cross-cultural e-mail exchange that provided students in the United States and Chile with an ongoing source of authentic cultural input from the target country. The exchange was organized between a class of U.S. college students of advanced Spanish conversation and composition and a class of Chilean university students of advanced…

This report defines and describes audiotaped dialogue journals produced by fourth year, Chilean university students in their English class. The taped journals were used as a way for students to obtain additional practice in reading, writing, listening, and speaking in an environment where school was the only place they practiced their English. The…

Numerous reports and articles have decried the mediocrity of U.S. students' foreign language skills and have called for improved language education. One study that looked at foreign language education in 19 countries suggests several characteristics of successful foreign language programs: starting early, providing an articulated framework,…