Addresses the problem of poor listening skills in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. A strategy to rectify the problem is suggested, and a set of procedures for a remedial course is outlined. (Author/CB)

Outlines a new framework for teaching second-language teacher trainees that requires less time than the simple information transmission model and fewer manpower resources. The "loop-input" model entails mirroring the content of training sessions in the process of these sessions. (Author/CB)

Examines the components constituting autonomy in second language learning. The article focuses on helping students make and execute choices in the domains of communication, learning, and their personal life. These components form the basis of a conceptual framework for coordinating strategies to help learners develop autonomy. (24 references)…

Presents Dr. Kato Lomb's conclusions about language acquisition, which agree with current theory: comprehensible input is central; grammar plays a peripheral role in language development. (Author/CK)

Suggests instructional methods and communication strategies for second language learning which include the students' need to express themselves in non-pedagogic situations. Elements of basic awareness of face-to-face interaction are also presented. (Author/CB)

Reports an effort to teach second-language students how to become autonomous in their language learning by combining learning-strategy instruction with course content. Examines usefulness of a required language-learning project for guiding students through self-assessment, goal-setting, planning, monitoring, and evaluating their own language…

Describes how in one English language teaching project in Japan, students studied English in a way that increased their ability to participate in their community, both presently and in the future. Searching out a range of information resources from their own context and on the Internet and connecting them with their daily life, they experienced…

Argues that hedging devices are a major pragmatic feature of effective scientific writing, and that students of English for special purposes should be taught to recognize and use them in their own work. The article examines the frequency, functions, and realizations of hedges and discusses a range of strategies for familiarizing students with…

Provides computer literate foreign language specialists in higher education with a manageable set of domain-specific design principles and guidelines for alleviating the complexity of design issues arising out of authoring hypermedia second language learning applications. Notes that the guidelines proposed result from a tailored selection process.…

Examines the effects of learning words grouped in semantic sets, using Japanese words paired with artificial words. A principal finding was that there was a main effect against learning semantically related words at the same time. The article concludes that presenting students with wordlists of new words in semantic clusters, rather than in…

Describes an experiment whose principal aim was to examine how a classroom silent period, devoted almost exclusively to aural comprehension, operates. In the case of the French adult learners of English involved in this study, 60 hours proved to be a satisfactory period. (SED)

What is notably missing in the teaching of foreign language vocabulary is a systematically elaborated strategy for vocabulary acquisition that is based on the findings of linguistics and learning psychology. The practical implications of such a double anchorage in linguistics and psychology are outlined in a proposed model of a semantization…

Describes how computer software captures and makes available for auditory observation and learning the variety of sound shapes that words take on in fast speech. A case study illustrates a teaching procedure that can aid learners' perception and comprehension of fast speech in a foreign language and calls for electronic publication of standard…

Describes an exploratory study that investigated the effects of explicit instruction in revision on learners' performance and perceptions about writing. Learners were from a secondary school in Hong Kong. Indicates that explicit teaching of revision strategies has a measurable influence on writing performance. (Author/VWL)

Overviews three experiments exploring the value of extensive reading in English as a foreign language for college students in Japan. Notes that in extensive reading, students do self-selected reading with minimal accountability, i.e. writing brief summaries or comments on what they have read. Findings reveal extensive reading to be superior to…