Teaching of English in Saudi Arabia is a necessitous concern in education. The administration, planners, syllabus designers, textbook writers, teachers, and government have been trying to advance the teaching/learning of English in the country. The teachers are capable, experienced and the infrastructural facilities including e-information…

The descriptive paragraph and subsequent essay are usually among the first assignments students must complete in composition classes. Typically, students are told to describe their childhood home, a person of importance, a special object, or a summer vacation. Most students, especially learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), have…

An adaptation of the traditional literary concept of close reading was developed for use in a largely multilingual classroom in which both first language (L1) and second language (L2) students were struggling to comprehend theoretical, lexically dense texts in English. This simplified method of reading a text iteratively and critically is proving…

Academics often treat students' discipline-specific literacy as unproblematic. In doing so they may underestimate the difficulties for university students as they move between subjects of study that may involve different disciplines, language genres and academic practices. This paper describes an initiative aimed at supporting students in reading…

A reading-writing initiative began in 2011-12 at the University of Toronto as a partnership between an East Asian Studies (EAS) department and an English Language Learning (ELL) Program. In this institution, students are expected to enter into scholarly discussions in their first year essays, yet many (both native English speakers and non-native…

A new model reading lesson is presented for adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. Teachers are encouraged to give their students real books to read rather than texts prepared especially for ESL students. The approach involves the teacher as a resource and advocates students learning to evaluate their own understanding by discussing…

Art English is a combination of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL)/English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) and art content. As a new instructional area, it faces several challenges: as with all English for Special Purposes (ESP), exchange of information among programs; development of a suitable combination of art content and ESL, due to lack of…