English learners in EFL contexts where grammar-based instruction is still dominant often lack opportunities to use the target language both within and outside the classroom. In 2010, we initiated a club-based approach to facilitate students' learning beyond the classroom. It focused on meaningful communication, authentic tasks, student agency,…

This paper develops the concept of meaningful literacy and offers a classroom methodology--poetry writing--that manifests this approach to ESL/EFL literacy instruction. The paper is divided into three sections. The first deals with the concept of meaningful literacy learning in second and foreign language pedagogy; the second summarizes empirical…

This paper discusses the pedagogical implications of Dynamic Systems Theory approaches to second language development. The main question addressed is whether it is possible to describe a learner's level of proficiency with a simple and unambiguous label, and if so, whether the CEFR can provide such a label. It is argued that considering the…

This article features Language Partners, an ESL program offered at the Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security men's prison in central Illinois. The program in which prisoners teach ESL classes, supported by volunteer teacher-trainers, is a learning community with immense and sometimes unforeseen value. The authors discuss reasons for…

A brain has the capacity to absorb a great deal of information and can make decisions about what role or roles, major or minor, that data will play in its life. While it is most likely true that we learn one new thing every day, our brain, the controller of our thoughts, can decide what number of new things we can learn and remember each day. As I…

This presentation is situated within the general framework of Vygotsky's educational theory, which argues that development in formal educational activity is a fundamentally different process from development that occurs in the everyday world. A cornerstone of Vygotsky's theory is that to be successful education must be sensitive to learners' zone…

This paper presents the background, purpose and components of a creative writing course conducted in the Department of English at Sun Yat-sen University as part of the reform in the teaching of English in China. It explains and demonstrates the different components of the course and argues, drawing on evidence from students' work and reflections,…

Like many other developing countries around the world, China is witnessing a growing prominence of English in its school system. One immensely popular form of English provision in the country is Chinese-English bilingual education for majority-language students, which involves the varying use of English as a medium of instruction in the teaching…

Developing the ability to speak in a foreign language is an arduous task. This is because it involves the mastery of different language subsystems, simultaneous focus on comprehension and production, and the impact of a range of social factors. This challenge is further compounded in situations in which learners have limited access to the target…

This article reports on a corpus-based, developmental pedagogical intervention for the teaching of German modal particles (MPs) in which learners examined their own emerging MP use as well as that of their native-speaking keypals in the context of electronically mediated, project-based collaboration. Individual learner development was traced…

Focuses on a European Co-operation Program designed to foster self-development in the teaching of foreign languages during the residency of established foreign scholars. The program aims to utilize an extensive network of contacts to develop structures, procedures, and learning support materials enabling language teachers to enhance their…

Topics of personal relevance to students can be used as a foundation for foreign language acquisition and become part of the developmental process of the learner. An example of a German unit of study incorporating interpersonal development is described. (CB)

Descriptive material about LaGuardia Community College International High School's program teaching English to limited-English-speaking students through content area instruction includes descriptions of individual program elements and courses. Two courses in the integrated learning center--a course on orientation to school and society, and a…