In contemporary educational contexts, technology, globalization, and mobility have brought about a blurring of the boundary between language learning and activation in and beyond the classroom. (We prefer the term "activation" to "use" as it has a more dynamic connotation.) This contrasts with the pre-globalized, pre-Internet…

Vincent Tinto's theory of academic and social integration provides a framework for investigating perceived problems associated with Chinese international students' engagement at a public research-intensive university in the U.S. Midwest ("Midwest" University). These "problems"--classroom silence, segregation and…

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of feedback that English as a Second Language (ESL) students received on their writings either from an automated essay scoring (AES) system or from the teacher. The participants were 12 adult ESL students who were attending an intensive English center at a university in Florida. The drafts of the…

The rationale and process for creating a credit-bearing intensive English program (IEP) at Utah State University, a land-grant institution with about 1,000 foreign students, are described. The program evolved from an intensive English language institute whose proficiency-granting process became tedious for staff and administrators. As a result,…

Situational leadership can be used in the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom to help students accept and adapt to instructional innovation. Leadership style is determined by the leader's task (directive) and relationship (supportive) behavior and by the classroom environment. Follower readiness is both job-related and psychological. Case…

A discussion of innovation in college and university intensive English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs uses a systems approach to analyze program elements (constituencies, decision-makers, purpose, performance measures, environments, resources, subsystems, and boundaries) and describes new program initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.…