Projects related to the European Language Portfolio (ELP) carried out at the Language Centre of the University of Trieste are concerned to examine whether and to what extent "can do" descriptors can be extended to courses in Languages for Specific Purposes. The project reported in this article had two aims. The first was to explore what…

English for General Purposes (EGP) is a foundation course which should be taken by all the undergraduate students at the University of Tabriz, Iran. However, the EGP course cannot meet the students' objectives and needs. Evidently, it has some shortcoming and the results of the study indicate that it not only has lost its credibility but also has…

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the applications of service-learning pedagogy for an advanced Spanish language course through a case study conducted at Rollins College, a comprehensive liberal arts institution in Winter Park, Florida. The paper discusses diverse theories on service-learning pedagogy, explaining how and why this teaching…

Research into Singapore English (SgE) has undergone many paradigm shifts from the 1970s to the present. This paper first begins with a consideration of how variation in the English language used in Singapore has been studied. It then identifies the two main varieties of English commonly described in Singapore, namely, Standard SgE (SSE) and…

An examination is made of a foreign language teaching concept called pre-language that attempts to help foreign language students increase their speaking confidence and speaking abilities in the new language. The teaching method is designed for four distinct environments, including: (1) an independent mini-course for tourists or emergency needs;…

Discusses design issues raised during an in-house review of undergraduate English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing courses at the University of Nebraska. Issues covered include the purpose of teaching ESL in a university environment, the autonomy of instructors, focus of the writing curriculum, and the value of student effort versus student…

Many teachers feel that the primary goal of language education is the development of communicative rather than linguistic competence. This shift in focus has affected syllabus design. However, no single syllabus appears satisfactory by itself. The grammatical syllabus is effective to instill in learners automatic production of accurate structural…

Examines the idea that one goal of English language teaching should be to replicate "natural" rather than "traditional" classroom communication. The article argues that this goal is unattainable and that it would be more satisfactory to take an institutional discourse approach, where classroom discourse is regarded as an institutional variety of…

Examines theoretical and practical deficiencies in how curricular objectives are selected for functional, competency based approaches to English as a second language instruction. Issues are illustrated through an analysis of the functional curricula of the United States Refugee Processing Centers. (Author/CB)

Examines the requirements of instructors of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) by surveying professors at four institutions of higher learning. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that U.S. instructors' lecturing styles are becoming more interactive, a trend placing new expectations upon students. (31 references) (Author/CK)

This article explores how teachers, students, and other stakeholders collaboratively develop classroom-based assessment procedures for the evaluation of oral skills. By considering crucial issues in assessment such as validity, teacher-learner collaboration, and contextual factors, the authors provide a checklist that will help ESL/EFL teachers…

An evaluation of the New York City high schools' program in English as a second language (ESL) for limited English-proficient students focuses on the effectiveness of the program's beginning, intermediate, advanced, and transitional classes. It evaluates one program aspect, ESL content area classes, and focuses on two principal program objectives:…

The ideal foreign language business course would be a cooperative effort between the business school and the foreign language department, prepare students for any of the five proficiency levels in the French Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris test, be designed for the American working in France, and have a balanced international trade…