This article arose in response to the recent impetus for embedding inquiry-based approaches in higher education. It draws upon the perceptions of students and faculty members regarding inquiry-based education in Academic English (AE) programmes at universities in Bangladesh within an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Research-informed…

This article recounts my experience in enhancing my students' boredom regulation by designing, implementing, and evaluating a strategy instruction project. The project was undertaken with 25 Thai university students enrolled in my English oral communication course for 15 weeks. The project began with exploring how and why my students experienced…

Ability grouping, organizing classes homogeneously by L2 proficiency, has been commonly used in Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. This quasi-experimental (within-subjects design) study examined proficiency gains of 785 Taiwanese university students over three years enrolled in a general English (GE) program that employed…

This study explores connections between design features of faculty-led short-term study abroad programs and resulting changes in students' global perspectives. Over 2,000 students provided data for this study, completing the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI) before and after studying abroad. Results indicated that program features such as…

Non-Verbal Cues (NVCs) add to communication effectiveness among individuals in both real and virtual world. Thus, NVCs transference between the two receives increased attention from both the industry and research community. Their efforts lead to sophisticated technological solutions which allow high fidelity NVCs to be transferred from real…

This chapter reports the challenges that both the students and the teachers experienced in a telecollaborative project between a Japanese university and an American university. In this semester-long project, the students in groups of three to five from both universities worked collectively mainly asynchronously and in occasional synchronous…

The accuracy of placement results undoubtedly affects students' subsequent learning achievements in language programs. Although there has been a growing body of studies in the field of heritage language (HL) education, research on HL placement remains scarce, and little is known about the most appropriate and effective ways to place heritage…

It is widely recognized that learning interventions that help student sojourners prepare for and process their study abroad experiences can increase those students' learning gains. What if, however, students express skepticism or resistance to those learning interventions? This article offers a case study of a student-faculty partnership in…

This paper outlines the iterative stages involved in designing and developing a blended course of English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) at Osaka University. First, the basic Successive Approximation Model (SAM 1) is introduced as the guiding instructional design model upon which the course was created. Afterward, the stages of design and…

In recent years, the demand for more culturally competent candidates has risen as employers seek workers highly adaptable to the global marketplace. Study abroad internship programs offer a rich training ground for college students to gain valuable international and intercultural career experience. This study examined the effects of experiential…

This article details the design and implementation of a reading program in a university EFL setting as a strategy to encourage creativity, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and reading for enjoyment (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Richards & Renandya, 2002). This student-centered project challenged ELLs to address issues such as…

The development of critical thinking (CT) skills has become a key goal for educators in first and second language contexts. There is evidence that the use of such activities has still not become widespread in a number of ELT situations. One reason for this may be lack of awareness about how levels of thinking can be conceptualized in ELT…

This article describes the theoretical and pedagogical background and results from the first semester of a service-learning program for English learners at a public Moroccan university and the local high school. This study fills a gap in the literature related to service-learning practice and outcomes in Morocco and the Arab world in general. The…

To effectively address the needs of second language (L2) learners in college writing courses, many postsecondary institutions, especially those located in cities with high concentrations of immigrants, offer college-level courses for L2 students. Such courses include noncredit English language courses in an intensive English program, developmental…

This article reports on the results of a questionnaire and interview survey on Cantonese ESL learners' preference for bilingualised dictionaries or monolingual dictionaries. The questionnaire survey was implemented with about 160 university English majors in Hong Kong and three focus group interviews were conducted with 14 of these participants.…