Most studies on task-based language learning focus on the oral performance of advanced level learners of English as a second language (ESL), while little research examines the written performance of beginning language learners in non-ESL contexts. This exploratory study aims to address this gap, by examining the effect of pre-writing tasks on…

Investigates English-as-a-Second-Language classes in Auckland, New Zealand to compare the frequency and characteristics of incidental focus on form episodes occurring in these classes. (Author/VWL)

Reports the preliminary results of an ongoing study of the benefits of building repetition into a communicative task in an English for Specific Purposes course. Compares the performances of two learners at markedly different levels of English proficiency and finds that both benefited from the opportunity to recycle communicative content as they…

Provides a comparative study of two different cultures of learning--the Korean and the British. Data are case studies of teaching and learning at the mainstream beginner level: English in Korea and French in Britain. Focuses on how the notion of communicative is interpreted, the idea of "good language learner," and whole-class…

Compares the lexical environment of secondary school English language classrooms in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Teacher output for one week of first-form lessons was recorded in two representative schools. Lexical richness in terms of type-token ratio and word-type frequency was measured, the words that were explicitly taught were identified and…