This study set out to explore English for academic purposes (EAP) student perceptions of their experiences at a university in western Canada. A qualitative approach was used, with 17 students completing a questionnaire toward the end of their EAP program, and one of those students taking part in an interview approximately one year later. Data from…

We are presently witnessing a great shift in how young people learn and in the benefits that social software has to offer. New technologies can augment and build on traditional forms of social learning, giving birth to an improved and more multifaceted approach to knowledge acquisition that complements the current more general shift toward an…

In response to the research priorities of members of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), this study investigated language learners' realworld tasks in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) to inform the future development of pedagogic tasks for academic English as a second language (ESL) courses. The data included…

Immigrants and the children of immigrants who have completed their schooling in Canadian school settings, commonly referred to as Generation 1.5, are increasingly identified in the research literature as academically at risk due to inadequately developed academic language proficiency and learning strategies. This article describes the design,…

The Coalition for Equal Access to Education (CEAE) is a Calgary-based nonprofit organization committed to working with community, education, and government stakeholders to promote access to quality, equitable education and services for K-12 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. CEAE is active in developing innovative projects, research…

For content-based instruction (CBI) to work to its maximum potential, a concerted planning effort must be made to address language objectives, combined with effective instructional strategies that target and assess student performance in relation to those objectives. In this article, after considering various models of content-language…

This article highlights how citizenship and citizenship education are sites of contestation. I have analyzed the process of curriculum making of the LINC 4 & 5 Curriculum Guidelines (TCDSB, 1999) through three stages: from production, through reception, to implementation. The production stage is investigated by contrasting commentaries from…

This article describes the implementation of one element of an adapted language arts curriculum for Deaf students in a bilingual (American Sign Language and English) educational setting. It examines the implementation of writing workshops in three elementary classrooms in a school for Deaf students. The typical steps of preparing/planning,…

Six guidelines (based on research findings) are presented for use at local and provincial levels in planning or evaluating multicultural programs in schools. Teachers can rate their own schools by looking at the staff, facilities, and curriculum and by answering the questions presented here. (SED)

Content analysis of data regarding Canadian preservice English-as-a-Second-Language teachers revealed that they widely varied in their degree of knowledge of and ability to effectively make curriculum decisions, suggesting the effectiveness of augmenting current input-output models with developmental learning models. (Author/CB)

Discusses the implementation of communicative language teaching methodology in the English-as-a-Foreign-Language context in one institution in China. Suggests that a preliminary stage of content-based communicative curriculum development is necessary. Such a stage aims to investigate the context of an English language teaching program, ad then…

This study examined the linguistic experiences of Portuguese immigrant workers employed in a Toronto factory where Portuguese is used almost exclusively on the shop floor. It discusses why these workers often have negative attitudes toward the improvement of their English skills and what types language curriculum might be useful to immigrants…

This paper describes the development and implementation of an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) curriculum by Canadian and Chinese educators at the Canada-China Language Centre (CCLC) in Beijing. It describes the salient features of the curriculum that was finally implemented, as well as problems encountered in its development. (MDM)

This paper describes the design and implementation of a curriculum unit for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) secondary school students by an ESL teacher and a computer studies teacher that sought to foster reading, writing, and computer skills. The unit is based on Mohan's (1986) Knowledge Framework, a conceptual framework that systematically…

Reports a study that identified elements of surface grammar essential for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners' use of communication strategies (CS) in survival situations. The taxonomy developed provided a basis for identifying the semantic components and syntactic structures required to implement the CS. An appropriate sequence is…