This quasi-experimental research aimed to describe the syllabus design process using the "backward design model" and its features to determine the teacher candidates' perceptions of its application in the English Skills Development course. To achieve these objectives, the syllabus based on the BDM was designed before starting the course;…

New media are used by language learners and teachers inside and outside the classroom to improve basic language skills. This study investigated the uses of new media for enhancing reading skills, stimulating student motivation, and promoting learner autonomy within the context of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). This…

Exploiting the free technology empowering services with which Google supplies the educational field, the present paper contributes a Google Education mediated syllabus framework to the field of teaching English as a second/ foreign language. Through a systems approach methodology, the framework addressed the concepts of 'learner autonomy' and…

This paper presents the reflections of one of the authors, a junior faculty member, on teaching a master's level, English-medium instruction (EMI) course. The course was titled, "International Research on Teacher Education," and it took place in a Chinese research-intensive university. It was, in part, a response to the need for…

This article sets out to introduce a Personalised Autonomous (PA) model as a holistic and sustainable model to address the issue of international students' English Language Proficiency (ELP) in Australian higher education. This model was embedded in a credit-bearing course entitled Personalised English Language Enhancement (PELE). Both…

Autonomous learning is one of the most important factors in the field of language learning. Leaning a language demands a considerable amount of time and learners have to work inside and outside the classroom to develop their language skills. The present study explored ways of promoting autonomous learning skills in mixed-level of students of…

Using the concepts of identity and agency, this "Perspectives" article discusses my recent efforts of self-development when designing an identity-oriented Teaching English as a second language (TESL) teacher education course around teacher candidates' semester-long autoethnography writing assignment called "critical autoethnographic…

This article focuses on how the incorporation of autonomy into university students' learning process improves their English language performance. The participants of this study were 25 students of engineering programs in a public university. Data collection was done through observation, a survey, and a group interview. Two categories that emerged…

This paper presents the results of an Action-Research cycle conducted at Universidad del Valle, which aimed at fostering learner autonomy in freshmen from a foreign languages program, within an English course. The study established the freshmen's entrance profile regarding learner autonomy, and implemented a course based on the development of…

Promoting learner autonomy is relevant in the field of applied linguistics due to the multiple benefits it brings to the process of learning a new language. However, despite the vast array of research on how to foster autonomy in the language classroom, it is difficult to find step-by-step processes to design syllabi and curricula focused on the…

Online courses have benefited from the adequate use of digital resources that allow learners to be the center of their own learning process. More often online instructors not only aim at what students have to individually do but learners are also engaged in interacting with the educational community by means of a variety of metacognitive…

Extensive reading has long been considered as a potent means for facilitating language acquisition for second language learners, especially in the contexts of primary and secondary schools where students are elementary or intermediate learners. In one of the universities in Hong Kong where English is used as a medium of instruction, the…

Many people in Spain are studying English in order to find jobs in this country or to migrate as a result of the economic crisis. Language classes, however, are limited in duration and are often not enough to enable students to progress as much as they would like to. Language learners have to spend a considerable amount of time out of class…

This paper reports on the syllabus design and implementation of an English for Science and Technology (EST) course at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. The course combined elements of project-based learning and a "pedagogy for multiliteracies" (New London Group, 1996) to produce a strong learner autonomy focus. A major component…

A Japanese university course in English as a Second Language is described. The course focuses on developing students' independent learning skills. It consists of a series of learning modules, each focusing on a particular learning resource available to anyone in Japan. The resources recommended for independent acquisition of different language…