At the start of 2000 a new scenario emerged in Europe thanks to the Council of Europe and the European Commission who, in support of the Bologna Process (1999), laid the foundations for disseminating the value of multilingualism and multiculturalism. The aim was to create a framework of actions to make citizens more aware of respecting diversity…

Educational research is increasingly paying attention to students' out-of-class learning. Students' out-of-class learning is linked to improved class performance and constitutes an important part of learner development. Prior research has argued that learning-resources provision should encourage students' autonomous learning both in and out of the…

The design of innovative learning spaces currently affects different educational sectors, including university teaching and learning. A parallel can be identified between the weakening of the specialisation of spaces for formal, informal, life-long learning, social interaction, and leisure and the blurring of the boundaries between work/learning…

Since the earliest adoption of educational technologies, teachers and researchers have been exploring its efficacy on language learning and development. The speed with which these technologies are now infiltrating academic student support will continue to increase, and so the need for good guidance in this space will likewise increase. Currently…

As a result of increasing internationalisation, the University of Copenhagen established the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) in 2008 as a research, competence development and resource centre. Part of CIP's remit is to provide language training (mainly in Danish and English) for students and staff at the University.…

Learner autonomy has become a central concern in the recent history of language learning. Self-Access Centres (SACs) play a critical role in fostering learner autonomy specifically in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) settings. As SACs aim at enabling learning to occur independent of teaching, in these centres, language learners are given more…

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…

Internationalization has become an important strategy for many Japanese universities as they face falling enrollments. While some have successfully attracted students from overseas, others seek different means by which to promote their international appeal, primarily as an attractor of domestic applicants. One way that this is highly visible is in…

The Language Centre at the University of Padova provides language courses for students of all disciplines and with a wide range of needs. Over the years, the number of students having to deal with a language requirement has increased exponentially, while the teaching personnel and general resources have struggled to keep up. Catering to all of the…

Since CercleS was created in 1990, language resource centres, or language centres, have offered learners various means to improve their language skills. They are often places where new pedagogical approaches and innovative learning environments are proposed (Rivens Mompean 2011). As the names of some of the associations belonging to CercleS…

Asia Society remains committed to promoting the teaching and learning of Chinese in American schools as an integral part of the broader agenda of building students' global competency, the key goal of its Partnership for Global Learning. Under the leadership of Asia Society's new Vice President for Education Tony Jackson and with continuing…

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is a document launched by the Council of Europe in 2001 which consists of three sections: the Passport, the Language Biography, and the Dossier. It has two complementary functions: a pedagogic function (helping students to reflect on their learning and objectives) and a reporting function (providing a record…

The history, culture and practices of Central America are inadequately addressed in teacher preparation and professional development across the United States, and especially in California based on the author's analysis of teacher preparation. Information about the histories, cultures and practices add to the linguistic and pedagogic knowledge-base…

Examines reasons for Arab student use of a student resource center, and particularly the computers located there. A discussion focuses on the factors involved and the philosophy on which computer-assisted language learning (CALL) development was based, the programs used, and student attitudes toward using the computers for self-access learning.…

Recently, there has been a large amount of research in the area of self-access language learning (SALL) showing that students around the world react favorably to SALL (Gardner and Miller, 1997; McDonough and Shaw, 1993; Richtcrich and Chanceril, 1980; Sheerin 1989; 1991). There have even been a few reports showing positive results with students in…