The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the analysis performed on the way in which grammar is presented in an English coursebook created by the Ministry of Education of Colombia (MEN) to provide contextualized material to learners in public school settings. The evaluation criteria to evaluate the grammar were developed considering…

The present paper examined the errors occurring in the use of English in the linguistic landscape of Tehran, the capital of Iran. To this end, a total of 400 bilingual (Persian and English) and multilingual signs (Persian, English and Arabic) were culled from the landscape of the city in a course of eighteen months. Having analysed all the signs,…

The article "Some Important Facts about Language Teaching/Learning: Basics and Assumptions" by Dr. Mahmoud M. S. Abdallah explores the foundational elements of language teaching and learning. It emphasizes the importance of language proficiency for personal, social, and professional success, highlighting the cognitive and societal…

The selection of standards and norms constitutes the first and most important step for language standardisation. In this paper, we examine the standard establishment for Huayu (or Singapore Mandarin), a new Chinese variety that has emerged in Singapore as a result of centralised planning and inter-linguistic contact. Huayu is the officially…

Following on from my state-of-the-art article on "Language Awareness and language learning" (Svalberg 2007), in this paper I will discuss specific research tasks which are centrally concerned with different aspects of language awareness (LA): "explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning,…

This research endeavour is a major contribution to the current debate on the integration of non-native varieties into the school curriculum in non-native settings. Taking the specific case of Cameroon, this work rests on the solid assumption that the promotion of CamE to the detriment of Standard British English accent is definitely a fallacy. The…

Although Belgium is characterized by a widespread consensus that a functional proficiency in the two major national languages, Dutch and French, as well as in English is desirable, educational provision to achieve such proficiency has long been constrained by an official language policy which mandates that education must be monolingual in Dutch,…

The sociolinguistic phenomenon of bidialectism can significantly influence foreign-language learning. This study provides empirical evidence (drawn from the Greek Cypriot bidialectal community) for this influence and it supports the recommendation that foreign-language educators be trained in language-variation issues. The study's methodological…

This review of research on the learning, teaching, and assessment of L2 German published or completed between 2002 and 2008 may be particularly timely due to developments from within the profession as well as recent political changes which continue to have a strong bearing on the way L2 German is promoted, learned, taught and assessed. Far from…

The Indonesian Ministry of National Education has, for the past two decades, been trying to reform English instruction at junior and senior high schools across the country. This paper describes the issues surrounding the reform initiative and the response the system has made to address the issues. It is asserted that the same problems that have…

Issues related to teaching for communicative competence in a second language are discussed: the implications of accepting a nonnative "accommodation" variety of English as a model for teaching and learning; important shifts in thinking among second language speakers; the effects of nationalism and national language development on second…

The goal of Working papers in Educational Linguistics (WPEL) is to present works in progress by students and professors on topics ranging from speech act analysis and classroom discourse to language planning and second language acquisition. Papers offered are generally based on research carried out for courses offered in the language in education…

The first seven issues of the Trans European Language Resources Infrastructure (TELRI) newsletter, a publication of the COPERNICUS project funded by the Commission of the European Communities, date from September 1995 to October 1997. The first three issues contain articles in the origins of TELRI, its members, working groups, and events. TELRI's…

There is a growing awareness among some Arab education specialists that the low levels of educational achievement and high illiteracy and low literacy rates in most Arab countries are directly related to the complexities of the standard Arabic language used in formal schooling and non-formal education. The complexities mostly relate to the…

This document consists of the first two issues of the journal RELIEF. Each issue contains four articles. All articles deal with French second language instruction: (1) "Utiliser la presse ecrite en classe de francais-langue seconde (Using the Print Media in French Second Language Class)" (H. Canto); (2) "Une lecon de grammaire…