A strong willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language is associated with successful language learning. ESL learners with high levels of WTC will seek opportunities to interact in meaningful communication in English. Engagement in meaningful communication is necessary for language learning as it increases access to comprehensible input,…

Multiple theoretical frameworks support the notion of interactional feedback as facilitative of second language (L2) development. However, research demonstrates that learners often avoid providing feedback during peer collaborative work, thus failing to take advantage of key opportunities for language learning and development. Recent studies have…

This action research project empirically evaluated the efficacy of reading strategy instruction to help advance adult English as an additional language (EAL) students' development of academic reading skills and strategy use. The study involved 16 adult participants attending English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs in British Columbia. These…

Corrective feedback (CF) is an important part of effective instruction, and a rich body of research has investigated how best to implement various CF strategies and approaches. Researchers have increasingly become aware of individual differences that have an impact on the effect and effectiveness of CF. One area of individual difference that has…

This study examined the role of media on the learning of formulaic sequences (FSs) by advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners (n = 40) enrolled in an English Language Teaching (ELT) program at a government university in Turkey. The learners were divided into experimental and control groups. The instrument involved clips from two…

Intervention exercises have tended to be limited to restricted controlled output in studies related to second language (L2) learners' acquisition of written academic formulaic sequences (FSs), while measurement of use has been drawn from freer output (AlHassan & Wood, 2015; Jones & Haywood, 2004; Peters & Pauwels, 2015). The current…

Language learners invariably struggle with the target language pragmatics, and helping them to understand and use it appropriately is not an easy task for ESL teachers. Specific pragmatic acts, such as requests, involve myriad elements that, despite being inherent to these acts, are quite elusive. No wonder so many ESL teachers feel intimidated…

This article reports on a study that investigated whether processing instruction(PI) or production-based instruction (PBI) is more effective for the teaching of regular past simple verb forms in English. In addition, this study examined whether explicit grammatical information (EI) mediates the effectiveness of PI or PBI. A total of 194 Turkish…

This study investigates the relative effectiveness of different teaching approaches on the learning of formulaic sequences. Three comparisons were made in this study: the effects of explicit teaching of formulaic sequences versus teaching embedded in traditional coursebook instruction, the effects of the degree of salience of the sequences in the…

Formulaic sequences (FS) are frequently used by native speakers and have been found to help non-native speakers sound more fluent as well. We hypothesized that explicitly teaching FS to classroom ESL learners would increase the use of such language, which could further result in increased second language (L2) fluency. We report on a 5-week study…

Studying task repetition for adult and young foreign language learners of English (EFL) has received growing interest in recent literature within the task-based approach (Bygate, 2009; Hawkes, 2012; Mackey, Kanganas, & Oliver, 2007; Pinter, 2007b). Earlier work suggests that second language (L2) learners benefit from repeating the same or a…

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs designed to meet postsecondary English language proficiency requirements are a common pathway to higher education for students from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Grounded in a Canadian context, this study seeks to examine the prevalence of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in EAP, common examples…

Research on implementing task-based language-teaching (TBLT) shows that adapting TBLT in ways that are inconsistent with its principles is common among nonnative-speaker English-as-a-foreign-language teachers. Our study of Canadian native-speaker English-as-a-second language teachers reveals how they also adapt TBLT in ways that are incongruent…

Identifies a series of questions asked by language program personnel in the early stages of planning an evaluation of a language program. Answers to the questions offer working definitions of language programs and components, audience, evaluation purposes and priorities, evaluators and their roles, internal and external evaluation, and evaluation…