Macalister and Webb (2019) claim that "children's literature" written for native English speakers is too difficult for intermediate English as a Second Language (ESL) students, those who have acquired the first 3,000 to 4,000 most commonly used words in English. The authors analyzed a corpus of short stories written for a classroom…

This article reflects on the epistemological steamrolling that the 2021 Ofsted Curriculum Research Review (OCRR) accomplishes: in part, by the positioning of the problem and solution through highly selective cherry-picking (omitting key causal factors); in part, through the discursive move of acknowledging complexity before offering simple and…

It is suggested that in French foreign language instruction, especially in Canada, four language levels be distinguished: scholarly, neutral, familiar, and popular. Instruction based on these distinctions will encourage more realistic use of language skills. (MSE)

Discusses dictionaries for learners of English as a foreign language and reveals typical problems of syntactic complexity, idiomaticity, and cultural specificity that inappropriate explanations and examples may pose for learners. (Author/VWL)

There is growing evidence that the best way to prepare students to cope with authentic oral and written texts they will encounter in actual situations is to introduce such texts into the classroom as early as possible. The selection of texts appropriate for beginning students involves examination of the texts themselves and consideration of the…

Discusses some of the complex questions differentiation raises that have been glossed over as unproblematical and questions some of the assumptions underlying differentiation that have remained unchallenged. Areas needing further research are discussed. (13 references) (CK)

Although the kind of transactional dialogue used in everyday trade can be of potentially great value, those found in textbooks tend to be of limited usefulness because they are unrealistically long, complex, formal, and descriptive, overuse atypical structures or vocabulary, and assume an understanding of the culture. (MSE)

The pros and cons of using literature in an ESL classroom are examined. It is argued that if literary texts are used, they must be carefully selected and approached in a manner promoting an aesthetic interaction between reader and text. An example of this technique is given. (Author/MSE)

Needs for curriculum development in Scottish schools for both able linguists and less able students in the 16-19 age group are discussed. It is proposed that students of moderate ability who have dropped languages in favor of other subjects should be encouraged to return to language instruction for both general and specific educational and career…

Romanian is characterized by a richness of surface forms that are difficult to classify and even more difficult for the learner to assimilate. There is much instructional material available in Romanian, and in a survey of fifty works published outside the country, four categories emerged: teaching materials, pedagogical grammars, grammars, and…

Oral production (the speech act) and the comprehension of written and oral texts have long been treated as separate entities when they could be used in an integrated approach to teach a broader range of language skills. The receptive aspects of the speech act should be brought into language instruction and used to select materials for teaching…

Meaningful, comprehensible instructional materials that take into consideration the student's proficiency level are recommended for teaching communicative skills. Formulae developed for teaching various language functions (forms of socializing, showing emotion, judging, and getting information) and functional language rhetorical strategies are…

The foreign language teaching process depends on making various choices regarding materials, approaches, and activities. This decision-making process is analyzed, the needs behind it examined, and a decision hierarchy developed. A model is suggested for teacher education that incorporates this hierarchy into preservice, inservice, and graduate…

The current growth in language study for business-related communication should be viewed as a two-fold opportunity: to extend the ideals of a liberal arts education to a broader base of students and at the same time allowing humanities students to gain skills useful in today's world. Just as the study of humanities can help create a more balanced…

The use of mass media as a means of learning a foreign language from the beginning of language study is discussed. Using the media enables many of the features of the natural language acquisition process to be brought into play in a way that much current language teaching material does not. This position is supported by recent research into the…