During several non-participant observations of two advanced College English classes at Jiangsu University, it was noticed that most of the students did not engage in class discussions. To ascertain what the problem was, but from learners' perspectives, this research was conducted. Seventy-one students enrolled in College English at Jiangsu…

Videoconferencing is increasingly used in education as a way to support distance learning. This article contributes to the emerging interactional literature on video-mediated educational interaction by exploring how a telepresence robot is used to facilitate remote participation in university-level foreign language teaching. A telepresence robot…

The study examines students' perspectives on learning in a co-curricular language-based program at a large public university in northeastern United States. Specifically, I analyze students' motivations to enroll in the program and their perceptions of learning outcomes. The study uses the interdisciplinary construct of identity as a theoretical…

Language educators' goals include promoting cultural understanding and improving the language skills of their students. Virtual Exchange (VE) is a powerful means to do this. Students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms often have few opportunities to communicate with other users of English. VE gives them virtual mobility, enabling…

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been drawing increased attention from language teachers and researchers in the past decade. This paper focuses on the effects of TBLT on beginner learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Denmark. Participatory observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 participants from two…

Employing interpretive theory, this study investigated 331 university ESL teachers' socialization in language programs for international students. Looking beyond teacher preparatory education, in-service teachers' workplace experiences are essential to study because experience is instrumental in the shaping of belief systems (Wu and Shaffer,…

Teachers play a vital role in the classroom environment. Interaction between teacher and students is an essential part of the teaching/learning process. An educator, Flanders originally developed an instrument called Flanders Interaction Analysis (FIA). The FIA system was designed to categorize the types, quantity of verbal interaction and direct…

Different approaches to the question of how to invite broader participation by minorities in language study are discussed. It is noted that language study must be connected to job opportunity, build on minority students' affinity with other cultures, teach language as a living tool, and encourage mentor-protege relations. (Contains four…

This essay describes the development of an English coursebook that drew upon environmental education for the content. The book was designed to assist Indonesian university students in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The three authors of the present essay served as the book's three editors. The authors of the individual lessons in the…

The oral translation courses at the University of Northern Iowa are described and suggestions are given for applying the approach to other university language courses and to secondary school language courses. After the initial organizational periods, each eighty-minute class period consists of translating an interview that was recorded in the…

Describes materials and activities used by Tarrant County (Texas) Junior College, Northeast Campus, in its conversation classes for high school students as well as for its own students and career-ladder credit conversation courses for foreign language teachers. (Author/CB)

Part IV of the proceedings includes five presentations. They are: "Pitfalls in Teaching Business Language Courses and How to Avoid Them" (Margit Resch); "Achieving Active Student Participation in the Business Foreign Language Course" (John Holley); "Business Language Components for Various Levels of Foreign Language…

Teaching conversation will always pose a great challenge to the foreign language instructor. Even by the third year of language study, the typical time for this skill's development, students have neither the fluency nor the confidence necessary to speak easily. Also, since many are ill at ease in conversing in their native language, getting these…

In 1980, Oregon State University began a program going beyond the usual procedure for students of English as a second language (ESL), which involved putting them in intensive English programs until they could pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language and then sending them on to a regular academic program. It was found that this traditional…