Brigid Burke is the program coordinator of World Language Education at her university, which is housed in the College of Education and Human Development. Since obtaining this position 4 years ago, she has become most concerned about certain recommendations that were made by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in 2002,…

In 1935, the then Minister of Public Instruction established the delivery of two foreign languages under the title of a special experiment taught at Mac.Robertson Girls' High School in Melbourne. This was the first step in the creation of what is known today as the Victorian School of Languages (VSL). It was at the time the small, seemingly…

A number of reports in the US have highlighted the country's need for improved second language skills for both national security and economic competitiveness. The Language Flagship program, launched in 2002, aims to raise expectations regarding language proficiency levels at the post-secondary level and to address structural gaps in the curricula…

The Applied Language Centre at University College Dublin offers foreign language modules to students in ten languages at CEFR [Common European Framework of Reference for Languages] levels ranging from A1 to B2. Efforts have been underway in the Centre to standardise the assessment components across languages to ensure parity between module credits…

Foreign language teachers can benefit substantially from the notions of curation and nudging when scaffolding CLIL activities on the internet. This article shows how these principles can be integrated into CLILstore, a free multimedia-rich learning tool with seamless access to online dictionaries, and presents feedback from first and second year…

This case study proposes a critical multicultural analysis of a Romanian language textbook used for instructing students in grades one and two in the Elementary Language International Program (ELIP) in Toronto public schools in Ontario, Canada. Based on an analysis developed from Fairclough and Parker's criteria, this paper determined stereotypes…

This study presents an insight into content and language integrated learning (CLIL) practices in the Australian state of Queensland. The article comprises four main sections. The first section outlines the context of CLIL in Australia and Queensland; there follows a brief review of the literature on stakeholders in CLIL programmes, such as…

In her paper, Burke questions whether top-down proficiency mandates will positively impact teacher practice. Her main argument is the following: The requirement that foreign language (FL) teachers demonstrate an advanced level of proficiency does not guarantee that they will be more effective K-12 FL teachers; on this point, the author agrees with…

Total enrollments (undergraduate and graduate) in languages other than English dropped by 9.2% between fall 2013 and fall 2016, as reported in the Modern Language Association's twenty-fifth language enrollment census. Despite the overall drop, there were gains in nearly half of all language programs (45.5%) that mitigate somewhat the downward…

The main goal of this study was to interview Arabic women students at Spring International Language Center to record their perceptions, rationale, goals, stories, and opinions about learning English in a U.S. language school. This research was conducted to understand the purposes and goals of Arabic women who come to the United Stated to study the…

The open-door policy at community colleges is unique in American higher education. It allows all comers--a retired grandmother, an Army veteran, a laid-off machinist--to learn a skill or get a credential. That broad access--the bedrock of the community-college system--has prepared hundreds of millions of people for transfer to four-year colleges…

Evaluating existing foreign language programs on a regular basis is essential because program evaluation leads to more effective programs. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the modular intensive general English language teaching program applied at a university in Turkey by investigating students' and English instructors' perceptions of…

Educators have generally believed that foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten or earlier to promote optimum oral language development (e.g., Abbott, 1998; Curtain & Dahlberg, 2010; Rhodes & Pufahl, 2010; Rosenbusch, 1991; Swender & Duncan, 1998). This article describes two Spanish programs in the Westport…

Since Finnish is not an Indo-European language, studying foreign languages in general and then also studying special fields through the medium of foreign languages may provide an extra difficulty for Finnish students. Most university language centres in Finland have organized reading comprehension courses in several foreign languages for the…

Recent currents in language learning research highlight the social and emergent aspects of second language (L2) development and recognize that learners need opportunities for interaction in meaningful contexts supported by explicit attention to language itself. These perspectives suggest new ways of conceptualizing the challenges faced by children…