This article describes the gathered experience in using corpora in an IELTS preparation course. The practice demonstrates an attempt to reduce negative washback effects occurring when preparation courses just concentrate on the test format neglecting the importance of development of learners' language skills and general study skills. Some…

The recognition of second language (L2) development as a dynamic process has led to different claims about how language development unfolds, what represents a learner's linguistic system (i.e., interlanguage) at a certain point in time, and how that system changes over time (Verspoor, de Bot, & Lowie, 2011). Responding to de Bot and…

This Peace Corps volunteer language training manual is based on the experience of two pre-service trainings and was guided by the Peace Corps language training curriculum. The learning approach is competency-based or topic-oriented to provide survival competencies. Three main sections review phonetics, topics for discussion, and practical grammar…

This guide is designed for Russian language training of Peace Corps workers in Russia, and reflects daily communication needs in that context. It consists of seven instructional units. An introductory section gives an overview of the Russian language, Cyrillic alphabet, phonology, and morphology. The first instructional unit is intended as a…