The Ministry for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada includes employment-related language training in its current initiatives. This article aims to contribute to the topic of teaching soft skills for job interviews and job retention, as informed by research from the fields of business and applied linguistics, including pragmatics, as well…

This article draws on my dissertation, "Creating Inclusive EAL Classrooms: How LINC Instructors Understand and Mitigate Barriers for Students Who Have Experienced Trauma." The article explores some assumptions and understandings that English as an Additional Language (EAL) teachers bring to teaching students believed to have experienced…

It is commonly believed that intensive English programs (IEP) are designed to immerse learners in an English-speaking environment to help them effectively develop their language skills. Therefore, despite countless studies on the importance of a learner's first language (L1) in second language learning, some IEPs enforce English-only policies that…

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…

This article develops a complex understanding of safe space in relation to adult refugee learners' oral literacy practice of telling stories of violent life experiences in English as a second language (ESL) classrooms. A rhizoanalytic approach brings theoretical and empirical elements into conversation to ask two questions. Can the exigencies of…

Many universities have instituted intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs to support international students. This qualitative study used interviews to gain insights into the experiences of 8 non-native English speaking (NNES) students who completed an EAP program before they enrolled in disciplinary courses at a Canadian university.…

The Ontario Ministry of Education recently implemented the Steps to English Proficiency (STEP) language assessment framework to build educator capacity for addressing the needs of English language learners (ELLs) in K-12 schools. The STEP framework is a set of descriptors-based language proficiency scales that specify observable linguistic…

Currently there is a general uncertainty about what makes collocations (i.e., fixed word combinations with specific, not easily interpreted relations between their components) hard for ESL learners to master, and about how to improve collocation recognition and learning process. This study explored and designed a comparative classification of…

The role of English as a second language (ESL) teachers and instruction as factors in student social and psychological acculturation is widely acknowledged. However, the function of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is less well known in this regard, because research has focused largely on academic acculturation. This qualitative study…

Test preparation for high-stakes English language tests has received increasing research attention in the language assessment field; however, little is known about what aspects of test preparation students attend to and value. In this study, we considered the perspectives of 12 Chinese students who were enrolled in various academic programs in a…

In keeping with the trend to elicit multiple stakeholder responses to operational tests as part of test validation, this exploratory mixed methods study examines test-taker accounts of an Internet-based (i.e., computer-administered) test in the high-stakes context of proficiency testing for university admission. In 2013, as language testing…

This article reports on a study examining the language practice opportunities that occurred during a range of paired and small group interactive tasks in an intensive English as a Second Language (ESL) class of francophone Grade 6 students. The analysis focussed on the opportunities the tasks provided for the use of two complex and challenging…

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…

This article explores teachers' discourses on teaching English Literacy Development (ELD) students in mainstream elementary school classrooms through an examination of their philosophies of teaching and reflections on literacy. The findings are based on empirical qualitative data collected from interviews with two English-as-a-second language…

Although earlier research has examined the potential of portfolios as assessment tools, research on the use of portfolios in the context of second-language education in Canada has been limited. The goal of this study was to explore the benefits and challenges of implementing a portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA) model in Language…