Among the barriers facing refugee-background students (RBS) in accessing Higher Education (HE) in the UK is reaching the required academic English standard, and accessing courses to support them with this (Ashlee & Gladwell 2020: 13). In response to these barriers, the Universities of Leicester and Leeds (both in the UK) have developed the…

Speaking is considered as a challenging skill to improve as it is a productive one which requires the learners to be unique and creative in the way they express themselves. Therefore, teaching speaking takes the attention of the researchers in the field of English language teaching. Therefore, the way "speaking" was integrated into the…

Short-term study abroad (SA) programmes are often promoted as an effective way of developing English language skills and accessing opportunities for intercultural learning. Whilst pre-departure intercultural training is thought to play an important role in enhancing the potential for meaningful learning, overemphasis on essentialist framings of…

This study represents program-level action research. A U.S. university Spanish language program had a goal for students to reach the ACTFL (2012) Intermediate Mid level after 2 years. An empirical question that resulted after regular end-of-year testing was whether the students were doing their best on assessments. To investigate this, 253…

For learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), fluency is one of the most difficult aspects to develop within the speaking skills. The Chilean teaching context has witnessed a gradual shift from the traditional grammar-translation approach to a more communicative one, thereby making it necessary to discover new strategies to develop…

This paper reports the findings of an action research that was conducted over the course of two years. The research investigated the role of using reading diaries and strategy instruction with English Language Teaching trainees to foster greater learner autonomy and looked into the language learning strategies used by these students. The findings…

This article explores the general patterns of interactions between the teacher and students during the different instructional steps when the teacher attempted to incorporate both conventional skill-based reading and critical literacy in an English as a foreign language (EFL) literacy class in a Korean university. There has been a paucity of EFL…

This action research is aiming at improvement of reading comprehension of College English teaching and learning, which is a major time-consuming course with low efficiency in colleges and universities in China. The research subjects were 134 first-year college students of science, engineering and liberal arts, who were from either developed…

This book provides an accessible introduction to some of the methods and theoretical approaches for investigating foreign language (FL) interaction and exchange in online environments. Research approaches which can be applied to Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) are outlined, followed by discussion of the way in which tools and techniques for…

The objectives of this article are, first, to describe a collaborative project between teacher educators and a foreign languages (FL) department in a specialist language college and, second, to evaluate its success. The project focuses on Year 9 pupils across the ability range (in four groups) and involves staff in both institutions working…

This article describes an action research project in which the members of a basic English class for adults over 50 at a Colombian public university undertook the mission of discovering their potentialities as autonomous learners. By means of the reflective use of the language portfolio, the members of this course guided the planning and execution…

This is a proposal for an action research plan designed to find out how to improve students' listening comprehension skills, enhance their performance and help to promote better learning. This plan is focused on the minority students who major in English in our University. Listening comprehension is one of the most difficult courses for them. As…