Picture books, when used thoughtfully and artfully, can teach theories to graduate students in literacy and foreign language education. In this article, the authors described how a pair of picture books is used to teach Vygotsky's "Zone of Proximal Development" and Krashen's "Input Hypothesis" in the fields of literacy…

In this article, we discuss three cross-cultural memoirs used in three different university courses that introduced students to the complex identities that form both inside and outside of language classrooms. In arguing for the value of using such memoirs as content in university courses, we provide a detailed thematic analysis of Peter Hessler's…

This article examines factors that influence transformative learning experiences of international graduate students from Africa. In general, 84.8% of the participants experienced transformative learning while 15.2% reported no transformative experiences. For those who experienced transformative learning, 26.1% of the transformative experiences…

The demand for communication skills training for science research postgraduates (RPGs) has been increasing over the years. Many potential scientists and researchers in the industry are under enormous pressure to get published (Cargill, O'Connor & Li, 2012) and to attend conferences and seminars. In light of the aforementioned needs, all…

Studies on out-of-class language learning strategies (OCLLSs) are usually divorced from the activities in class. Thus, this study addresses the connection of the two entities. The participants in this study were nine international postgraduate students who were undergoing their English language proficiency course in an institution in Malaysia.…

The purpose of this preliminary study was to look at forensics-based competition events and determine what, if any, impact they could have on the language learning and public speaking skills of interpreters in training. This paper details the nature of the impromptu and extemporaneous speaking events in forensics competitions and introduces a…

In order to initiate and maintain meaningful interaction in a young learner L2 classroom, an adult teacher needs to approach children in ways consistent with their developmental profile and adjust teaching methodology so as to accommodate young learners' current skills. This requires the ability to predict the child's possible responses to…

In designing an EAP (English for Academic Purposes) course it is necessary that we consider several factors: students' objectives, needs, levels and interests, course and institution's goals, and availability of resources. In this paper it is strived to elucidate the differences between EGP (English for General purposes) and ESP (English for…

Critical pedagogy brings a new sociopolitical view of linguistics and language teaching that is beginning to influence the teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) field. This paper aims to do two things: first, to convey an understanding of what these new views are, why and where they originated, whose voices are important, what…

Discusses the need to polish the foreign language skills of second-language teachers during their professional training. This training should concentrate primarily on the improvement of confidence in spontaneous target language use and grammatical accuracy and should also emphasize pedagogical development and reflection. (one reference) (CK)

This paper presentes a case study of an innovative class at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) in an English for Academic purposes context in which spontaneous topics raised by the learners took the place of a pre-planned syllabus. The target students were late-matriculating research students and those with particularly weak spoken English.…