This study examines policies of English language teacher recruitment in Iran as part of broader education policies reflected in official national documents, and briefly investigates the implementation of these policies in selected educational institutions. Seven major documents are scrutinised using qualitative content analysis revealing three…

Language teachers constantly create, adapt and evaluate classroom materials to develop new curricula and meet their learners' needs. It has long been argued (e.g. by Stenhouse, L. [1975]. "An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development." London: Heinemann) that teachers themselves, as opposed to managers or course book writers,…

In the last few decades the medical community has increasingly underlined the necessity for medical students and healthcare professionals to acquire adequate and patient-friendly medical language and communication skills. Although teachers of foreign languages for medical purposes are usually not medically trained, their learners present them with…

The present study investigates English language teaching (ELT) curriculum planning in Iran's Ministry of Education and its implementation by teachers. We studied programme evaluation; needs analysis; the ELT-specific documents; communication channels between planning and practice levels; teacher evaluation and student assessment; interpretation…

This article examines how four teachers of ESOL selected and used instructional materials in courses for adult refugees and new migrants. To date, scholarly literature on this topic has largely comprised advice about the principles of teaching and second language learning on which materials should be based, and on-going debate about the merits and…

This paper brings task-based language teaching (TBLT) curriculum development principles into the blended learning context, presenting processes and outcomes from a project to develop a task-based thematic unit--asking and giving directions--in a hybrid web-based university-level class focused on listening and speaking skills in Mandarin Chinese.…

This article reports on the practitioner research conducted by the English participants in a European Co-operation Programme project entitled "Lateral Language Learning." The project was based on the belief that there is much that teachers of a first foreign language can do to prepare their students to access other languages in the…

This guide is a companion document to the revised "Second Language Standard Course for Study," which was approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education in November 1999. It was designed to address needs that were identified by teachers and supervisors during the curriculum development process. The guide is divided into three…

This book presents practical solutions for teaching foreign language learners self instruction, ranging from needs analysis to resourcing, strategy training and monitoring tools. Special emphasis is placed on different ways in which learners can be supported by learning how to analyze their own needs and set their own goals, how to choose the most…

The English Language and Concepts Program for Spanish-Speaking Children (LCS) is designed to enable Spanish-speaking youngsters to succeed in the regular school classroom. This report presents detailed summaries of major studies in the LCS tryout and evaluation sequence. (1) LCS prototype tryout, 1969: Tryout is described, materials and procedures…