Under the premise that vocabulary learning in a Spanish as a second language in-class environment may be affected by the instructional approach adopted by the instructors or the materials followed, this study explores the influence of rather distant teaching styles, such as implicit and explicit approaches, on the learning outcome of Spanish…

Since text messaging is a widely popular method of communication among young people, the paper tries to investigate whether it might have some practical application in the EFL classroom. Kuwaiti EFL students asked to render a mixture of text messages written by their peers and native English speakers into Standard English produced a large number…

In this essay, I argue for viewing mental representation and skill as distinct components of language acquisition. My claim is that language is not a monolithic entity--not a new concept, but one that is often overlooked by instructors and some scholars. I examine language as being (minimally) composed of mental representation and skill.…

This study examined the gains in student affect, vocabulary, and reading fluency for 110 university students in an extensive reading program in Japan. It was important to measure all of these dimensions within a single study and teaching methodology, so gains could be appropriately compared against each other. The adopted teaching methodology was…

Conceptualizing learners' individuality as dynamic and contextually situated, this paper reports on an inquiry that examined the genesis of a disabled learner's success in learning foreign languages on the Chinese mainland. Using source texts such as the learner's published diaries, letters and her autobiography, the inquiry revealed that language…

This study describes the effect of grades on second language writing performance. Do students write better when their essays are graded, and what implications might this have for foreign language instruction? This study compares three different types of student writing: graded compositions; for-credit online discussion boards; and ungraded,…

English is a compulsory subject in many secondary EFL classrooms; thus the questions that arise for teachers are how to motivate learners in general and how to help them come to appreciate the value of English learning activities in particular. This article is based on the premise that learners benefit not only from becoming intrinsically…

Portes and Smagorinsky examine the degree to which stable schools and authoritarian instruction accommodate the needs of learners exhibiting difference, with special attention to Spanish-speaking English Language Learners in a Southern setting. They find that the influx of immigrant students in Southern schools lays bare the normative…

Second language pre-service teachers in their final field experience are faced with many challenges as they move from student to professional teacher. During a particularly intense period of transition, they confront new information and issues as they move forward into actual classroom teaching. Guided reflective journals provide pre-service…

This paper investigates role-play activities and how they can be used within learning for English as an Additional Language (EAL) pupils in a Key Stage 2 setting in England. Through observations, results showed effective role-play activities can be beneficial to EAL pupils, allowing them to practice words and phrases in a relaxed atmosphere…

While strategy instruction research generally focuses on the effect of the teaching on learners' use of the strategies targeted for instruction, the present study examines the "wash over" effect on learners' use of pre-existing, non-target strategies. The study involved a treatment class and a comparison class in the ESL oral classroom…

While formal research into the effect various technologies have on vocabulary acquisition is still in its infancy, it is clear that--intentionally or incidentally--students have used various electronic media to learn new words for some time now. Moreover, although it is still far from clear exactly how one acquires vocabulary in a second language…

This article contributes to research on critical perspectives in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and on evaluative frameworks for English language learning (ELL) Web sites. The research addressed the following questions: (a) To what extent do ELL Web sites depict diverse representations of gender, race, socioeconomic…

Many students arrive at middle school without the academic language skills they need to read sophisticated texts with comprehension. In particular, English language learners and students from low-income backgrounds attending underresourced, urban middle schools lack opportunities to learn the thousands of academic words they need to succeed. To…

Metacognition, conceptualized as a set of dynamic systems, has been recognized as an important area of academic and pedagogical inquiry in applied linguistics from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Nonetheless, literature on students' metacognition about EFL reading is still cursory, and that is particularly true as regards Chinese EFL…