It has now become commonplace to state that foreign language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective. The main objective of foreign language education is no longer defined strictly in terms of the acquisition of communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the…

For most middle school-level students, summarizing main ideas can prove to be difficult, especially for those with low vocabulary and language acquisition skills. Working specifically with students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and in a special education program, we discovered that teaching summarization as a reading strategy increased…

There is a curious disjuncture in the current discourse(s) on the schooling of immigrant and minority students. The official discourse, as has been communicated through the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 rhetoric and the concomitant focus on standards and assessment, says that minority children, especially English language learners…

This article is a collaborative initiative of the TESL profession in Manitoba. It reflects the authors' attempts to articulate the role of the ESL teaching profession and practice in Canadian multiculturalism. Recognizing ESL teachers' historical roles as agents of assimilation, the authors consider how the field can reorient itself to serve…

The aim of this paper is to describe a task-cycling pedagogy for language learning using a technique we have called "Stimulated Reflection". This pedagogical approach has been developed in the light of the new technology options available, especially those that facilitate audiovisual forms of interaction among language learners and teachers. In…

This paper describes the integration of hypermedia adaptive systems for foreign language learners at an early age. Our research project is concerned with exploring the relationship between language learning and information technology according to six different phases: a preliminary study of the plausible adaptive system; the development of lessons…

This article examines processes of gender identity construction in the classrooms of two ESOL teachers living in their first year of teaching. Drawing from a year-long study of beginning teaching, the author explores the complex relationship among the physical body, language pedagogy, and socially constructed understandings of beauty, then goes on…

Tandem language learning--a configuration involving pairs of learners with complementary target/native languages--is an underexploited but potentially very powerful use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in second-language pedagogy. Tandem offers the benefits of authentic, culturally grounded interaction, while also promoting a pedagogical…

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the development of curricula for Japanese heritage language schools. Although these schools provide most of the Japanese heritage language (JHL) instruction available to elementary and secondary school pupils, they have received little attention or support from the academic community. Specifically,…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the potential benefits of two corrective feedback techniques (recasts and prompts) for learners of different proficiency levels. Sixty-four students in three intact grade 6 intensive English as a second language classes in the Montreal area were assigned to the two experimental conditions--one received…

Recent research by Swain (2000a, 2000b, 1998, 1995), Swain and Lapkin (2001, 1998, 1995) and Kowal and Swain (1997, 1994) has examined the role of collaborative tasks in focusing immersion students' attention on the need for explicit knowledge of grammatical forms and lexical items in the production (especially written) of French texts. This is…

This paper presents the results of a parallel classroom experiment investigating the effects of processing instruction, traditional instruction and meaning-based output instruction on the acquisition of the English past simple tense. The subjects involved in the present studies were Chinese and Greek school-age learners of English residing in…

The three-part Initiation, Response, Follow-up (IRF) cycle, or Triadic Dialogue, has been shown to be a common pattern in classroom discourse, and is widely used in EFL classrooms. The value of Triadic Dialogue has been debated in general education, where it has attracted criticism for being over-formulaic and restrictive, although recent research…

Exploratory Practice emphasizes integrating research into pedagogy, and attaches great importance to the quality of life in the classroom. It suggests that we work primarily to understand language classroom life, to bring people together, and to develop students' language competency in a harmonious atmosphere.By putting EP principles into my…

Although teacher questioning has received much attention in the past few years, studies on teacher questions in the ESL classroom have so far revolved around the "closed"/"open" or "display"/"referential" distinction. Findings from classroom observations show excessive use of closed questions by teachers in…