The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety (communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation) among Mainland Chinese students undergoing the Laureate English Programme in INTI International University, Malaysia. The participants of this study consisted of 75…

In a non-immersion, preschool world language program, what learning outcomes are reasonable to expect? Since exposure to and engagement with new languages is typically limited in these so-called "low-input" programs, we should anticipate no more than modest gains in linguistic proficiency. Rather, early childhood language programs can,…

This article peers through the lens of one district's journey of World Languages program refinement, and identifies a blueprint for success by aligning targets. The author begins by proposing the following questions: (1) Is your program where you want it to be? (2) Is it producing desired results? and (3) Are students yielding the greatest results…

Clickers are catching growing attention in education. This study, using data collected from a questionnaire, forty content words, and a vocabulary knowledge scale, aims to identify if clickers can enhance EFL (English as a foreign language) vocabulary knowledge and raise students' satisfaction level compared with the traditional multimedia-based…

From previous research on second language acquisition and early language learning, educators know that young children have a cognitive advantage to learning a foreign language over other age groups (e.g., Garcia-Sierra et al.; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson; Singleton and Ryan; Werker et al.). More recently, an increase in functional benefits for…

This article explores the theoretical foundation of the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, developed by the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), describes why and how to use these progress indicators in language education and reveals the value and impact on…

This article presents a small qualitative study which aimed to gain an understanding of how lecturers and international students perceive the English language policies and practices at their institutions. The findings show that most participants perceive current policies and practices as unfair. However, there were discrepancies in lecturers' and…

Increased interest by political leaders and parents in educating linguistically competent U.S. students to compete in the global society has emphasized the need for early foreign language learning for all students. Language education researchers have identified core elements of sustainable long-term successful programs that begin in elementary…

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…

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) was designed as a tool that "supports reflective learning and fosters the development of learner autonomy" (Little 2009, "The European Language Portfolio: Where pedagogy and assessment meet". Strasbourg: Council of Europe.…

This study investigated the use of blogs in an intensive English program at a university in Lebanon. The paper reports on how blogs can contribute to language acquisition and the development of related literacy skills. Blogs were incorporated into the required curriculum as supplemental material over two semesters. The aim of the strategy was to…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of Iranian EFL learners' proficiency level on their self-related personality traits (self-esteem and self-efficacy). To this end, 141 English major students, male and female, studying at Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) and Kar Non-profit University in Qazvin, Iran were…

The present study investigates the impact of training metacognitive strategies in reading comprehension and has been conducted among students from University Putra Malaysia. Forty eight subjects majoring in English including both males and females participated in the study. They have been chosen from first level of reading and divided into two…

This study compared the Mandarin performance of elementary immersion program students and high school world language program students in the same school district. A cross-sectional design was employed to gather information on Mandarin proficiency of fourth and fifth graders and Level 4 and Level 5 (AP Chinese) high school students who took the…

There is sometimes an assumption among language educators that students find the transition from school to university language learning a challenging process (see for example Busse & Walter, 2011; Chambers, 2014; Macaro & Wingate, 2004). In this research we set out to explore this assumption through a small-scale study of first-year…