This article presents the results of a qualitative research study conducted in one Texas urban middle school. One of the purposes of the study was to investigate the instructional methods used by regular classroom teachers to address the unique needs of ESL students recently main-streamed into these teachers' regular content classes. In this…

This paper aims to explore advanced ESL learners' ability to make improvements in grammatical accuracy by autonomously noticing and correcting their own grammatical errors. In the recent literature in SLA, it is suggested that classroom tasks can be used to foster autonomous language learning habits (cf. Dam 2001). Therefore, it is important to…

Little cross-cultural empirical research has been devoted to expectations for academic performance of study abroad (SA) students, particularly in their foreign language (FL) reading. This study explored premobility English and French FL reading comprehension and strategy use in 177 European SA students of law and economics. Our concern was whether…

This study examines the effectiveness of imagery and electronic visual feedback in facilitating students' acquisition of Japanese pronunciation skills. The independent variables, animated graphic annotation (AGA) and immediate visual feedback (IVF) were integrated into a Japanese computer-assisted language learning (JCALL) program focused on the…

This paper describes some of the pedagogical and technical issues involved in adopting a hybrid approach to CALL materials development. It illustrates some of these issues with reference to a vocational CALL project, LANCAM, which took such a hybrid approach. It describes some of the benefits and considerations involved in hybrid development and…

Globalisation has placed a growing importance on English language speaking and listening. Prior research indicates that many international students from Asia, studying in Australia, face serious learning difficulties and lack confidence in speaking and taking a proactive role in classrooms. The paper reports on data gathered in interviews with…

A teacher of modern foreign languages (MFL) and a teacher of the visually impaired working in a university college explore and examine the needs of a student with a severe visual impairment embarking upon a course in German. This article sets out to illustrate the needs of both the student and the teachers. It also reflects upon some of the…

The purpose of this study is to explore silence as a means of communication through the perceptions of non-native-English-speaking graduate students studying at US academic institutions. Beyond issues related to culture and language, there may be other reasons to explain the silence of students.

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 study investigated differences in vocabulary knowledge as a potential explanation for perceived differences between placed and promoted students in a university EAP reading course. Students in an advanced reading course (N=59) were tested on their vocabulary knowledge using the Vocabulary Levels Test Form B [Nation, I. S. P. (2001). "Learning…

This case study examined the learning outcomes of three learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) enrolled in different Writing for Academic Purposes courses. Of the many learning outcomes observed, some express self-perceived intrapersonal and interpersonal changes, which in previous research have been named "by-products" of…

There is a dearth of research involving advanced second language (L2) learners in the USA [Brantmeier, C., 2001. Second language reading research on passage content and gender: challenges for the intermediate level curriculum, Foreign Language Annals 34, 325-333; Young, D.J., 2003. Workshop on overcoming anxiety in the foreign language classroom.…

Although there is extensive research into what constitutes second language learning motivation and how it works, most of the existing work is carried out in ESL environments, and is mainly concerned with motivation to communicate using the target language. However, in EFL environments such as Japan, students have quite limited contact with target…

This study compared a story-based video instructional package, with a feature-length film as its focus, to a text-based program. It explored the effectiveness of each approach to enhance the listening and grammar performances of intermediate-level college French students. Twenty-seven students at two institutions participated. A pretest-posttest…

Paired listening was originally developed as a research tool with the aim to understand the strategies used by L2 learners when listening to recorded speech in the target language. It offers researchers a useful combination of direct observation and verbal data, whilst avoiding the common drawbacks of subjective introspection. This paper examines…