Disparate goals that learners might have in learning second or foreign language pronunciation and the scant classroom time that can be dedicated to teaching this target language subsystem dictate that learner autonomy is of vital importance in this case and adept use of pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) can be viewed as key to the…

This article reports on the updating and validation of a questionnaire for vocabulary learning strategies. An English as a second language (ESL) version of the "Vocabulary Learning Questionnaire" (VLQ), first published in Gu and Johnson (1996), was created based on its latest version. Two response formats were piloted, that is, a paper…

This study investigates pupils' anxiety and enjoyment in the classroom when learning a second or foreign language. The particularity of this study lies in the comparison of two target languages (English and Dutch) in two educational contexts (CLIL and non-CLIL) at different instruction levels (primary and secondary education). While most research…

Textual manipulation is a common pedagogic tool used to emphasize specific features of a second language (L2) text, thereby facilitating noticing and, ideally, second language development. Visual input enhancement has been used to investigate the effects of highlighting specific grammatical structures in a text. The current study uses a…

The role of corrective feedback in second language classrooms has received considerable research attention in the past few decades. However, most of this research has been conducted in English-teaching settings, either ESL or EFL. This study examined teacher feedback, learner uptake as well as learner and teacher perception of feedback in an adult…

Most of the laboratory studies on recasts have examined the role of intensive recasts provided repeatedly on the same target structure. This is different from the original definition of recasts as the reformulation of learner errors as they occur naturally and spontaneously in the course of communicative interaction. Using a within-group research…

In this paper, we discuss the problem of articulation between levels in the educational system, as the transition from a rather more communicative, content-based and holistic approach to English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching at primary level to more formal and explicit ways of foreign language (FL) teaching at secondary is often experienced…

This paper argues for the incorporation of bottom-up activities for English as a foreign language (EFL) listening. It discusses theoretical concepts and pedagogic options for addressing bottom-up aural processing in the EFL classroom as well as how and why teachers may wish to include such activities in lessons. This discussion is augmented by a…

Teacher education represents an essential step to raise awareness of the sociolinguistic changes brought about by the current pluralization of English and by its lingua franca role. Within the pre-service teacher education programs run at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Italy, part of the English language…

This article uses the conceptual framework of second language willingness to communicate (L2 WTC), and in particular the contributory construct of international posture (IP; Yashima, 2002), to report on a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) course taught in the Japanese university context. The research follows up an exploratory,…

Student-directed teaching and assessment techniques are gradually dominating educational systems almost all over the world. This study investigated a cohort of male and female Iranian EFL students' attitudes toward self-, peer-, and teacher-assessment experiences. Sixty three students at Urmia University and Tabriz Islamic Azad University, in the…

One of the pedagogical implications of the research on the Willingness to Communicate (WTC) might be to propose practical ways of making language learners more willing to communicate in the classroom. This study investigated the impact of teaching communication strategies (CSs) on Iranian EFL learners' WTC. To this end, 8 intact classes were…

Speaking self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) is a construct with many potential implications for foreign language learning, but one that has been little studied. SPCC itself is a major predictive factor in willingness to communicate, a construct which has been widely conceptualised and researched. This study (N = 103) used a repeated…

This paper explores pedagogical practices which can support the role of imagination in foreign language learning. Over the past decade, work on self and identity in motivation research--most notably Norton's (2001) imagined communities and Dörnyei's (2009) L2 motivational self system--has suggested that teachers might foster students' motivation…

The paper reports on a study designed to examine the relationship between the thickness of ego boundaries and attainments in FL pronunciation after a clearly structured form-focused practical course of phonetics. The research involved 45 first-year students of the Institute of English Studies in Wroclaw, Poland, who had attended around thirty…