This article reports that, nearly one year after its release, the report on foreign language and higher education issued by an ad hoc committee of the Modern Language Association (MLA) is still provoking discussion about reforms in the teaching of foreign languages and the role of the association in any revamp. The debate continued at a panel held…

Distance web-based learning is a popular strategy in ELT teaching in Colombia. Despite of the growth of experiences, there are very few studies regarding teachers' participation in these courses. This paper reports preliminary findings of an on-going study aiming at exploring the roles that a teach er plays in an EFL reading comprehension distance…

This study explores middle-level administrators' perceptions of the implementation of English as a foreign language curriculum policies in the Chinese tertiary context. Drawing on data collected from interviews with the department heads of six universities in a north-western city in China, the article examines their perspectives on the national…

Portal: Your Door to World Languages and Cultures was a series of public cultural events, in a variety of formats, created through a new partnership between the credit and continuing education (noncredit) foreign language programs at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Portal was designed to cultivate interest in foreign languages…

The international business community relies heavily on English Lingua Franca (ELF) as a shared means of communication, and English business language programmes thus feature prominently within the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Business ESP programmes, however, have little focus on active listening, which previous research has…

Following an extensive and federally funded analysis of literature related to boys learning French as a second language (FSL) in Canada, the authors propose a series of research questions to guide future research related to males in FSL classrooms. To better understand the need for this research agenda, the researchers provide an overview of the…

Using a new model of subject delivery, the University of New England (UNE--Armidale, Australia) offers specialist subjects at partner or host institutions. The model is a modified version of distance education. It is designed to meet the needs of on-campus students who wish to study a subject that their university is unable to offer as a full…

The Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) provides funding for states and territories to provide instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), and Adult Secondary Education (ASE) to adults in need of these literacy services. California State Budget Act…

In this study the author tries to assess the effects of Theme-based Oral Approach (TOA) on the oral English proficiency of non-English majors as well as students' leaning motives and interests resulted from the approach in EFL class of China. The study follows the quantitative and qualitative method in light of questionnaire, interview, class…

Employing interpretive theory, this study investigated 331 university ESL teachers' socialization in language programs for international students. Looking beyond teacher preparatory education, in-service teachers' workplace experiences are essential to study because experience is instrumental in the shaping of belief systems (Wu and Shaffer,…

ICT as a medium for teaching is becoming more and more acknowledged. In this article we wish to share some aspects of using ICT that have proved positive and stimulating both for students and the teacher. We share our experience in using the Blackboard e-learning environment for teaching language courses in English and Swedish (different levels),…

This article reports on the implementation of diagnostic assessment in an advanced Spanish language program at the university level. Particular attention is given to the use of dynamic assessment practices as a way to assess language abilities, intervene in learning, and document learners' growth. Dynamic assessment is conceptually based on…

This article reports on a formative and internal evaluation of teacher induction practices for newly hired teachers in a US university ESL program. By adopting a utilization-focused approach, evaluators produced a design that was articulated to the information needs of the evaluation users. The ensuing findings were then used to develop and…

This article presents a study of the teacher trainees in an English department who have received instruction in metacognitive awareness for reading comprehension. Metacognition or "thinking about thinking" involves the awareness and regulation of thinking processes. Metacognitive strategies are those strategies which require students to…

This action research examines experiences that students in a grade 10 EFL class had with redesigning a grammar-unit into a topic-based unit. Strategies were formulating significant learning goals and objectives, and implementing and reflecting on activities with three dimensions of Dee Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning: the human…