A total of 318 grade-5 pupils in Swedish schools were questioned in regard to why English is a compulsory subject. Two hundred and one pupils thought that English is compulsory because it is a world language, 94 thought so because it is useful, and 23 thought so because some authority decided so. Contains 22 references. (MDM)

Focuses on the use of taboo language as beneficial for second-language learners. The article suggests that learners need to understand what constitutes "obscene" language in North American contexts, why native speakers choose to use it, and what it signifies sociolinguistically. Some nonlinguistic variables relevant to cursing are discussed. (15…

A study investigated communication patterns in written English and the prevalent corporate culture, the relationship between a British corporate office and its subsidiary in the Netherlands. Survey respondents were senior-level employees at 107 companies. Results indicate corporate culture plays an important role in the level of English skills…

This study reports on the impact of a 2-month classroom intervention that sought to alter the learning environment of two Hong Kong Primary Year 3 general studies classrooms. Mixed methodology, employing quantitative and qualitative data-gathering strategies, was used to investigate changes to the learning environments, including changes to the…

The apartheid state deliberately encouraged linguistic diversity and actively built cultural infrastructures which impeded Anglicisation. With the end of apartheid has come "de facto" Anglicisation. So although South Africa has, since 1994, had 11 official languages, in reality, English is swamping the other 10 languages. Afrikaans has,…

The English article system presents many problems for non-native speakers of English, particularly when they do not have an equivalent structure in their first language. Different approaches to the teaching of articles have attempted to overcome this problem. By encouraging students to address the notion of countability and to identify specific…

This teacher narrative tells the story of the making of a multicultural English teacher, beginning with the author's roots in a remote village in central Java and tracing his journey through a range of educational institutions. In a series of critical reflections, the author discusses a range of social and cultural influences as these impacts on…

In this essay, five researchers, who are also English educators, describe the research they have crafted to improve the quality of classroom literacy education. They begin by describing their common perspective afforded by linguistics, discourse analysis and related social theory. Their framework and studies describe their action-oriented…

This article examines the language choices made by native-speaker teachers of Japanese, Korean, German and French in foreign language (FL) classrooms in New Zealand secondary schools. It explores these teachers' patterns of alternation between English, the majority language, and the TL, using both AS-units (Analysis of Speech units), devised by…

In this paper, I take the position that the recently increased "e-talk" permeating our language potentially compromises our field's professionalism by "one-minutizing" learning that uses computer-mediated technologies. In so doing, I discuss historical aspects of adult education, the importance of language as a naming function, the evolution of…

The authors examined manifest anxiety and perceptions of English and French language competence among Anglophone (n = 35), Francophone (n = 29), and Mixed-heritage (n = 34) elementary education (60%) and secondary education (40%) students (80% female) in their second, third, or fourth year of study at the Faculte Saint Jean (University of…

This paper reports on the pairing of Spanish-speaking in-service teachers and Turkish-speaking pre-service teachers in a telecollaborative intercultural project in which English was used as a lingua franca. The authors of this paper were the course leaders. Participants' discourses were examined to understand how they communicated their cultures…

Many learners, especially those in a foreign-language setting, draw on the classroom as their primary forum for using and experiencing the target language, still for the most part during teacher-led instruction. Nevertheless, communicative language teaching does not provide a decisive definition of "good language use." Teachers usually take an…

Presented at the Advanced Placement Annual Conference (APAC) in Las Vegas, July 2007. This presentation explores the demographic and course-taking patterns that have been identified behind what students take AP exams and how to best reach the population of students that are not currently taking AP exams.

This paper examines the link between language and power as it relates to program evaluation of the Brisbane School of Distance Education. This program was developed in 1989 to meet the educational needs of children who are part of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia. Guild members and their families travel from town to town putting on agricultural…