This article reports on an introspective study that examined the relationship between first language L1; Farsi lexicalization of the concepts represented by the second language L2; English target words and learners' inferencing behavior while reading English texts. Participants were 20 Farsi-speaking university students of English as a foreign…

This article is a collaborative initiative of the TESL profession in Manitoba. It reflects the authors' attempts to articulate the role of the ESL teaching profession and practice in Canadian multiculturalism. Recognizing ESL teachers' historical roles as agents of assimilation, the authors consider how the field can reorient itself to serve…

Significant progress has been made toward greater professional recognition for adult ESL instructors in Canada over the past decade. At the same time, an ever-increasing demand for English-language teachers, particularly abroad, has resulted in a substantial growth in the number of private companies offering short-term ESL/EFL teacher training.…

During the past five years, an increasing number of younger international students from mainland China have appeared on Canadian campuses to pursue their first university degrees. What is it like being a international student studying in a foreign language and culture at such a young age? Through narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000),…

The aim of this paper is to describe a task-cycling pedagogy for language learning using a technique we have called "Stimulated Reflection". This pedagogical approach has been developed in the light of the new technology options available, especially those that facilitate audiovisual forms of interaction among language learners and teachers. In…

Despite the new possibilities that speech synthesis brings about, few Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) applications integrating speech synthesis have found their way onto the market. One potential reason is that the suitability and benefits of the use of speech synthesis in CALL have not been proven. One way to do this is through…

This paper describes the integration of hypermedia adaptive systems for foreign language learners at an early age. Our research project is concerned with exploring the relationship between language learning and information technology according to six different phases: a preliminary study of the plausible adaptive system; the development of lessons…

In the present study we investigate sentence production in the German interlanguage of Turkish students who have learned German as a first and English as a second foreign language. The students know both languages at an (advanced) intermediate level. Nevertheless, we observed some properties of the German interlanguage that seem to indicate an…

Malta has experienced various linguistic influences over the course of time. Maltese and English are presently the official languages of the island. Nevertheless, Italian was never completely erased from the Maltese linguistic scene and over the past years its popularity has increased considerably because of the influence of Italian television…

This article examines processes of gender identity construction in the classrooms of two ESOL teachers living in their first year of teaching. Drawing from a year-long study of beginning teaching, the author explores the complex relationship among the physical body, language pedagogy, and socially constructed understandings of beauty, then goes on…

This empirical study examines how English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners use their vocabulary knowledge for inferring meanings of unknown words in reading comprehension. The data, collected through interviews with young adult ESL students in Canadian universities, indicate that: (a) semantic and morphological aspects of vocabulary knowledge…

Tandem language learning--a configuration involving pairs of learners with complementary target/native languages--is an underexploited but potentially very powerful use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in second-language pedagogy. Tandem offers the benefits of authentic, culturally grounded interaction, while also promoting a pedagogical…

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the development of curricula for Japanese heritage language schools. Although these schools provide most of the Japanese heritage language (JHL) instruction available to elementary and secondary school pupils, they have received little attention or support from the academic community. Specifically,…

In multilingual societies such as Botswana, language use is an extremely complex matter, further compounded by the fact that the languages involved are themselves dynamic phenomena that often elude the planned outcomes of policies which try to shape and constrain them. The paper describes the functional distribution of the national language…

The purposes of the study were (a) to identify perceptions about representative English-language accents from prospective and practicing providers of business-related language services residing in Argentina and (b) to examine the differences in their perceptions of these English-language accents. The respondents ranked the accents in this order:…