This article discusses the most relevant findings of a comprehensive study carried out at the University of Helsinki Language Centre that looked into work-related foreign language needs of graduates from the University of Helsinki. The aim of this article is to provoke other language centres or similar institutions in other European universities…

This study investigated degrees of mutual intelligibility among 3 structurally related languages in South Africa: Sepedi, Sesotho, and Setswana. To compare reading proficiency of mother-tongue speakers who enrolled for freshman courses at the University of Limpopo, 4 reading experimental conditions, in the 3 languages and 1 in a harmonized text,…

This paper evaluates a range of factors that have contributed to the limited spread of English to rural Kisii, Kenya, making the presence of English in this non-urban context fall closer to an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or Expanding Circle continuum than to the expected English as a Second Language (ESL) context. Kenya is an Outer Circle…

This dissertation adds to work exploring where language stands in the shaping of adolescent speakers' social identities, since identities emerge through discursive and social practices, and social selves are produced through interaction (Bucholtz 1999), but much of the literature studying the role of language in defining the adolescent's identity…

Language minority students' writing is often measured solely in terms of its distance from native speaker norms, yet doing so may ignore the process through which these texts are realized and the role that the first language plays in their creation. This study analyzes oral interactions among adolescent second language writers during an extended…

This study draws on the application of sociocultural theory to second-language learning and teaching to examine the impact of a design-based research approach on teacher development and literacy instruction to English-language learners (ELLs). Design-based research methodology was employed to derive theoretical suppositions relating to the process…

Comparative research in multilingual urban primary schools indicates that the pedagogical and political goals of schooling may operate at cross-purposes. Classroom observations and teacher interview-discussions were conducted in classes for immigrant children in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the language of instruction is French, and in classes…

This report presents stories of six teachers who believe in the power and promise of immigrant students and English language learners. Their stories begin to help readers understand the assets these groups of students bring to classrooms, the challenges they--both students and teachers--face, and the role that teachers and schools play in their…

The world is marked by the twin processes of economic and cultural globalization in an era of information technology. The identities of all societies are evolving as social and political boundaries are shrinking day-by-day. As a result of significant economic and political changes, cross-cultural contact is at an all-time high in human history.…

Contemporary humankind is witnessing the spread and impact of the English language on the global educational space. Such an influx is occurring irrespective of people's objective or subjective will. English has become a vital means for accessing and acquiring information and knowledge about the world. It promotes the reformation of language…

Fixation on language in language policy debates is not a natural given. In fact, it has to be re-examined. This paper argues that another effective way to look at language policy is to suspend talk on language, and instead first engage with social development issues where people are at the heart of the social landscape. It discusses three ways of…

As English spreads as an international language, it evolves through diverse users' writing and speaking. However, traditional views of ESL users focus on their distance from fairly static notions of English-language competence. This research uses a grounded theory approach to describe a range of competencies that emerge in ESL users' interactions…

It is not easy to look at the current momentum of the worldwide diffusion of English and imagine what the future trends will be by mid-century or even in the next two or three decades. A prudent undertaking is to review briefly the present situation and project what the coming decades hold in view of several developments that are shaping our…

This article deals with the interlanguage of adult second language (L2) learners acquiring finiteness. Due to the inaccessibility of bound inflectional morphology, learners use free morphology to mark a syntactic relationship as well as person and number features separately from the thematic verb, expressed by a pattern like "the man is go".…

This paper takes up three topics for discussion. The first is whether the Kachruvian three-circle model can accommodate the possible change of English use (e.g. native/non-native to individual proficiency, a special talent to a basic skill). The second is what transformation English would undergo if it survives as English as an international…