Presents a detailed study of the language planning situation in Taiwan. After a general account of the socio-historical context in which the planning activities have taken place, a brief review of what happened in terms of language planning in Mainland China under the Nationalist government between 1911 and 1945 is presented. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the ethnographic interview as a strategy in foreign language teacher development. Excerpts from preservice teachers' reports on an ethnographic interview assignment provide evidence that the process of conducting the interview facilitates the development of the requisite understanding and awareness. (Author/VWL)

Presents the results of a study undertaken to determine the number and nature of the problems encountered by advanced undergraduate students in a French composition course. The primary objective of the study was to find an explanation for the repetition and frequency of student errors and to modify the content of the course. Presents quantitative…

Examines information technology training of language teachers in MA Teaching English as a Foreign Language or Teaching English as a Second or Other Language courses. Focuses on the role of computer programming in MA courses and concludes that knowledge of programming enables language teachers to get involved in the design and development of…

Discusses how English-as-a-foreign-language instructors in China, Japan, and Korea can motivate their students to listen, speak, read, and write for real-life communicative purposes by using authentic texts and audiences. (Author/VWL)

Describes a problem-posing, content-based approach that offers English-as-Second-Language students and teachers an opportunity to exercise critical perceptions of each other and the world around them within the context of academic language study. (Author/VWL)

Describes an activity for teaching English that helps students deal with new words in context, grasp meaning of a text before going into detail, and infer the meaning of new words. The activity focuses on three main goals: building an understanding of the text in spite of new vocabulary; coping with new words, and building confidence. (Author/VWL)

Describes an activity called warming-up for reading (WFR), which had been used in teaching reading to students at Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela. Special attention is focused on the role of the teacher and the students, and on how using WFR tackles skills, strategies, and other relevant aspects that are central to reading. (Author/VWL)

Describes the work of three bilingual story tellers, one Navajo and two Hispanic Americans, who communicate about their own language and culture while increasing the respect for other cultures of those who hear them. Storytelling is an excellent way to introduce children to other languages and cultures. (SLD)

Discusses gendered-discourse in the foreign language classroom. Presents research suggesting that boys do not necessarily always dominate and that girls create learning opportunities for themselves and are able to utilize those provided by the teacher. (Author/VWL)

Examines the western approach to language teaching and learning and its suitability for Asian learners, especially in mainland China. The need for cultural sensitivity is stressed, especially as there is often the tacit assumption that western practices constitute superior teaching and learning methods applicable to all situations. (Author/VWL)

The literature on evaluation in English language teaching has little to say about development of appropriate teacher evaluation systems for major institutional language programs. This article provides a set of ideas and suggestions that can enable a program team to create evaluation procedures that relate to the needs of…

Describes an activity for use in the conversational English-as-a-foreign-language classroom. The activity involves having each student say one or two sentences that continues a story being made up as the activity goes along. Students were positive about the activity, because saying only one or two sentences helped them not to feel pressured or…

Reports on a classroom-based project exploring the learning experiences of 30 Japanese English-as-Second-Language (ESL) exchange students in an environment highlighting learner autonomy and the use of technology. Describes a model that was implemented in three multimedia lab classes of two content-based language courses in a sheltered immersion…

Discusses a French immersion program in Louisiana, highlighting indications that students in the program are scoring higher on the state's mandated standardized tests than students in the district not participating in the program. Attempting to overcome deficits in language immersion research using testing and demographic data from a large sample…