Emerging social writing platforms offer possibilities for language learners to collaborate around joint assignments. One such environment is the wiki, generally hosting two prominent modes of usage, web pages and discussion forums. This study investigates software engineering students' use of a wiki as an integrated tool within the frames of a…

Study in language, literature, and culture has long been a defining feature of education in the liberal arts. Speaking, reading, and writing have traditionally stood at the heart of education because the arts of language and the tools of literacy are key qualifications for full participation in social, political, economic, and cultural life. Today…

This report presents the findings of a longitudinal study of English as a Second Language (ESL) students at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) conducted during the summer of 2007. The study used College records to track all students who first enrolled in CCSF's credit and non-credit ESL programs in 1998, 1999, and 2000 for seven years …

In this article, the author describes the genesis of the Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (AFMLTA) and "Babel." With regard to the origin of the title of the journal, its name refers only indirectly to the Tower of Babel in Genesis. It comes in fact from the affectionate nickname that had been given to the…

Although the relationship between research and language teaching is often discussed among applied linguists, the views of language teachers are often reported anecdotally, if at all. Our article explores how language teaching colleagues in a Canadian university view this relationship as expressed in open-ended questionnaire responses and…

The present study expands the design of Warschauer (1996) surveying freshman foreign language students at a Turkish university. Motivating aspects of computer assisted instruction in terms of writing and e-mailing are explored through an exploratory factor analysis conducted on the survey developed by Warschauer (1996). Findings suggest that…

Teachers play a vital role in the classroom environment. Interaction between teacher and students is an essential part of the teaching/learning process. An educator, Flanders originally developed an instrument called Flanders Interaction Analysis (FIA). The FIA system was designed to categorize the types, quantity of verbal interaction and direct…

Describes some of the funding problems facing many study abroad programs and examines some approaches that have proven successful in combatting these problems. (EKN)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) has developed a system aiming to effectively place students in freshman and developmental English programs. The placement system includes: triangulating data from external test scores, with scores from a panel-marked hand-written essay (HWE),…

Recently, the Modern Language Association (MLA) called for a major reorganization of undergraduate academic programs and even the structure of foreign-language departments. Typically, the initial two years of language instruction are taught by non-tenure-track instructors with little or no voice in the department. Faculty members mainly teach the…

Ensuring that students spend time preparing for class has always been one of the challenges of teaching. Indeed, when students are given an assignment that they are required to do before coming to the next lecture--whether it be written exercises or just studying--one wonders how often they are actually doing it. There are many ways in which…

Describes a teaching assistant (TA) training program instituted at Ohio State University in order to provide TAs with knowledge about teaching and a sense of professionalism. Program is divided into a preservice and an inservice component. (BK)

Describes results of course/career survey of French graduates by Brock University to elicit data useful to Romance Studies department and test viability of liberal education in a society in which vocational studies seem to be most favored. Results showed most respondents obtained work in academic world. Responses were divided regarding…

Foreign language departments tend to develop into sophisticated organizations, giving service to large numbers of students and capable of applying the best technology available. Several models of departmental organization indicate some lines of effective growth. (JB)

The innovative program enables students to enroll, for additional academic credit, in regular disciplinary courses which have supplementary readings and class meetings in a foreign language. Currently 25 professors are experimenting with the special courses and 45 students are enrolled in the foreign language tracks of 4 courses. (DB)