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…

The history of the role of assessment in policy-making for languages education in Australia over the past 20 years is characterised by a complex and shifting interface between language policy, curriculum and assessment. Three phases can be identified during which significant changes occur. These highlight an ongoing struggle for legitimacy for…

Presents a brief history of the status of foreign language instruction from 1953 to 1984. Summarizes research on effects of foreign language study. Describes the foreign language education program at the University of Tennessee--Knoxville, providing an overview of the organization, curricular content, and methodology. Evaluates Knoxville's unique…

There are many analogies between the teaching of music and the teaching of foreign languages. First, the subjects themselves are similar: both are associated with culture, both involve a notational system, both represent a means of communication, and so on. The learning processes associated with music and language are similar, as well. Both are…

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

To help students compete in a global economy, American teachers must begin teaching children a second language at an early age. Describes the advantages of learning a second language at the elementary school level, highlighting three currently-used language programs (immersion, Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools, and Foreign Language…

This volume reports on innovative, useful evaluation work conducted within U.S. college foreign language programs. An introductory chapter scopes out the territory, reporting key findings from research into the concerns, impetuses, and uses for evaluation that FL educators identify. Seven chapters then highlight examples of evaluations conducted…

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),…

In a paper published in "The Language Learning Journal" in 2005, Eric Hawkins describes his vision of language education as an apprenticeship comprising two stages. In stage one (ages 5-14), the purpose is "educational" and the focus is on language awareness; in stage two (14-19), the purpose is "instrumental" and…

The development of high school Japanese language programs (JLPs) in Oregon has been remarkable since the 1980s. However, high school students educated in Japanese face problems of articulation as they enter the JLP at the University of Oregon. Because little attention has been paid to the problem of articulation, a study of these students'…

The following articles on second language learning are collected here: (1) "Second-Language Study: Historical Background and Current Status" by Kenneth D. Chastain; (2) "The Value of Second-Language Learning" by Gilbert A. Jarvis; (3) "Psychology and Linguistics as Bases for Language Pedagogy" by Wilga M. Rivers; (4) "Differentiation of Language…

In the field of EFL, effective language evaluation is receiving more and more attention. However, in many Chinese EFL situations, the evaluation of language development is still considered to be product-oriented. It is the purpose of this article to examine an evaluation system of an English language program offered by a university in Yunnan…

Despite the problems presented by lexical errors in second language (L2) communication, most computer assisted language learning (CALL) programs tend to focus on the acquisition of grammar points rather than on the development of the L2 lexicon. In addition, CALL vocabulary tasks are typically limited in scope and mechanical in nature, covering…