The Traffic Cop Syndrome

Over twenty years ago, Long (1983) suggested that the teacher made very little difference in the development of a student’s language ability. When comparing language learning as to the time spent on it in class, on a whole, it could reasonably be argued that the teacher could do very little in the way of improving a student’s ability in a relatively short amount of time.

A Case Study of a Korean Learner

This is a case study centering on a student I have taught. In this case certain factors need elicitation before the study per se, for these factors directly impact upon this case subject’s learning and learning environment and are Korean specific. In the expanse of EFL/TEFL literature, the greater majority of writings relate to the whole, not the self. This work attempts to isolate the principles for the ‘whole’ and apply them to the ‘self.’

LEARNING VOCABULARY THROUGH GAMES: The Effectiveness of Learning Vocabulary Through Games

Vietnamese students usually feel bored in vocabulary lessons because they have not changed their learning habits, such as writing words on paper, trying to learn by heart or learning passively through the teacher’s explanations.

Should culture be an overt component of EFL instruction outside of English speaking countries? The Thai context

Culture has become an increasingly important component of English language teaching in recent times. There are a number of reasons for this related to a view of language that incorporates a wider social and culture perspective, and to the increasingly multicultural use of English.

The types of speaking assessment tasks used by Korean Junior Secondary school English teachers

This study aimed:
- to identify the types of speaking assessment tasks used by Korean Junior Secondary School English teachers and the ways in which those assessments were administered;
- to investigate Korean teachers’ perceptions of the practical constraints in Korean EFL classrooms which affect assessment of speaking.

Teaching vocabulary using short texts

Traditionally, vocabulary used to be offered to learners in the form of lists. Nowadays, the tendency is to present vocabulary in texts. For vocabulary building purposes, texts – whether spoken or written – have enormous advantages over learning words from lists.

Authentic, Performance-Based Assessment in ESL/EFL Reading Instruction

In recent years there has been a reaction against standardized objective testing and a movement toward authentic, performance-based testing in a variety of learning domains, including ESL/EFL reading comprehension. A number of measurement researchers have investigated and developed comprehensive test validity criteria which should apply to all testing, traditional or authentic.

A Comparison of Word-formation between Chinese and English

Word-formation is the study of words, dealing with the construction or formation rules of words in a certain language. This paper studies and analyses various ways of Chinese and English word-formation so that similarities and differences are found between the two languages.

Teaching English in Japan to Chinese Students

The Changing Classroom: A More International Feel

Go to any EFL classroom in the United States or England, and it is clear that people from all over the world are studying English. All these students, however, come from various backgrounds, have different mother tongues, and can be generally said to have different struggles in acquiring English.

Challenging beliefs in teacher development: potential influences of Theravada Buddhism upon Thais learning English

This study has investigated the potential influences of Theravada Buddhism as practised in Thailand on the learning behaviour of Thai students studying English. It is a study which puts forward a proposal for teacher development and, as a model, needs to be challenged by those involved in the teacher development process.