Monthly Editions
Towards Self-Expression in L2 Classrooms: The Effect of Explicit Teaching of Story Structures on EFL learners’ Narrative Ability
Retelling stories, as an instance of guided speaking, can be an effective strategy to enhance learners‘ communicative output and class participation. In many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classes, however, this effective strategy is rarely exploited to its full potential, and the usual performance on the part of students is hardly anything better than a partially memorized impersonal report.
Assuming Multiple Roles in the Development of a Readers’ Theater Course
This article was inspired by an exploration of readers’ theater as the focus of a semester long topics course, given as one of five courses required of full-time students enrolled in a university intensive English program. The article briefly describes how the author conceived the course as a strand within the context of a broader program.
Chinese College English Teachers’ Perceptions of Plagiarism Among Chinese College EFL Learners: The Impacts of English-medium Academic Training
The bulk of research into Chinese students’ problem with plagiarism in both the Anglophone and Chinese contexts has given much attention to the culture/education versus language debate, and the development versus morality debate.
Adult Japanese Learners’ Ranking of Six English Accents
British and American English teachers originally dominated the Japanese EFL landscape. Although teachers from other Inner Circle countries, Outer Circle countries, and even some teachers from the Expanding Circle are now employed by both private and public schools across Japan…
Using Blogs in ESL/EFL Teaching and Teacher-Training
The use of the internet as a resource in language education is rapidly expanding, and Web 2.0 has opened up exciting avenues for developing collaborative communication skills in a foreign or second language. One of these avenues is the ‘blog’.
Readiness of College Students in Taiwan to Read to Learn from Texts in English
In Taiwan, college teachers require their students to study scholarly works in English. Over the past five years, universities in Taiwan have been proposing that college content courses be instructed only in English. It is relevant, therefore, that this method of instruction be subject to scrutiny with regard to the field of teaching English as a second language.
Chinese Literacy-Learning Strategy Impact on English Reading Development: A Case Study of Taiwanese Learners of English
While recent research has demonstrated that L1 literacy aids L2 literacy acquisition, in the case of varying scripts, not all L1 literacy skills can be successfully applied to the L2 domain. While most students will eventually identify more efficient L2 learning strategies on their own, struggling students may fall behind and eventually give up on L2 learning if they are not explicitly taught how to access the L2 script.
From outside in: from inside out; student’s expectations and perceptions of culturally different teaching styles
Significant curriculum reform has been undertaken in Hong Kong for over a decade. There has been substantial education initiatives designed to enhance Hong Kong students’ English proficiency. The most prominent initiative has been the introduction of the Native English Teacher (NET) Scheme.
Punctuation and Spelling in Learners’ Writing
Despite their apparent straightforwardness, certain features of language seem almost less teachable. The learners’ writing is often full of minor errors on surface features that make it hard for the reader to make sense of it, let alone appreciate its content.
“Drill, baby, drillâ€: Exploring a Neurobiological Basis for the Teaching of Segmentals in the ESL/EFL Classroom
Segmentals are the individual sounds of a language that can be broken down and focused on for instruction. Problems with segmentals can cause miscommunication, embarrassment, and affect confidence and motivation. Although teaching pronunciation and thus segmentals have been suggested to be a crucial element of second language curriculum…
