The increased use of sophisticated mobile devices opens up new possibilities and challenges for language teachers and learners, which has led to an increasing need to consider issues relating to mobile technologies specifically. To date, there is no comprehensive book-length treatment of issues relating to mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). This book fills that gap, providing a resource for present and future language teachers, and for graduate students of applied linguistics and TESOL, to understand how mobile devices can best be used for language teaching. It is founded on existing research, practice and theory, and offers a balanced perspective, based on the author's own experiences with mobile learning - considering the limitations of such an approach, as well as the benefits. Written in a practical and approachable tone, it provides a much-needed guide to MALL, and its fascinating insights promote further debate within the field.

The field of multilingual testing and assessment has grown rapidly in recent years due to the widespread need to integrate immigrant populations into mainstream education and to provide fair and equitable forms of assessment for all students. However, a continuing emphasis on bilingual students has created a significant gap in testing and assessment research. This book addresses the need for research and guidance on testing multilingual students: at its heart is the difference between designing multilingual tests and testing multilingual individuals. The author introduces an integrated approach to testing and assessment, a flexible approach that combines information about multilingual learners' knowledge, skills and abilities with information about their language background and living environment. The book provides an overview of existing research conducted with multilingual populations; provides guidelines for test-writers, teachers and educators that outline the steps involved in the design, administration, scoring and interpretation of tests for multiple language speakers; and demonstrates how to use the integrated approach to testing and assessment in a multilingual educational context.

This volume provides foreign language educators and classroom researchers with an introduction to online intercultural exchange, the activity of engaging foreign language learners in collaborative project work with partners from other cultures through the use of online communication tools such as email, discussion boards and videoconferencing. The authors use their extensive experience in both the practice and research of online exchange to present a clear overview of the pedagogical theory behind online exchange and its contribution to different aspects of foreign language learning, including communicative competence, intercultural awareness and learner autonomy. The chapters look at different ways of organising such projects, such as the Tandem and Cultura models, and also provide clear discussions on practical aspects of the area including task design, the choice of communication tools and the role of the teacher.

The field of multilingual testing and assessment has grown rapidly in recent years due to the widespread need to integrate immigrant populations into mainstream education and to provide fair and equitable forms of assessment for all students. However, a continuing emphasis on bilingual students has created a significant gap in testing and assessment research. This book addresses the need for research and guidance on testing multilingual students: at its heart is the difference between designing multilingual tests and testing multilingual individuals. The author introduces an integrated approach to testing and assessment, a flexible approach that combines information about multilingual learners' knowledge, skills and abilities with information about their language background and living environment. The book provides an overview of existing research conducted with multilingual populations; provides guidelines for test-writers, teachers and educators that outline the steps involved in the design, administration, scoring and interpretation of tests for multiple language speakers; and demonstrates how to use the integrated approach to testing and assessment in a multilingual educational context.

This edited volume brings together 10 cutting-edge empirical studies on the realities of English language learning, teaching and testing in a wide range of global contexts where English is an additional language. It covers three themes: learners' development of interactional competence, the organization of teaching and testing practices, and sociocultural and ideological forces that may impact classroom interaction. With a decided focus on English-as-a-Foreign-Language contexts, the studies involve varied learner populations, from children to young adults to adults, in different learning environments around the world. The insights gained will be of interest to EFL professionals, as well as teacher trainers, policymakers and researchers.

This book examines one-way foreign language immersion education in the United States. It provides a clear and rich description of a Chinese (Mandarin) immersion program, its curriculum, instructional materials, assessment activities, parental involvement and student outcomes. The author analyses two studies that document the development of the students' reading skills in English and Chinese, and the progress of their vocabulary knowledge, lexical inference, and reading comprehension in Chinese. In addition, this book contextualizes the program in its eco-system, including its neighbourhood, school, and the school district, and discusses the importance of school leadership, parental involvement, neighbourhood support and language acquisition planning in making an innovative school program successful. Its concluding chapters offer recommendations for program- and classroom-level practices and suggest pathways for future research on biliteracy learning in Chinese one-way immersion programs. This book will appeal in particular to students and scholars of applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language education.

This volume addresses an important gap in the literature on task design and second language use. Building on insights from over 50 years of research on the relationship between task demands and language use, it examines how referent similarity relates to developmentally-relevant variation in the use of nominal structures, comparative structures and abstract lexis among first and second language speakers of English. In addition to providing an empirical basis for future research on tasks, it shares both theoretical and practical information on task design, which will greatly benefit curriculum and material developers.

What makes good language learners tick? What do they do that poor learners don't do? Could we help the poor learner by teaching them some of the good learners' tricks? The nature of second language learning is extremely complex and a great deal of research is needed to improve our understanding of it. In spite of much theorizing, very little has been done to study its processes directly and empirically. This study constitutes a beginning. It sets out to discover the strategies of good language learners. The book will be useful not only to researchers, but also to teachers and to those who make language teaching policy.

Classroom observation has become a tool for analysing and improving English Language Teaching (ELT). This book represents the state of the art in language education and classroom interaction research from a data-driven empirical perspective. The micro-analytic, multimodal, and videographic approaches represented here understand classrooms as sites of complex, naturally occurring interaction. The volume demonstrates that the investigation of this communicative setting is the basis for insights into the inner workings of classrooms and the development of strategies for teacher education. The introductory article complements the volume by giving a comprehensive overview of the theories and methods that have come to bear in classroom observation.

"Brave New Digital Classroom" deftly interweaves results of pedagogical research and descriptions of the most successful computer-assisted language learning (CALL) projects to explore how technology can best be employed in the foreign-language curriculum to assist the second language acquisition process. Directed to all language teachers - whether at the school or the postsecondary level, with or without prior experience - this book focuses on how to use new technologies effectively. Blake urges teachers to move beyond a simple functional competence of knowing how to use the tools toward first a critical competence - realizing what the various tools are good for - and ultimately a rhetorical competence of knowing how the tools will help transform the learning environment. This book examines the effective use of a range of technologies, from Internet sites through computer-mediated communication such as synchronous chatting and blogs, to distance learning. At the end of each chapter questions and activities demonstrate the interactionist, learner-centered pedagogy Blake espouses. An invaluable reference for experienced researchers and CALL developers as well as those of limited experience, "Brave New Digital Classroom" is also ideal for graduate-level courses on second language pedagogy. It will also be of interest to department chairs and administrators seeking to develop and evaluate their own CALL programs.

The self-inquiries in this edited volume exemplify the dynamism that permeates global ELT, wherein English language educators and teacher educators are increasingly operating across blurred national boundaries, creating new 'liminal' spaces, charting new trajectories, crafting new practices and pedagogies, constructing new identities, and reconceptualizing ELT contexts. This book captures the diverse voices of emerging and established ELT practitioners and scholars, originally from and/or operating in non-Western contexts, spanning not only the so-called non-Western 'peripheries', but also peripheries created within the 'center' when certain members are minoritized on the basis of their race, language, and/or place of origin. The chapters address a range of related issues occurring at the intersections of personal and professional identities, pedagogy and classroom interactions, as well as research and professional practices in liminal transnational spaces.

Offering a novel perspective, this book explores the interplay of ICT and language learning within the context of technological and social change, from the printing press to the mobile phone. It considers how technological advances, through their impact on communication, language and education, affect not only how languages are learnt, but also what kind of language is learnt. The approach highlights both the multifaceted and complex nature of language study and its evolutionary dimension.

Mindful of the fact that cultures are now more interdependent than ever, this book explores the development of critical cultural awareness through the processes of teaching and learning about foreign cultures. It draws upon theoretical foundations relating to inter- and intra-cultural communication from contemporary philosophical movements, namely Critical Theory and Postmodernism. The study adopts Critical Pedagogy, as it is described by Freire, Giroux and others, as the educational framework providing guidelines for taking a critical perspective towards both native and foreign cultures. It examines the critical dimension of some selected documents and models used worldwide for teaching/learning culture within foreign language classes. It includes a research project carried out among secondary school teachers of EFL in Portugal whose national syllabus suggests a critical approach to English-speaking cultures. This project aimed to illustrate how practising teachers approach foreign cultures critically, to provide some grounded theory for a definition of critical cultural awareness within foreign language/culture education, and to inspire a proposal for teacher education and development. Finally, this book submits a general proposal for the development of critical cultural awareness and intercultural communication competence among prospective and practising teachers of foreign languages/cultures.

Do your students struggle to see the point in learning a language other than English? Do you teach in an English-dominant setting? If so, this book is a 'must-read'. It offers international perspectives on CLIL, a revolutionary teaching approach where students study subjects, for example physics or history, in a language which is not their own. Informed by research carried out by the authors, it addresses the issues of developing CLIL in Anglophone contexts and shows how to implement this method of language learning successfully in the reality of the classroom. Through three key themes, sustainability, pedagogy and social justice, each author explores CLIL as a means of addressing the high levels of cultural diversity and socio-economic disparity in Anglophone-dominant settings. Authored by experts in the field, it offers a set of flexible teaching tools, which serve to combine language and content, ultimately enhancing the learning experience of students.

This ground-breaking book is the first to describe in detail how teachers, supported by university educators and education advisers, might plan and implement innovative ideas based on sound theoretical foundations. Focusing on the teaching and learning of intercultural communicative competence in foreign language classrooms in the USA, the authors describe a collaborative project in which graduate students and teachers planned, implemented and reported on units which integrated intercultural competence in a systematic way in classrooms ranging from elementary to university level. The authors are clear and honest about what worked and what didn't, both in their classrooms and during the process of collaboration. This book will be required reading for both scholars and teachers interested in applying academic theory in the classroom, and in the teaching of intercultural competence.

This book is the first in its field. It showcases current and emerging communicative practices in the teaching and learning of ancient languages (Latin and Greek) across contemporary education in the US, the UK, South America and continental Europe. In all these parts of the globe, communicative approaches are increasingly being accepted as showing benefits for learners in school, university and college classrooms, as well as at specialist conferences which allow for total immersion in an ancient language. These approaches are characterised by interaction with others using the ancient language. They may include various means and modalities such as face-to-face conversations and written communication. The ultimate aim is to optimise the facility to read such languages with comprehension and engagement. The examples showcased in this volume provide readers with a vital survey of the most current issues in communicative language teaching, helping them to explore and consider adoption of a wider range of pedagogical practices, and encouraging them to develop tools to promote engagement and retention of a wider variety of students than currently find ancient languages accessible. Both new and experienced teachers and learners can build on the experiences and ideas in this volume to explore the value of these approaches in their own classrooms.

This popular, comprehensive theory-to-practice text helps teachers understand the task of writing, L2 writers, the different pedagogical models used in current composition teaching, and reading-writing connections. Moving from general themes to specific pedagogical concerns, it includes practice-oriented chapters on the role of genre, task construction, course and lesson design, writing assessment, feedback, error treatment, and classroom language (grammar, vocabulary, style) instruction. Each chapter includes Questions for Reflection, Further Reading and Resources, Reflection and Review, and Application Activities. An ideal text for L2 teacher preparation courses and in-service writing instructors, the text offers an accessible synthesis of theory and research that enables readers to see the relevance of the field's knowledge base to their own present or future classroom settings and student writers. New to the Fourth Edition: Updated with new research, theory, and developments to the field throughout the text Visually accessible layout and design for improved reader navigability Expanded attention to technological affordances for writing pedagogy Stand-alone reference list in each chapter Support Material with activities and resources from the text also available on the book's webpage at www.routledge.com/9780367436780

Digital Storytelling in Second and Foreign Language Teaching offers a concise overview of the theoretical underpinnings, rationales, and related pedagogical implications of second and foreign language learning (S/FLL) through digital storytelling for those readers who want to begin experiencing this mode of teaching and learning. It provides educators and language teachers with a research-oriented, evidence-driven knowledge base of the current digital storytelling tools that are apt for learning/teaching different language skills at K-12, college, and university contexts, empirically assessing their effectiveness. In addition to depicting a consolidated picture of digital storytelling (DST) for second and foreign language learning in theory and practice, the book helps readers gain a better understanding of the possible challenges and constraints against the effective integration of these tools for language learning purposes. In addition, case studies conducted in different contexts add to the existing body of research, providing researchers in the fields of language teaching and educational technology with an opportunity to benefit from research designs, findings, and methods. Further, the book expands readers' knowledge base on students and teachers' perception toward language learning by means of digital storytelling tools. The implications discussed in different chapters of this book offer insights for the readers who are interested in conducting further research on this subject in other disciplines. As digital storytelling tools and presentation software which are specifically designed for educational purposes are becoming more accessible and widely applied, a nuanced understanding of how these tools should be best applied for educational purposes including language practice is becoming an imperative. The present publication aims at offering such an understanding, acting as a reference guide, and making DST a tangible instructional design for teachers, educators, learners, curriculum designers, and policy makers in the field of S/FLL and educational technology.

The diagnostic assessment of writing is an important aspect of language testing which has often been neclected in the literature. However, it is an area which poses special challenges to practioners both in the classroom and in large-scale testing situations. This book presents a study which set out to develop and validate a rating scale specifically designed for the diagnostic assessment of writing in an academic English setting. The scale was developed by analysing a large number of writing performances produced by both native speakers of English and learners of English as an additional language. The rating scale was then validated using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study showed that a detailed data-based rating scale is more valid and more useful for diagnostic purposes than the more commonly used impressionistic rating scale.

This book provides a blended approach in outlining the properties of grammatical knowledge that have been causing difficulty to Chinese speaking learners, including tense and aspect, articles, passives, unaccusatives, plurality and motion verbs. It explains from different linguistics perspectives how these constraints/difficulties might be dealt with. It also offers readers a comprehensive account of these problems, and outlines the possible pedagogical solutions teachers can try in the classroom. These topics are selected because they bring substantial challenges and difficulties to Chinese English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. This book bridges the gap between acquisition theory and language pedagogy research, benefiting not just language learners but language teachers around the world, and all those who would like to witness collaboration between second language acquisition theory and second language teaching practice in general. It initiates future work in which researchers from different fields with diverging theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches will be able to develop studies that are compatible with each other. This overall can facilitate our understanding of second language acquisition, and how instruction might help.

This book presents a collection of original research articles that showcase the state of the art of research in corpus and computational linguistic approaches to Chinese language teaching, learning and assessment. It offers a comprehensive set of corpus resources and natural language processing tools that are useful for teaching, learning and assessing Chinese as a second or foreign language; methods for implementing such resources and techniques in Chinese pedagogy and assessment; as well as research findings on the effectiveness of using such resources and techniques in various aspects of Chinese pedagogy and assessment.

The recognition that cultural learning is an integral part of foreign language learning is quickly taking hold among language teachers. This book offers a practical introduction to the issues by providing descriptions of classroom practice, of curriculum innovation and of experimental courses. These are accompanied by chapters on principles of methodology, on problems in assessing cultural learning and on the implications for teacher education and society at large. Michael Byram is the author of several books on language learning and culture, including Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education (1988), and Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Teaching (1991).

This book offers a range of empirically-based case studies in the field of cultural linguistics and neighbouring disciplines such as intercultural pragmatics and language pedagogy. The first section explores intercultural communication and cross-linguistic/cross-cultural investigations in settings such as Brazil, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Morocco, France and Canada. The second section focuses on applications of cultural linguistics in the field of foreign language teaching. By drawing on English as a Foreign Language and English as a Second Language contexts, the case studies presented further examine the ramification of cultural linguistics in the language classroom, enabling a better understanding of culture-specific conceptual differences between learners' first and target language(s).

This volume reports on the main results of the research project Inclusive epistemologies and practices of out-of-school English learning. The study reacts to low attainment levels in English as a foreign language among socioeconomically disadvantaged youth. The contributors to this volume research teenagers' existing practices of using and learning English out of school time and implement new, inclusive, nonformal English language educational initiatives. They evaluate the impact of the nonformal English language educational initiatives implemented and support their sustainability and transferability. The project embeds collaborative and arts-based methods into its methodology, fostering inclusive and creative educational practices and ways of knowing.