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This paper explores the role of culture in the teaching of English as an international language in an Asian context. The paper opens with a description of the features of an international language. Then the author discusses how culture plays an important role in language learning in the teaching of semantics, pragmatics, and rhetoric, in the development of language materials, and in the choice of teaching methodology. Throughout the paper, the author argues that the role of culture in teaching an international language needs to be significantly different from the role of culture in teaching other languages. One of the major aims of the paper is to explore what this means for English teaching in Asian contexts.

This paper considers the nature of a maximally intelligible pragmatics for intercultural communication through the medium of a lingua franca and explores the pedagogic implications for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Whereas foreign language teaching, and EFL pedagogic materials in particular, tends to privilege formulaic utterance-type meanings (Levinson, 1995, 2000), on the principle that the learner conveys a lot of (presumptive) context for relatively little linguistic effort, this paper argues that because intercultural communication takes place in a relatively context-free cultural setting, learners need to become more adept at producing and comprehending utterance-token meaning, on the principle that less context implies more language.

This paper aims to probe and compare reading attitudes and motivation among three national groups of EFL learners. A reading comprehension test and a related questionnaire were produced by Kinoshita et al. (2002). Three versions of the testing instruments each consisted of one original reading subtest written by the researchers, and two other subtests extracted from the reading comprehension sections of the targeted nations’ NUCEE English tests. Participants did not take the subtest drawn from their own country’s NUCEE English test. The questionnaire, developed by the researchers, gathered information about the subjects and their impressions of some features of the two subtests. The present research is the first attempt to analyze the data collected from senior high third-year EFL students who took the reading comprehension subtests in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The analyses found characteristics of reading motivations as well as attitudes toward and impressions about the subtest features; some are common to the three national groups, and the others peculiar to one or two particular groups.

The two Chinese nation-wide tests (CET-6 and TEM-4) have been in operation for more than a decade during which their status has risen. Nevertheless, there has been little research on the comparability of these two influential tests in China, though both are designed particularly for the second-year students at tertiary institutions. To bridge the gap, this study compares the two tests in terms of test takers, test scores and test content. The results show more overall similarities than differences with a Pearson correlation coefficient of .714 (p < .01, nondirectional). Two types of subjects (English majors and non-English majors) in the study were quite similar to each other, with an obvious difference chiefly in instruction hours. The respective means of 67 and 69 appeared close, but this difference was found to be statistically significant. As for test content, differences were observed at a deeper level than at a surface level. The results are discussed in terms how meaningful the relationship is and what they may mean to researchers and test users in developing, using or taking such EFL tests in China.

The use of authentic materials is a major preoccupation in English language teaching (ELT). Teachers often try to ensure their students use authentic materials; publishers proclaim proudly that their materials are authentic. The assumption, of course, is that authentic materials are to be preferred over other types of materials. The purpose of this article is to explore the use of authentic materials in ELT. I begin with a brief discussion of the origins of our field’s present preoccupation with such materials. This is followed by an examination of the reasons why authentic materials are preferred. I then discuss the problems with using authentic materials, and suggest that ‘appropriateness’ should be the primary consideration.

I examine the inconclusive and contradictory claims about the nature and effects of teacher feedback in second language (L2) writing classrooms. An experimental study was conducted with a university EFL class in Korea. My responses and students’ writing processes were analyzed and evaluated with respect to the generalizations that Ferri (2003) derived from previous research on teacher response to L2 writing, particularly regarding the multiple-draft approach called the “process model.” The study found that the students had never experienced the multiple-draft activity. Twenty-seven out of 41 students made several drafts during the semester, showing the development of their writing skills. Eleven students submitted only one draft, which meant that they did not receive any written feedback. Three out of 41 did not submit anything. The students’ most common request for teacher feedback was for correction of errors. In the process of revisions, the students utilized the comments on grammar more than those on content and rhetorical structure.

This paper aims to examine students’ English language learning as an aspect of social practice. The focus is on two groups of undergraduates who studied in the English Department at a university in Taiwan. The research is ethnographic, combining intensive interviews, observation, and systematic collection and analysis of documents and students’ assignments in English. The results reveal that English literacy learning was shaped by the institutional contexts, which include the course contents, the task requirements and the teaching approaches. These students seem to adopt a low-level or a high-level transmission model of learning, depending on the levels of their English language proficiency. Specifically, the process of individual students’ learning appears to be dynamic and ongoing culturally embedded in the educational settings in Taiwan. Consequently, the paper proposes that teachers of English as a foreign language should consider the use of an ecological approach to needs analysis and encourage students to take an ethnographic stance towards their language learning. This may assist teachers in designing appropriate curricula and, in the long run, improve the quality of student learning both inside and outside academic institutions.

This article provides an account of a small-scale evaluation study in the area of initial teacher training in ELT. While evaluation of this sort has a clear accountability function, the article promotes the view that it is the developmental potential of this kind of evaluation that renders it of real value to the teacher trainer or trainee. This applies equally to evaluation studies conducted in European settings such as this one, or to those carried out in any part of the very wide AsiaTEFL constituency. After an opening section which gives an account of the appropriate literature, the study goes on to look at the core elements of the feedback sessions given by TESOL tutors after each teaching practice session on a Trinity Certificate course at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. The study shows that these feedback sessions are seen by tutors and trainees as an invaluable means of improving trainee performance. Nevertheless, issues to do with location, participation, leadership, length, timing, structure, atmosphere, perceptions, previous experiences and outcomes mean that these sessions must be carefully managed and must be seen to involve outcomes which are well-focused, relevant and shared by both parties.

This paper argues that while ideology may play a decisive role in choosing materials as well as methods, teachers can mediate ideological differences and become innovative, creative through a change of mindset. In this process of ideological mediation, teachers need to free themselves from methodological dogmatism and cultural stereotypes and look for alternatives which blend the best practices from their own and Western culture. In order to mediate ideological differences in language teaching methodology, I recommend an imitation-indigenization- innovation model for teachers to try out in their classroom. In the conclusion I argue that teachers determine educational quality and play a central role in educational innovation. For successful change, it is critical that teachers’ continuing professional development be improved in ways that ease their fears that their cultural values, attitudes, and beliefs are being threatened or attacked.

This paper begins with a consideration of the historical roots of task-based teaching, especially as they relate to communicative language teaching. It notes significant common elements between the notion of ‘communicative activity’ and that of ‘task’. But differences are also noted, to do with the concepts of ‘message focus’ and ‘form defocus’. A view of the role of tasks is put forward based on information-processing requirements and the need gradually to permit learners to be able to handle different levels of real operating conditions. Finally, a proposal is put forward for task-based teaching to run alongside more conventional language teaching, with the two components (task-based and ‘conventional’) deliberately not being linked in terms of language content.

In this paper, I shall discuss how students’ confidence is reflected in their verbal and non-verbal responses to teachers’ questions and in their classroom behaviour. The discussion will be based on qualitative data gathered in several junior secondary classes in Hong Kong that had participated in a three-year case study. The findings indicate that students’ confidence (influenced by limited English proficiency and the type of questions asked) affects their classroom responses, verbal or otherwise. To cope with teachers’ questions as well as other activities in the English lessons, students develop a number of strategies, such as remaining silent, checking answers with peers and teachers, and speaking softly. The study suggests that it is important for teachers to develop ways to teach their students as individuals who possess a diverse range of confidence levels as well as language needs and abilities. The paper concludes by suggesting ways of enhancing students’ confidence in English learning experience.

It is believed that L2 classrooms in which there is negotiated interaction between students and teachers result in more language learning, because it produces the linguistic conditions for classroom learners to access comprehensible input and produce comprehensible output. The present study, using a three-fold model of negotiation, describes the features of teacher-student negotiated interaction in Chinese college English classrooms and asks whether the linguistic environment arising from the process of negotiation is favorable to learner participation. The study reveals that on the whole, the linguistic environment produced in the investigated classes is not favorable to language learning, but some modifications do facilitate students’ interlanguage use.

This paper investigates the ways in which readers interpret a news editorial on the basis of cultural assumptions formulated partly under the influence of the media they are associated with. For this investigation, questionnaires (English and Japanese versions) on the discourse of whaling were administered to 30 Japanese postgraduate students and 30 British, European and North American academics, researchers and teachers. In addition, seven EFL students also participated in filling in the questionnaire. The result shows that in the case of the English version, the majority of the non-Japanese respondents were anti-whaling, while most of the Japanese version respondents (Japanese) were either neutral or pro-whaling. This is clearly reflected in their interpretation of the text. The English respondents overwhelmingly supported the editor’s anti-whaling stance despite pointing out the excessive use of emotive language. By contrast, most of the Japanese respondents showed strong disagreement with the editor’s attitude, pointing out the lack of evidence and information. Although the result does not necessarily show that this single editorial had a direct influence on the respondents, there are nonetheless some indications of the ways in which naïve readers could be influenced by the media. Finally, the paper discusses implications of this study for language pedagogy.

This study explores the feasibility of constructing a learning tool with the benefits of data-driven learning from a course-specific corpus and integrating it into a news media English class. Given the popularity of news media English classes in some Asian countries and the call in recent years for instructors to construct smaller and more specialized corpora to meet specific instructional objectives, an on-line system for assisting teaching and reading of English news was developed and used in a university-level news media English class in Taiwan. A lesson incorporating the system was designed and implemented. The lesson aimed at teaching the discourse features of news stories and improving English in general. After the lesson, students’ responses to using the system were obtained by a questionnaire survey. Results of the questionnaire survey indicated an overall positive response to incorporating the learning tool into a news media English class along with suggestions for system design. The paper concludes with implications for future use of the system and possible ways to improve the design of systems for similar purposes.

In this article a case study was made to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of College English Intensive Reading I courseware in particular, and evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of computer assisted intensive reading course in college English in general. The results of the study turned out to be positive in actively engaging students in learning as well as in enhancing students’ reading comprehension and motivating students to learn. Further instructive implications also remained.

This article, based on an on-going inter-collegiate project in Japan, reports on (1) the design of a collaborative workplace between EFL teachers and JSL (Japanese as a second language) teachers, (2) collaborative styles of learning between Japanese EFL students and Asian JSL international students from Korea, China and Southeast Asian countries using e-mail and an electronic bulletin board system (BBS) for computer mediated communication, and (3) inter-cultural, task-based forms of negotiating meaning, information exchange and building relationships in multi-cultural settings for authentic and autonomous foreign language learning. Findings from the project indicate two learning environments; authentic audience and multi-cultural settings and two important learning strategies; autonomous learning and collaborative learning, all of which suggest the necessity of building up a new paradigm of ‘Communication with Language and Technology’ for foreign language learning.

Indigenization of English in many Asian ESL countries and partial learning of English in EFL countries are two major hindrances to Asian Englishes today. Although Englishes are growing day by day, we have not had any common ground on which we can compare our English with other English varieties. The authors of this article were organizing members of the Committee of Revising JACET (Japanese Association of College English Teachers) List of Basic Words. In this article they claim that their experiences compiling JACET word list are applicable to making word lists for Asian English users and learners, which become their vocabulary base of comparison, and the basis for the Asia TEFL Vocabulary Initiative.

The study investigates whether students have sufficient language support in English in higher education by exploring the background of students, the facilities for English, the language needs and motivation of students for higher education, work, and information technology, the availability and quality of English language courses, and the students’ language outcomes. A ‘multi-method’ approach was adopted where a Sociolinguistic Survey was combined with Case Study to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of the study reveal the gap between the English language needs of students in higher education and the availability and quality of English support programmes. The results display the importance attached to English in higher education by students who show a strong desire and motivation to learn English, and display highly positive attitudes to English. The results reveal that the present language policy is leading to a significant difference between private sector and public sector students’ ability to access higher education with the public sector lagging behind. Recommendations are to adopt an ‘English for All’ policy.