Earticle

What language variety should be the target of learning for English as an international language? This paper proposes that in those Asian countries where English learners’ primary purpose is to be able to use English for academic and professional purposes (EAPP) in order to join international academic and professional discourse communities, it is the language and culture of the academic and professional varieties of English which should be the primary target of instruction rather than ‘general English’ and ‘general culture’. The analytical framework of genre analysis (Swales, 1990) naturally shifts the focus of analysis away from the “idealized native speaker” of an idealized target language defined by national borders, and allows us instead to analyze and teach to the actual performance of expert members of real professional English-medium discourse communities. Such expert members may as easily be non-native speakers of English as native speakers. Content-based instruction (CBI), and language immersion provide promising models of instruction in the primary and secondary institutions to prepare students for this kind of learning purpose; alternative models for CBI and EAPP are also suggested for tertiary education. Web-based resources for teachers and administrators on CBI and language immersion are included in the references.

Project-based learning (PBL) has been receiving more and more attention in recent years. In the English classroom, however, PBL is often looked upon as a taxing and daunting task. This study investigates the implementation of PBL in two Hong Kong secondary English classrooms. Data was collected from students’ diary entries, post-project reflections, post-study interviews, as well as pre- and post-questionnaires. The results showed that PBL was generally well received by students, and that it opened up valuable learning opportunities that integrated content knowledge and language development. Students felt that they had benefited a great deal from the opportunities provided for them to take greater control of their learning, though they also noted problems in collaboration with others. The paper ends with some recommendations that would help interested teachers to implement PBL in their own classroom.

This paper discusses the first use of IT by Chinese postgraduate teacher trainees of English (n=34) in the development of an IT-rich lesson for a group of Chinese students (n=38). Bulletin Board System interactions aimed to promote the independent learning skills of the Chinese students whilst simultaneously facilitated the design of digital language learning materials by the Chinese teachers. The collected data reveals that the communication between the Chinese teachers and learners will need to change if IT is to be used in an informed way in order to meet the needs of English language learners that are becoming increasingly computer literate.

This study discusses roles and responsibilities of joint teaching by English native-speaking ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) and JTLs (Japanese Teachers of Language) in English classrooms at Japanese junior high schools. Although there seems to be strong support for team-teaching, there is much discussion surrounding the many difficulties which have arisen whilst conducting lessons. This “intrinsic case study” (Stake, 1995) focuses on the two teachers’ roles and responsibilities in the classroom and investigates discursive classroom practice based on recorded classroom data. A qualitative, discourse analytic approach is used in the data analysis, the findings of which show that, in this case, the JTL takes overall responsibility in the classroom. Also, it is seen that team-teaching is not always performed effectively because the two different interpretations toward the lesson procedure adopted by the JTL and the ALT seem to create confusion for the students and teachers themselves. Consequently, it has been concluded that if the two teachers wish to effectively cooperate, they must become more aware of their own discursive interaction.

This article reports the results of an investigation into Iranian EFL learners’ perceived use of language learning strategies (LLSs) overall, the six strategy categories (memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social) as well as the 50 individual strategies appearing in Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Participants were 220 female and male English major university students who filled out the SILL. Results of the study showed that Iranian EFL learners were “medium” strategy users overall while with regard to strategy categories they used metacognitive strategies with a high frequency; cognitive, compensation, and affective strategies with a medium frequency, and memory and social strategies with a low frequency. With respect to individual strategies, two strategies—items 38 (metacognitive) and 42 (affective)—were used with the highest frequency and significantly different from a large number of other strategies; whereas items 6 (memory), 14 (cognitive), 19 (cognitive), 43 (affective), and 48 (social) were the least frequently used strategies and significantly different from a large number of other strategies.

In this paper, “the valuable diagnostic tool” Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), proposed by Oxford (1990), has been employed to conduct an empirical study on learning strategies of tertiary-level EFL learners in China on the basis of a brief survey of the research into L2 learning strategies. The paper examines and analyzes the overall frequency with which they employ learning strategies. The relationship between learning strategies and three other variables (gender, time spent in English learning, and English language proficiency) is also examined through the well-known SPSS 10.0. The findings of the research suggest that the learning strategies employed most frequently by the tertiary-level EFL learners are memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies, followed by compensation strategies, with social and affective strategies the least frequently used. The study also shows that significant difference exists between the employment of learning strategies and gender in English learning, and that strategy use demonstrates a significant relationship, to varying degrees, with the time spent on English learning and English proficiency as well. Finally, the paper discusses the causes of such a relationship between the above-mentioned variables, and points out the major factors that affect the strategy use of the tertiary-level EFL learners in China.

The objective of this research is to correlate the factors that might influence the quality of Japanese college students’ descriptive writing in English as a foreign language. The factors included students’ Japanese descriptive writing, English proficiency, knowledge of English writing, processes of English writing, past instructional and writing experiences of both Japanese and English, and likes and dislikes of writing. Forty five Japanese college students wrote two descriptive writings, one in Japanese and the other in English, and then answered questionnaires. Fourteen of the students also participated in oral interviews. The quantitative analysis suggested that three factors such as Japanese descriptive writing, English proficiency, and knowledge of English writing, influence the quality of English descriptive writing. Among them, Japanese descriptive writing correlates most highly to English descriptive writing. In addition, there were also relatively high correlations between the ratings of Content and Organization in Japanese and English writings. The analysis of questionnaires showed that good writers gained experience and instructions of writing, feedback from the teachers, and also opportunities to revise both in Japanese and English. In addition, good writers designed the organization of writing using a separate sheet of paper, with taking into account of their readers to be.