This article examines the extent to which different groups of university students have shared vocabulary needs. Previous research in this area is limited in that it: (i) has focused on items from Coxhead's Academic Word List (2000), which is skewed towards certain disciplines, and focuses only on reading needs; (ii) has not investigated…

Yoo's (2014) article raises a number of questions concerning local teachers' status and the ownership of English in the Expanding Circle. In this article, I address five issues that I see as most important relating to the ownership of English and empowering local teachers in the Expanding Circle. I provide up-to-date evidence of World…

University students represent a subset of young men and women at risk for HIV in high prevalence settings. Innovative programs are needed to raise awareness on the unique issues around HIV and AIDS in the university campus, while training student leaders for peer-based education. The Process and Collaboration for Empowerment and Discussion (PACED)…

School-based programmes to combat the spread of HIV have been demonstrated to be effective over the short-term when delivered on a small scale. The question addressed here is whether results obtained with small-scale delivery are replicable in large-scale roll-out. Primary School Action for Better Health (PSABH), a programme to train teachers to…

While substantial attention has been given to the introduction of English from the very start of schooling in many European countries today, there remains an insufficient supply of motivated, well-prepared teachers available and willing to meet this demand. This article reviews current mechanisms in Europe aimed at supporting the provision of…

Young learners' use of instructional games in foreign language learning is not yet well understood. Using games that were part of the learning tools for an online assessment, Jido-Eiken, a standardized English proficiency test for young learners in Japan, we examined young learners' game-playing behaviours and the relationship of these…

Few studies investigate ELT with young learners in China, although conservative estimates suggest 60-million primary school children are studying English; even fewer studies investigate Chinese young learners' L2 motivation. This article reports on a study of English learning motivation among Chinese primary school pupils through analysing…

Following the global trend in primary English language instruction, the Ministry of Education in Mexico has recently included English as an additional language as part of the national curriculum for primary grades. Some have questioned whether early EFL programmes can work, given the few instructional hours per week and limited exposure to the…

This article looks at the effects of a teaching sequence of song-based activities on the L2 vocabulary acquisition of a group of five-year-old Spanish child EFL learners. Twenty-five preschool children received three 30-minute lessons organized around the presentation and practice of a well-known children's song. Vocabulary picture tests were…

The purpose of this article is to present one significant part of a large-scale critical-ethnographic-action-research project (CEAR Project) carried out in Oaxaca, Mexico. The overall CEAR Project has been conducted since 2007 in different Oaxacan elementary schools serving indigenous and mestizo (mixed-race) children. In the CEAR Project, teacher…

Drawing on experience and the emerging results of a research project, this article examines the role of play, in particular child-initiated play, when learning languages in pre-primary settings. It begins by characterizing play and highlights the importance of a balanced relationship between adult-led and child-initiated play activities. It…

The purpose of this article is to highlight and discuss the strategies used to diffuse and manage a primary ELT innovation in Greece, strategies that proved essential for developing stakeholders' acceptance and ownership of the innovation, thereby facilitating its further development and sustainability. The PEAP Programme, launched in 2010,…

This article reports on an exploratory study responding to the problem of understanding how young learners position themselves as speakers of a foreign language. A group of 24 Hong Kong primary-school children (ages 10-12) who are in the process of simultaneously learning English and developing narratives of identities as English speakers,…

Despite being something of a "Cinderella" area of study, research into and informed discussion of teaching young learners is on the increase, perhaps mirroring the increasing numbers of children learning English globally in primary schools. This introductory article reviews key themes and issues in the teaching of English to young…

National and state surveys over the past several decades have concluded that school social workers, despite an awareness of and training in macro level practice strategies, are highly individualistic in their practice focus. Although clinical skills are necessary, they are insufficient for effective school social work practice in the 21st century.…