Using conversation analysis and situated learning theory, in this paper we analyze the peer dyadic interactions of one adult learner of English in class periods 16 months apart. The analyses in the paper present microgenetic and longitudinal perspectives on the learner's increasing participation in his classroom communities of practice. The focus…

This longitudinal mixed-methods study compared the oral fluency of well-educated adult immigrants from Mandarin and Slavic language backgrounds (16 per group) enrolled in introductory English as a second language (ESL) classes. Speech samples were collected over a 2-year period, together with estimates of weekly English use. We also conducted…

This paper examines the beliefs and practices about the integration of grammar and skills teaching reported by 176 English language teachers from 18 countries. Teachers completed a questionnaire which elicited beliefs about grammar teaching generally as well as specific beliefs and reported practices about the integration of grammar and skills…

This article draws on ethnographic data from a longitudinal study of newly-arrived immigrants of non English-speaking background in the Australian Adult Migrant English Program to investigate their opportunities for using English and the language learning strategies (LLS) they used to make the most of these opportunities. Analysis of their reports…

This paper reviews the teaching of Aboriginal languages in the tertiary sector of Australia, looking at the stronger languages taught in the university sector versus those languages under revival that tend to be taught in the TAFE sector. The paper summarises the status of courses offered state by state, and sets the scene with some historical…

The study suggests a general model that could guarantee the cooperation between teachers and their students to overcome the difficulties encountered in ESP learning. It tries to join together different perspectives in the research of adult education, specifically in the teaching of English for Specific Purposes. It also provides some sort of trust…

This paper examines multiple-response sequences (MRSs), occurring in adult Korean TESOL classrooms, to show the responses produced by students in the language classroom are not always confined within the boundaries of a single response, but are likely to be seen as mutually orienting to, and collaborating to produce a comprehensible outcome to the…

In this brief report, we summarize the results of an experiment on the interpretation of English word order patterns by adult Korean- and Japanese-speaking second language learners. Our results suggest that a direct relationship between a construction's word order and the structure of the corresponding event has a greater facilitative effect on…

This comparative, classroom-based study investigated the effect and effectiveness of introducing a focus on form approach to a content-based, occupation-specific language program for adults. Thirty-six adults in two classes participated in a 10-week study. One group of 16 adults received content-based instruction that included a focus on form…

Discussions about the adult L2 learning capacity often take as their starting point stages where considerable L2 knowledge has already been accumulated. This paper probes the absolute earliest stages of learning and investigates what lexical knowledge adult learners can extract from complex, continuous speech in an unknown language after minimal…

In this exploratory study, we investigated the relationship between level of English metalinguistic knowledge, or explicit knowledge about the English language, and cognitive style on the wholist/analytic dimension in an intact group of young adult Polish learners of English as a foreign language. Contrary to expectation, metalinguistic knowledge…

Second language (L2) learners' successful performance in an L2 can be partly attributed to their knowledge of collocations. In some cases, this knowledge is accompanied by knowledge of the semantic and/or grammatical patterns that motivate the collocation. At other times, collocational knowledge may serve a compensatory role. To determine the…

This study surveys the history of English language and the roles of English language education in Asian context. Through the historical survey on English dispersal in Asian countries, the first section of this study traces the dispersal of English from the 18th century and the development of English in Asian countries. The second section of this…

Ability to retrieve information is so important that Chastain (1976) and Brown (2000) do not consider learners to have learned something if they cannot remember it. This ability can also have practical significance too, since it can lead to successes at the exam time. Due to both theoretical and practical reasons, any method that can help the…

Building on Sheen's (2007) study of the effects of written corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of English articles, this article investigated whether direct focused CF, direct unfocused CF and writing practice alone produced differential effects on the accurate use of grammatical forms by adult ESL learners. Using six intact adult ESL…