Explores the issue of the emergence of English as a global language and how this is affecting educational policies and practices. Considers this question in relation to the Greater China region looking specifically at Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Data are from multiple sources, including questionnaires, interviews, and documentary…

Examines the benchmarking of English language teaches in Hong Kong. Contextualizes the benchmarking initiative, which has been put in place to ensure that all teachers in Hong Kong have the necessary competence to teach English. Focuses on the representativeness of the sample used to field test the prototype of the benchmark assessments and to…

Looks at the value of language corpora for designing teaching materials and argues that they are an essential tool for teachers wishing to keep up to date with language as it is actually used in real life. Provides a number of useful and practical teaching examples for designing teaching tasks and for raising students' awareness to the differences…

Focuses on the cases of two adults from Japan and Taiwan who have developed cosmopolitan language and cultural identities during their lifetimes. In both cases, cosmopolitan identities arose from critical experiences--periods when prolonged contact with a second language and culture caused irreversible destabilization of the individuals' sense of…

Explores conception of foreign language learning of a group of 28 university students in the Caribbean. Data were drawn from learner journals kept during an undergraduate French program at a local university. Looks at the metaphors used by the learners in their autobiographical accounts of their language learning. (Author/VWL)

Examines why only a limited number of adults who enroll in Welsh courses in Wales obtain fluency or become integrated in a Welsh-speaking community. Argues that many of the barriers these learners face come from outside the classroom and that the implementation of more innovative approaches could decrease the dropout rate. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the main language policies that have been implemented in the Peoples' Republic of China since 1949 and presents the learning experiences of six learners differing in age and language backgrounds. Suggests individual learning histories reflect the policy changes. (Author/VWL)

Tells the story of how a college student who failed the Hong Kong Advanced Supplementary (AS) Level Use of English (UE) examination was determined to pass it the following year in order to go from a higher diploma program to a degree program that interested him. Discusses the process through which he refound his direction in learning English after…

Discusses a Korean learner's struggle to achieve English language proficiency over a 20-year period using an autobiographical approach. Concentrates on the issues of individual motivation and social learning environments and examines the interactions between this learner's motivation and affect, self-confidence, and environment. (Author/VWL)

Presents an autobiographical account of the long-term learning experience with English in different linguistic and sociocultural contexts. The account indicates a close relationship between communication needs and learning strategies adopted in different sociocultural contexts. (Author/VWL)

This autobiographical analysis compares the learning of Mandarin Chinese over 15 years and Samoan over 20 years using an auto-communal model of learning--self instruction within a local community were creating encounters and making up conversations for the sake of language practice are the central learning method. (Author/VWL)

Explores the relationship between one individual's own English learning and teaching experiences. Employs the self-study method of inquiry in the form of narratives to illuminate how learning experiences influence beliefs and practices in language teaching. (Author/VWL)

Reports a teachers' conversation group that was part of a course in a Japanese as a second language teacher education program. Explains the rationale for using this format and quotes part of a story one student wrote and two stories told by other students on a theme in the written story. Relates these two stories to histories of students'…

Explores topicalization in the Chinese-English translation classroom. Examines translation in language teaching, Advocates translation as a useful skill and discusses it as a means of mastering a foreign language--in this case, English. (Author/VWL)

Explores the close link between perception and production of sounds and suggests that teachers need to ensure that their students can distinguish between individual sounds of a language, particularly those that do not exist in their native language. Describes a study in which two groups of Chinese learners of English were compared in their ability…