This article discusses the strategies used by Cantonese ESL learners to cope with their problems in pronouncing English initial consonant clusters. A small-scale research study was carried out with six secondary and six university students in Hong Kong, who were asked to perform four speech tasks: the reading of a word list, the description of a…

This paper reports a study on anxiety in Chinese undergraduate non-English majors at three different proficiency levels. By way of survey, observations, reflective journals and interviews, the study revealed that (1) a considerable number of students at each level felt anxious when speaking English in class, (2) the more proficient students tended…

The aim of this study is to reveal the differences in the process of learning reading strategies by EFL learners whose English proficiency levels differ. For this purpose, portfolios made by 10 Japanese female college students learning English (five in the higher proficiency group and the other five in the lower) were analyzed. The results found…

The paper describes a research project which observes the teaching practices of trainers working in three non-linguistic skill ("other-skill") areas--music (classical singing), table tennis, and flight simulation. The aim is to compare these practices with those of the language teacher and to consider whether the latter has anything to learn from…

The majority of research to date on pre-task planning has investigated the impact of planning time on L2 learners' oral production, and has generally reported its positive effects on their task performance. However, little research on planning has been conducted in writing contexts, and there is no firm evidence to demonstrate that pre-task…

This study explores the role of culturally familiar background knowledge in inferential and literal comprehension in L2 reading. Ninety-eight Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) university students were divided into two groups of equivalent English proficiency. They read either the original of an American short story or a "nativized"…

Cognitive load can be defined as the amount of mental effort that performing a specific task imposes on a learner's cognitive system. It can be measured by the number of new concepts embedded in a learning task. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, with their limited English proficiency and minimal entry knowledge of a subject matter,…

Team teaching between native English speaking teachers and local L2 English teachers has become an increasingly common phenomenon in schooling in the East Asia region. The relevant literature reports some positive impacts of team teaching and also highlights some of the challenges or conflicts which arise. The aim of this paper is to focus on…

The development of accent and fluency are traced in the speech of 20 Mandarin and 20 Slavic adult immigrants to Canada over a period of 10 months. The participants were enrolled in an ESL program but had no special instruction in either pronunciation or fluency. The immigrants' self-reported exposure to English outside of class was used to…

This study investigated the language learning strategy use of 55 ESL students with differing cultural and linguistic backgrounds enrolled in a college Intensive English Program (IEP). The IEP is a language learning institute for pre-admissions university ESL students, and is an important step in developing not only students' basic Interpersonal…

This article reports on a study that investigated the dual characteristics of willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2): trait-like WTC and situational WTC. By adopting methods of classroom observation, participant interviews and questionnaires, consistency between L2 learners' self-report WTC and their actual WTC behavior in an…

Research on C-testing has given us few accounts of the relationship between text characteristics and the nature of processing in the C-test completion. The present investigation set out to contribute to this line of research. The purpose of the study was two-fold: First, it attempted to explore the factors by which the difficulty of the C-test can…

Although decisions or inferences we make based on test scores depend both on characteristics of test-takers and of testing situations, little research has been undertaken on the effects of these characteristics on test performance (e.g., Alderson and Banerjee, 2002). This study focuses on one of the personal characteristics of test-takers, namely…

The aim of CALL practitioners is to work towards a state where computers are fully integrated into pedagogy, a state of "normalisation." This article draws on a qualitative research study into two EFL settings to discuss obstacles to normalisation and ways of overcoming them. It identifies a number of key features which appear to be significant in…

This study, situated in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context where non-English major college learners are usually required to read content-area textbooks in English, tried to determine what motivates students to engage in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) reading activities. Three student informants were invited to reflect on their own…