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'…

Presents results from ongoing research about non-adapted language switches, highlighting a longitudinal study of an adult learner of third-language (L3) Swedish with first-language (L1) English and second-language (L2) German. The study is based on 844 non-adapted language switches. Researchers identified four types of switches. Results indicated…

Addresses the need to provide adequate justification for claims made in Teaching-English-as-a-Second-Language (TESOL) research, examining interaction between the pragmatics of doing research for higher degrees and the philosophy of science. Argues that although there are no simple choices for researchers, the issue of warrant is a potentially…

Examined the effects of text-based tasks and background knowledge on incidental vocabulary acquisition among adult English-as-a-Second-Language-learners who received treatments involving reading and retelling text with or without generative training. Pretesting and posttesting indicated that reading and retelling promoted incidental vocabulary…

Interviews with adults experienced in foreign language self-instruction generated profiles of language experience at learner and self-instructed language-token levels. Results showed separations between languages with and without self-instruction. The most effective learning route was starting with classwork. Ab initio self-instruction produced…

This study investigated whether top-down or bottom-up cognitive processing was more important in listening comprehension in large-scale English-as-a-Second-Language tests administered to secondary school students in Hong Kong over a period of seven years. Results suggest that bottom-up processing was more important than top-down processing in…