Using a case-study approach, this inquiry examines the perceptions of 10 immigrant students regarding the ESL program provided at the high school they attended for three years. Their achievement outcomes and the ESL program design at this school have been the topics of previous publications; hence the quest for explanatory insights from the…

This article proposes a reconsideration of curricular objectives with respect to the teaching of culture, in the interest of broadening the humanistic scope of the second/foreign language curriculum while at the same time alleviating the pressure of a typically over-extended instructional agenda. Recent research and theory support a relational…

Formulaic sequences are fixed combinations of words that have a range of functions and uses in speech production and communication, and seem to be cognitively stored and retrieved by speakers as if they were single words. They can facilitate fluency in speech by making pauses shorter and less frequent, and allowing longer runs of speech between…

Six intermediate/advanced learners of English, studying in the United Kingdom, identified messages that they wanted to convey in specific future conversations and memorized native-like versions of them. Their ability to use them in practice and in the real conversation was analyzed. Propensity to attempt using memorized material correlated with…

This article has two goals: to report on the trialling of fourteen 1,000 word-family lists made from the British National Corpus, and to use these lists to see what vocabulary size is needed for unassisted comprehension of written and spoken English. The trialling showed that the lists were properly sequenced and there were no glaring omissions…

The study drew on an 80,000-word corpus consisting of narrative texts produced in response to picture prompts by 210 beginner-level francophone learners of English (11-12-year-olds). The unique feature of the corpus is its longitudinal character: The samples were collected at four 100-hour intervals of intensive language instruction, during which…

Any description of what it means to know a word in a foreign language is likely to include recognition of form, both how a word sounds when heard and what it looks like when written. However, tests of vocabulary knowledge focus almost exclusively on the written form of the word. We have little idea of learners' phonological vocabulary knowledge or…

The study compares the effectiveness of Focus on Form (FonF) and Focus on FormS (FonFs) approaches in learning new L2 words by 158 high-school learners of English as L2. In phase 1 of the study, the FonF group read a text containing the target words, discussed it in small groups, and answered comprehension questions. The FonFs group studied the…

This article describes a case study on native and non-native English-speaker (NES and NNES) students' knowledge and learning of specialized vocabulary over one academic term in a graduate school of theology. After outlining the collection of baseline data on theological vocabulary and the development of a Test of Theological Language (TTL), the…

Predominant, if not exclusive, use of the target language has long been considered an important principle of second language (L2) instruction. Previous research has attempted to quantify the amount of the first language (L1) used in the classroom and has explored the purposes or functions of teachers' "lapses" into their students' L1. The present…

As language learning involves the acquisition of thousands of words, teachers and learners alike would like to know how vocabulary learning can be fostered, especially in EFL settings where learners frequently acquire impoverished lexicons, despite years of formal study. Research indicates that reading is important but not sufficient for…

This article examines community practices, in particular oral discourse practices, in a junior high school classroom in an urban area of Western Canada. The purpose of the research was to determine what contribution a "community of practice" (COP) framework could make to the study of social interaction in a classroom setting. Qualitative research…

This qualitative study explores how francophone mothers describe barriers to and supports for maintaining their mother tongue. It focuses on the experiences of women who have the primary responsibility for teaching French to their pre-school-aged children. The findings, based on data collected in semi-structured interviews with women residing in…

Although most teachers claim to practise communicative language teaching (CLT), many do not genuinely do so. In this paper, we examine some of the reasons for teachers' resistance to CLT use. We provide a theoretical analysis that focuses on one of the greatest challenges facing CLT methodology-how to promote automatic fluency within this…

Many language courses now offer access to simplified materials graded at various levels of proficiency so that learners can read at length in their new language. An assumed benefit is the development of large and rapidly accessed second language (L2) lexicons. Studies of such extensive reading (ER) programs indicate general language gains, but few…