For the 25th anniversary issue of "English Teaching Forum," published in 1987, the author wrote about the diversification of the language teaching field. Her point then was that during the preceding years from 1962 to 1987, the language teaching field had diversified: Where earlier there had been a unified approach to language teaching, by 1987,…

This article was written for the 25th anniversary of "English Teaching Forum" and published in 1987. In this article, the author describes methodological developments in the field of English language teaching over the past 25 years. The author has found it helpful to think of methodology being depicted as a triangle, with each angle of the…

The mid- to late 1990s was an exciting time for those concerned with incorporating new technology into their teaching of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). Commonly referred to as Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), or sometimes with the broader term Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), the field took huge leaps…

For the last two years the author has used Repeated Reading (RR) to teach reading fluency in English as a Foreign Language classrooms in colleges and universities in Japan. RR is a method where the student reads and rereads a text silently or aloud from two to four times to reach a predetermined level of speed, accuracy, and comprehension. RR…

While Americans are as eager as ever to beautify their homes and yards with attractive landscaping, more and more gardeners are looking to the practical aspects of gardening--raising plants for food and choosing easy-care ornamental plants that are friendly to the environment. For some gardeners, raising their own food is a lifestyle choice. With…

This article looks at one way for teachers to make classrooms emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy places to learn--places where tensions and stresses are lessened and where teachers and students are concentrating, yet relaxed. "Harmonious language learning classroom" is the term the author coined to describe this kind of language…

Of all American pastimes, bowling is one of the easiest to pursue. Just show up at the neighborhood bowling center, rent the required shoes, use the balls provided, and pay a reasonable fee to bowl as many games as one likes. The game itself--rolling a ball down a long wooden lane to strike club-shaped pins--appeals to all ages and is within the…

Story boxes and story bags are containers for holding realia that are used to enhance reading and provide a variety of activities for encouraging language acquisition and use. Whatever the packaging, these are good ways to develop students' interest in books. Using realia, or real-life objects, to teach a foreign language is not a novel concept.…

According to Ur (1996, 120), "of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important." Indeed, whether for business or pleasure, a primary motivation to learn a second language is to be able to converse with speakers of that language. However, in addition to being an important skill,…

In English language teaching, it is not unusual to come across a student who seems to lack certain basic organizational skills. However, many of the language teaching techniques and materials require students to rely heavily on these skills. The use of textbooks and handouts, the assigning of tasks and homework, and the planning of a syllabus or…

Since the launch of far-reaching higher education reforms several years ago, many institutions across Morocco have begun revamping their English for Special Purposes (ESP) programs to bring them in line with the needs of local employers. These reforms recognize the correlation between what students learn in class and success in their future…