Much second language acquisition research in recent decades has assumed that a learner's main purpose for learning a second language (L2) is to develop communicative competence. Consequently, many studies have focused on investigating ways in which teachers and/or the learning environment may support the development of such competence. In…

With the spread of the Internet, students now have greater opportunities to use Japanese outside of the classroom. For example, they can interact with other Japanese speakers through instant messaging or social networking, or utilize online dictionaries and translation tools to decipher websites in ways that would be impossible with traditional…

This article reports on in-depth interviews conducted with 12 teachers of modern languages in relation to how they dealt with the challenge of transition from primary to secondary school, with special reference to modern foreign languages. Findings suggest that only one of the 12 secondary schools was well placed to facilitate a smooth transition,…

In monolingual areas such as the southern Spanish Autonomous Community of Andalusia, the progressive introduction of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes in a wide range of primary and secondary schools has probably produced the biggest turning point in Spain's modern educational history. CLIL is initially focused on…

Films and TV series are widely used to support teaching in English language classrooms. They are seen largely as a source of authentic language, as a way of motivating students or as a means of conveying knowledge about another culture. There is less emphasis on their use as a focus for developing intercultural competence. This is particularly the…

This study has been prompted by a concern that the term intercultural understanding (IU) has appeared in English curriculum policy texts in order to address macro issues with scant pedagogical attention to its effective implementation at the micro level in the modern foreign languages (MFL) classroom. The article investigates pupils'…

This article explores the use of blogs for pre-service language teacher education in two national settings, the UK (University of Cambridge) and the US (University of South Florida). Taking two approaches to blogging and to learning through blogging (one based on self-reflection and a constructivist approach and one based on social and…

The aim of this paper is to give an account of the response of secondary schools to the primary school foreign language teaching initiative recently introduced by the UK government. The paper also explores defining features of the process of cross-phase interaction and the role that knowledge and collaborative practice plays in generating change…

The realisation of plurilingualism requires a more open and inclusive approach to language teaching and one which takes account of various factors involved in working with learners who have a background in the target language and culture. This article seeks to identify these factors within the context of a set of broader principles for second…

This comparative study, conducted in multicultural London, investigates the occurrence in interviews with a researcher and in constructed same-sex peer conversations of five linguistic features characteristic of London English in the speech of two groups of British-born adolescents: ethnic Bangladeshis and ethnic Chinese of Cantonese heritage. The…

Much of the research into "expert" language learners has focused largely on their learning strategies or styles. Less attention has been paid to other expert learner characteristics, such as learner beliefs. However, the importance of learners' beliefs in guiding their behaviours and how they interpret their experiences is widely recognised. This…

To date, research results suggest that task repetition positively affects oral task performance. However, researchers have not yet shown the extension of the benefits of repeating the same task to performance of a new task. This article first provides an overview of the currently available research findings on task repetition and then presents the…

This article reports on the small-scale evaluation of a school-based action research project, focusing on the creation of teaching materials aimed at developing tools for multilingualism for pupils aged 7-14. This three-year project was launched in September 2004 in 12 state primary schools and two secondary schools in two local authorities in the…

This paper critically describes the process of language policy-making in the Free State province of South Africa since 1994, based on an adapted version of the "streams approach" to policy-making. Three policy-making phases are identified, namely a first phase under the Free State Provincial Language Committee; a second phase under the Free State…

Young modern language (ML) learners' heightened, yet temporary, phonological sensitivity suggests an aptitude for spoken communication with peer native target language (TL) speakers. Opportunities for this can be achieved through videoconferencing (VC). As researcher and specialist teacher at a primary school in England, I undertook a study of VC…