In this article, the author talks about academic jibberish. Alfie Kohn states that a great deal of academic writing is incomprehensible even to others in the same area of scholarship. Academic Jibberish may score points for the writer but does not help research or practice. The author discusses jibberish as a career strategy that impresses those…

This paper is motivated by the premise that little is known about the use of requestive strategies in request emails in Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context. Specifically, the paper examines and compares requestive strategies in request emails between two groups of university students, namely English majors (EM) and non-English…

The article addresses the long-standing issue over the role of the mother tongue in the foreign language classroom. In the first part it is argued that the mother tongue lays the cognitive foundations for all subsequent language learning. Double comprehension as the basic requirement for learning to take place is explained. The second part is…

The argument put forward here is that we are witnessing the emergence of a concept of English as a lingua franca, which creates a set of attitudes about correctness and in particular "grammatical correctness". The traditional "native-speaker" as final arbiter can only apply to English as a national language. It is the non-native speaker who is…

While ELT has long recognized the need to address student anxiety in language learning situations, it has all too often assumed that such anxiety is primarily competence-based. Consequently, there has been insufficient recognition of the fact that identity-based anxiety, too, can have significant effects on language learning in the classroom. In…

The author first talks about the current situation of teaching EFL in higher education institutions in Taiwan, and indicates that the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach has been the most popular language teaching approach lately. Then he addresses the hybrid course approach which seems to be a trend as well as an appropriate way for…

In attempting to provide empirical qualitative data analysis, the researcher has to work within many constraints. There are ethical issues that need to be considered and evaluated in the managing of data, especially one that is naturally occurring. One of the more popular methods of "capturing" this data is through audio recording and to be able…

The benefits and costs of the impact of textbooks on teaching English-as-a-Second-Language courses are discussed. This paper examines the role of commercial textbooks in instruction, reasons for their present status, and the consequences of that status. (10 references) (Author/LB)

A genre analysis of 284 essay examination prompts reveals specific discoursal characteristics that function to communicate what type of response will be considered legitimate. The finding suggests that, for test-takers to decode prompts, they must draw from the same functional/linguistic knowledge of genre that the test constructor did. (15…

Ways are discussed in which foreign words are stored in learners' mental lexicons. Then several activities and exercises, which aim at improving learners' receptive and productive vocabulary skills, are presented. (42 references) (LB)

A preliminary descriptive framework of the rhetorical structure of the argumentative essay is proposed. Research results are used to show that a "categories analysis" can clarify the structure of written texts and provide pedagogically useful materials. (15 references) (Author/LB)

The Lancaster-Leeds Language Learning in Large Classes Research Project in United Kingdom is examined to focus attention on its importance as a major research effort. Some major flaws in the project are described. (10 references) (Author/LB)

A European perspective on multicultural education is presented that focuses on demographic/geopolitical, public policy, and sociolinguistic dimensions, and the intercultural hypothesis. "Positive discrimination" and sociological insertion are also discussed, along with implications for America. (29 references) (LB)

Corson's argument regarding points of difficulty about the Graeco-Latin vocabulary (morphological complexity and form/meaning relationship "opacity") are the basis of a proposal that much of the Graeco-Latin vocabulary of formal English can be shown to be quite regular and can be systematically taught. (Contains 10 references.) (LB)

The inverted-U model, facilitating and debilitating anxiety and state trait anxiety, is examined along with the relationship of these concepts to second-language learning, including English as a Second or Foreign Language. Research in the area of foreign-language classroom anxiety is also noted. (35 references) (LB)