This study aims to examine a) whether vocabulary knowledge, captured in the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), is related to the performance on the five types of reading comprehension items tested in TOEFL, i.e., Guessing Vocabulary, Main Idea, Inference, Reference, and Stated Detail; and b) whether EFL learners with different levels of vocabulary…

This article serves as an introduction to this second special issue of System on "Beliefs about Second Language Acquisition (SLA)" held by learners and/or teachers of foreign languages in a variety of contexts all over the world, and it compares and contrasts the empirical studies included in the issue. In sharp contrast to the first special…

A key aspect of the acquisition of grammar for second language learners involves learning how to make appropriate connections between grammatical forms and the meanings which they typically signal. We argue that learning form/function mappings involves three interrelated principles. The first is the Given-to-New Principle, where existing world…

The question of which words students should learn and in what order has traditionally been regarded as a matter for teachers and materials writers rather than the learners themselves. Research has focused on using word-specific criteria such as frequency and range of meaning to help teachers make choices about what items to teach to which students…

The study analyzes a strand of online discussion messages entitled "a Tale of Blue Rain Cafe" from an online community of English learners on the Chinese mainland. The strand of messages was part of the collective reflection made by members of an English learning club on their participation. Using sociocultural learning theory, the paper explores…

The School of Language Studies at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) offers full-time, intensive language training in more than 70 languages to US diplomats and other government employees preparing to serve at US Embassies abroad. Students at FSI, the primary training institution of the US foreign affairs community, have access to a fully…

Self-access and language advising are relatively recent and increasingly common types of language support offered in schools and tertiary institutions around the world. There is a great deal of anecdotal support for the positive contribution of such support to student learning. Self-access and language advising hold strong potential as…

This article describes a programme of autonomous language learning (ALMS) introduced at Helsinki University Language Centre in 1994. The programme was developed to encourage students to become actively involved in their own learning in terms of deciding what they need and wish to learn, setting goals and objectives, achieving these objectives, and…

In ELT, the over-representation of the "native-speaker" (NS) point of view at the expense of the "non-native-speaker" (NNS) one--"native-speakerism"--has long been a significant problem. However, this paper argues that the current main applied linguistics attempt to remedy the situation--the use of a "critical theory" (CT) approach--rather than…

In the literature dealing with L2 teacher training and education numerous references are made to the concept of reflective teaching and teachers and teacher educators are encouraged to engage in reflective practices. The present paper, however, argues that in our attempt to empower teachers to become more efficient practitioners, we have lost…

Good language learner studies show that attending to form is associated with successful learning. This paper reports interviews with three university English majors who had won prizes in nationwide English speaking competitions and debate tournaments in China. The interviewees regarded text memorization and imitation as the most effective methods…

This paper reports on the development of a self-access center (SAC) within a university context, and focuses on the kind of support mechanisms provided to learners to enhance their self-directed learning (SDL) skills. After providing background information on the center and its counseling service, the paper shows how changes in the university…

Team teaching between native English speaking teachers and local L2 English teachers has become an increasingly common phenomenon in schooling in the East Asia region. The relevant literature reports some positive impacts of team teaching and also highlights some of the challenges or conflicts which arise. The aim of this paper is to focus on…

To find an easy-to-use, automated tool to identify technical vocabulary applicable to learners at various levels, nine statistical measures were applied to the 7.3-million-word "commerce and finance" component of the British National Corpus. The resulting word lists showed that each statistical measure extracted a different level of specialized…

This paper provides a sequence of specific techniques and examples for implementing theatre voice training and technology in teaching ESL/EFL oral skills. A layered approach is proposed based on information processing theory in which the focus of learner attention is shifted in stages from the physiological to the linguistic and then to the…