Proposes questions teachers can use to structure language activities that encourage students to analyze their own use of language. The questions arose from a workshop that focuses on assisting teachers and learners to explore language function together. Teachers can use these questions to exploit language in English as a Second or Other Language…

Focuses on student involvement in determining course structure through journal writing. Successful student writers become highly skilled at directing the course of their own learning. The data in the journals inform teachers about what is occurring in learners' heads. Reflective journal writers are adopting a professional approach to their…

Highlights the use of electronic discussion boards in the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. Suggests that discussion boards provide flexibility, interconnectiveity, and many other benefits for teachers and learners. (Author/VWL)

Discusses an activity developed to encourage beginning graduate students studying English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) and second language acquisition in a teacher training program in Paraguay to reflect on what happened in their tutoring groups and to apply this knowledge to the classroom context. Another activity focuses on whole-class…

Learning a foreign language is like exploring a foreign land; one will be directionless and may be lost in the exploration as one makes efforts to learn foreign language. It is not easy to learn or teach foreign language. However, an appropriate teaching approach or technique can facilitate learning of foreign language, and, thus, it can be taught…

Describes a stand-alone course titled Using Computers in the Language Classroom that is offered in the master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program in an urban university in Southern California. This collaborative video project allows students to discover firsthand how computer technology can aid classroom learning.…

Focuses on individual reading practices both inside and outside the classroom. Aimed to reflect trends in the field of new literacy studies that draw on ethnographic accounts of the literacy practices of different groups. Investigated student perceptions of learning experiences in adult migrant English program classrooms. (Author/VWL)

These tips from the classroom showcase a variety of oral communication and performance activities that invite both teachers and students to explore the power and pleasure of using creative, kinesthetic strategies. (Author/VWL)

Presents a constructivist rationale for introducing virtual reality in language learning and teaching and describes various virtual reality environments that are available. Ways of implementing constuctivist learning through virtual reality are suggested as well as basic guidelines for successful implementation in the classroom. (Author/VWL)

Describes a shock language activity exercise that gives mainstream students a realistic taste of the challenges faced by their English language learning peers and a greater respect for linguistic and cultural differences. The activity transforms the typical U.S. classroom into a typical Japanese classroom. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that TESOL teacher educators can achieve learner-centered and context-sensitive training in their courses and beyond their classrooms by taking the following steps: (1) being an advocate for their university students and for diversity in the profession; and (2) learning about the cultures of the educational systems in which their students…

Describes a computer-assisted language-learning project undertaken in an intensive English course at West Virginia University. The results of the project have applications for English-language teaching across a wide range of contexts that include university-based English-as-a-Second-Language and the K-12 classroom, adult education, and literacy…

Describes a distance learning course titled "Africa Online: English Language Teaching Using Web Resources to Develop Content-Based Materials for the Classroom." Gives an overview of the course rationale, planning, implementation, outcomes, and future considerations for courses of this kind. (Author/VWL)

Offers practical suggestions for incorporating music activities into the adult English-as-a-Second-or- Other-Language (ESOL) classroom. Focuses on reasons for using music, guidelines for selecting songs, categories of music activities, guidelines for structuring classroom music activities, and ways to use music in adult ESOL classes. (Author/VWL)

Four ideas for use in the English-as-Second-Language classroom are presented: (1) using the World Series to practice name recognition; (2) current events portfolios; (3) creating standards sheets for writing assignments; and (4) decreasing the likelihood of stragglers in class. (Author/VWL)