This article reflects upon foreign-language education in Iran. Contrary to its political and historical reputation in the world, Iran has not been well presented regarding its educational system in general and its foreign-language education in particular. Of course, a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Iranian education…

Examines three broad categories for selecting television news stories for the English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language classroom: content schemata, formal schemata, and linguistic difficulty. (Author/VWL)

Explores dilemmas posed in the design of strategy instruction (SI) for adults learning a range of languages in a distance learning context. Recent approaches to SI are reviewed and attempts to resolve the issues are described. (Author/VWL)

Discusses aspects of English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language teacher evaluation posted on the TESL-L email list from the period from November 1998 through July 2002. (Author/VWL)

Presents the case for using chat (synchronous online communication) in the language classroom from the point of view of a teacher with positive experiences and a balanced awareness of the potential of the medium. Discuses how to integrate chat in language learning, examines the advantages and disadvantages of chat to the language learner, and…

Focuses on the role of "noticing" and "noticing the gap" in second language acquisition. Argues that this notion has gained wide support on the basis of intuition and assumption rather than on findings of appropriate and exhaustive empirical research. Considers the theoretical constructs that underlie the role of noticing and assesses the validity…

Highlights the life of one Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language teacher who uses computer-mediated communication and the Internet to provide his students with communicative language experiences. (Author/VWL)

Explores the contradiction between communicative theory and practice in beginning and intermediate English-as-Second-or-Other-Language (ESOL) materials and compares this situation with that prevailing in early first language literacy instruction. Proposes that ESOL teachers create and use materials that are primarily designed to appeal to adult…

Describes the U.S.-SiberLink Project that linked universities in Santa Barbara, CA, Washington, D.C., and Yakutsk, Siberia. Discusses the project's multimedia Web site and traces development of the project as students in the three cities discuss topics, find research materials, share writing for peer review, and communicate via e-mail and…

This discussion consists of insights from a number of individuals on the use of students' first language in foreign language classrooms or learning environments. The contributions first appeared as posts on the TESL-EJ email list for English-as-a-Second-Language/English-as-a-Foreign-Language (ESL/EFL) classroom pedagogy between May 2000 and June…

There are relatively clear definitions of what is meant by authenticity in relation to language-teaching materials and texts; there is much less agreement about what constitutes authenticity of context and of task activity. Article explores different notions of authenticity in language classroom. A crucial point often overlooked is that the…

Biologists at Center for Biological Research found ways to improve their scientific writing without benefit of an English-language program. By tapping Internet biology forums for comprehensible input, and using computer-assisted retention strategy to profit from error correction, writing improved. Scientific dialog on Internet has helped group…

Compares advantages and disadvantages of most types of modern dictionaries from teachers' and researchers' as well as students' points of view. Shows that if clear distinctions are made between learning, test-taking, reading for pleasure, or extensive reading, each type dictionary can be used by itself or in combination with another dictionary,…

Based on English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' documented preference for error correction and the need for word usage and sentence grammar to become automatic, this article describes the rationale and procedures for using reformulation as composition feedback. The procedures are aimed at improving sentence level grammar. Discusses survey…

Analysis of 12 teacher-fronted language lessons revealed highly repetitive structuring in the flow of discourse, frequent verbatim repetition in the collective reconstruction of texts, and restrictive turn-taking norms. Uses discourse analysis to redefine the relationship between ritual and negotiation in "lock-step" teaching in light of…