Although the majority of English language teachers worldwide are non-native English speakers, no research was conducted on these teachers until recently. After the pioneering work of Robert Phillipson in 1992 and Peter Medgyes in 1994, nearly a decade had to elapse for more research to emerge on the issues relating to non-native English teachers. The publication in 1999 of George Braine's book Nonnative educators in English language teaching appears to have encouraged a number of graduate students and scholars to research this issue, with topics ranging from teachers' perceptions of their own identity to students' views and aspects of teacher education. This article compiles, classifies, and examines research conducted in the last two decades on this topic, placing a special emphasis on World Englishes concerns, methods of investigation, and areas in need of further attention.

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Non-native English-speaking English language teachers: History and research

This article is a literature review which seeks to answer four questions: 1) What is washback? 2) How does washback work? 3) How can we promote positive washback? 4) How can we investigate washback...

Working for washback: a review of the washback concept in language testing:

Native and non-native teachers in the classroom

The complexities of task-based language performance assessment (TBLPA) are leading language testers to reconsider many of the fundamental issues about what we want to assess, how we go about it and what sorts of evidence we need to provide in order to justify the ways in which we use our assessments. One claim of TBLPA is that such assessments can be used to make predictions about performance on future language use tasks outside the test itself. I argue that there are several problems with supporting such predictions. These problems are related to task selection, generalizability and extrapolation. Because of the complexity and diversity of tasks in most ‘real-life’ domains, the evidence of content relevance and representativeness that is required to support the use of test scores for prediction is extremely difficult to provide.A more general problem is the way in which difficulty is conceptualized, both in the way tasks are described and in current measurement models. The conceptualization of ‘difficult...

Some reflections on task-based language performance assessment

In the past twenty years, language testing research and practice have witnessed the refinement of a rich variety of approaches and tools for research and development, along with a broadening of philosophical perspectives and the kinds of research questions that are being investigated. While this research has deepened our understanding of the factors and processes that affect performance on language tests, as well as of the consequences and ethics of test use, it has also revealed lacunae in our knowledge, and pointed to new areas for research. This article reviews developments in language testing research and practice over the past twenty years, and suggests some future directions in the areas of professionalizing the field and validation research. It is argued that concerns for ethical conduct must be grounded in valid test use, so that professionalization and validation research are inseparable. Thus, the way forward lies in a strong programme of validation that includes considerations of ethical test u...

Modern language testing at the turn of the century: assuring that what we count counts

The non-native english speaking EFL/ESL teacher's self-image: An international survey

EFL Academic Reading and Modern Technology: How Can We Turn Our Students into Independent Critical Readers?.

Introducing a new comprehensive test of oral proficiency

In the first part of the paper the development of language tests towards authenticity is surveyed. The advantages and shortcomings of indirect vs direct (authentic) types are analysed. Whereas indi...

Authentic language tests: where from and where to?:

Extensive vocabulary appears to be of utmost importance for the comprehension of academic reading material. Classroom materials as well as learners' self-reports indicate that whereas specialized terminology may not constitute difficulties to the student, it is the unfamiliarity with general vocabulary which seems to be the biggest problem in text comprehension. The purpose of the study was to investigate a. the effect of the method of vocabulary presentation on vocabulary acquisition and b. the inter-relationship of learner-factors and methods of vocabulary presentation in the retention of vocabulary. The study was carried out in the framework of a reading programme in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The overall picture that emerged from the study confirmed the hypothesized inter-relationship between vocabulary acquisition on the one hand and method of presentation and learner-factors on the other. The data indicate different relationships in the case of long-term retention than in the short-term retention of vocabulary.

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Thea Reves

Papers

The non-native english speaking EFL/ESL teacher's self-image: An international survey

EFL Academic Reading and Modern Technology: How Can We Turn Our Students into Independent Critical Readers?.

Introducing a new comprehensive test of oral proficiency

Authentic language tests: where from and where to?:

Does the Method of Vocabulary Presentation Make a Difference