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Showing papers in "TESOL Quarterly in 2005"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors call for more research to enhance our knowledge of the nature of foreign accents and their effects on communication, and recommend greater collaboration between researchers and practitioners, such that more classroomrelevant research is undertaken.
Abstract: Empirical studies are essential to improving our understanding of the relationship between accent and pronunciation teaching. However, the study of pronunciation has been marginalized within the field of applied linguistics. As a result, teachers are often left to rely on their own intuitions with little direction. Although some instructors can successfully assist their students under these conditions, many others are reluctant to teach pronunciation. In this article we call for more research to enhance our knowledge of the nature of foreign accents and their effects on communication. Research of this type has much to offer to teachers and students in terms of helping them to set learning goals, identifying appropriate pedagogical priorities for the classroom, and determining the most effective approaches to teaching. We discuss these possibilities within a framework in which mutual intelligibility is the primary consideration, although social ramifications of accent must also be taken into account. We describe several problem areas and identify some misconceptions about pronunciation instruction. In addition, we make suggestions for future research that would address intelligibility, functional load, computer-assisted language learning, and the role of the listener. Finally, we recommend greater collaboration between researchers and practitioners, such that more classroomrelevant research is undertaken.

791 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The history of pronunciation in English language teaching is a study in extremes as mentioned in this paper, and it seems clear that pronunciation deserves neither fate, either to be unfairly elevated to the central skill in language learning or banished to irrelevance.
Abstract: The history of pronunciation in English language teaching is a study in extremes. Some approaches to teaching, such as the reformed method and audiolingualism, elevated pronunciation to a pinnacle of importance, while other approaches, such as the cognitive movement and early communicative language teaching, mostly ignored pronunciation (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996). Currently, it seems clear that pronunciation deserves neither fate, either to be unfairly elevated to the central skill in language learning or banished to irrelevance. To a large extent, pronunciation's importance has always been determined by ideology and intuition rather than research. Teachers have intuitively decided which features have the greatest effect on clarity and which are learnable in a classroom setting. Derwing and Munro (this issue), recognizing this tendency toward teacher intuition in determining classroom priorities, make an appeal for a carefully formulated research agenda to define how particular features actually affect speaker intelligibility. That such an appeal is needed suggests, in Derwing and Munro's words, that pronunciation "instructional materials and practices are still heavily influenced by commonsense intuitive notions" and that such intuitions "cannot resolve many of the critical questions that face classroom instructors" (p. 380). During the past 25 years, pronunciation teachers have emphasized suprasegmentals rather than segmentals in promoting intelligibility (Avery & Ehrlich, 1992; Morley, 1991), despite a paucity of research evidence for this belief (Hahn, 2004). Recent carefully designed studies have shown some support for the superiority of suprasegmental instruction in ESL contexts (e.g., Derwing & Rossiter, 2003). Also, wider availability of software that makes suprasegmentals' discourse functions more accessible to teachers and learners will encourage work with suprasegmentals (Chun, this issue; Pickering, this issue). However, the importance of suprasegmentals for communication in English as an international language (EIL) is uncertain (Jenkins, 2000; Levis, 1999). It is also by no means clear that all suprasegmentals are equally learnable. Pennington and Ellis (2000), for example, found that although some

615 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article found that the extent to which intelligibility was compromised depended greatly on the direction in which lexical stress was shifted and whether changes in vowel quality were involved, and the effect of the variables on native listeners (NLs) with their effect on nonnative listeners (NNLs).
Abstract: For some 30 years, intelligibility has been recognized as an appropriate goal for pronunciation instruction, yet remarkably little is known about the factors that make a language learner's speech intelligible. Studies have traced correlations between features of nonnative speech and native speakers' intelligibility judgements. They have tended to regard prosody as a global phenomenon and to view intelligibility as primarily a quality of the speaker. The present article focuses on a single prosodic element, lexical stress, and shifts the focus of study to the listener. It draws on findings in psycholinguistics that have rarely been applied to second language (L2) contexts. Groups of listeners were asked to transcribe recorded material in which the variables of lexical stress and vowel quality were manipulated. Recognizing the extent to which English is employed in international contexts, the study contrasted the effect of the variables on native listeners (NLs) with their effect on nonnative listeners (NNLs). NLs and NNLs were found to respond in remarkably similar ways to the problems posed by stress misallocation. For both groups, the extent to which intelligibility was compromised depended greatly on the direction in which stress was shifted and whether changes in vowel quality were involved.

446 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored language learning motivation constructs in a Chinese cultural setting, where large numbers of students are required to study English and found that the strongest link to expectancy was the required motivation, with integrative motivation playing no significant role.
Abstract: Language learning motivation plays an important role in both research and teaching, yet language learners are still largely understood in terms of North American and European cultural values. This research explored language learning motivation constructs in a Chinese cultural setting, where large numbers of students are required to study English. In Taiwan, 567 language learners responded to a survey concerning motivation orientation, expectancy, and self-evaluated skill. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to explore potential relationships within the framework of the process model. Expectancy was found to be an intervening construct between motivation orientations and self-evaluated skill. The strongest link to expectancy was the required motivation, with the integrative motivation playing no significant role. The context of these findings is discussed in relation to Chinese cultural and educational history and a proposed motivator— the Chinese Imperative. Implications for teaching practice are explained, including the need to reconsider motivation constructs within nonWestern cultural settings.

277 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article investigated English language teaching (ELT) practices in secondary-level classrooms in China and concluded that what transpires in the foreign language classroom is inevitably shaped and constrained by contextual influences, and highlighted the need for an ecological perspective to replace the technological one that predominates in international endeavors to reform language education.
Abstract: This article reports on a study investigating English language teaching (ELT) practices in secondary-level classrooms in China. A sample of 252 secondary school graduates from different parts of the country completed a questionnaire on various instructional practices. Analyses of the data revealed that whereas classroom instruction in socioeconomically developed regions has taken on some features of communicative language teaching (CLT), instructional practices in the less developed areas are still characterized by traditional language teaching methodologies. The regional differences in instructional practices are traced to various economic, social, and cultural factors. The analysis shows that what transpires in the foreign language classroom is inevitably shaped and constrained by contextual influences. This conclusion high-lights the need for an ecological perspective to replace the technological one that predominates in international endeavors to reform language education. The article concludes by discussing what the adoption of an ecological approach entails in the Chinese contexts for ELT.

248 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession and welcomes responses or rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in the Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession. It also welcomes responses or rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in the Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly.

231 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors presented a survey of Greek EFL teachers' attitudes regarding their pronunciation beliefs and practices and concluded that teachers' viewpoints are predominantly norm bound, and suggested ways to raise teachers' awareness of EIL-related concerns by suggesting that they use their immediate geopolitical and sociocultural surroundings.
Abstract: This article presents a survey of Greek EFL teachers' (N = 421) attitudes regarding their pronunciation beliefs and practices. It touches on two sets of questions. First, it refers to teachers' viewpoints regarding pronunciation-specific issues and the possible links between pronunciation teaching, English as an international language (EIL), and the sociocultural identity of nonnative speakers of English (NNSs). Second, it tries to establish the extent to which these teachers are aware of EIL-related matters, such as the need for mutual intelligibility in NNS-NNS communication. We conclude that teachers' viewpoints are predominantly norm bound. We further attempt to make sense of these viewpoints by referring to (a) the teachers' sense of being the custodians of the English language as regards English language learners and (b) the wider sociocultural linguistic background in Greece (which involves a history of diglossia and a recent experience of a massive inflow of immigrants). We go on to suggest ways to raise teachers' awareness of EIL-related concerns by suggesting that they use their immediate geopolitical and sociocultural surroundings.

194 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors used a poststructuralist concept of identity to frame the data and found that preservice teachers, not surprisingly, had multiple and conflicting identities as legitimate speakers and teachers of English, though deeply influenced by the native speaker myth and educational practices that equate whiteness with native speakers.
Abstract: How do international speakers of English assert their identities as legitimate teachers of English given the privileged position of the native speaker? To answer this question, we present case studies of two students from Taiwan in their first year of study in a 2-year master of arts in TESOL (MATESOL) program. The data included interviews after the course and reaction papers written in a pronunciation pedagogy course in response to readings that challenged the native speaker myth. Using a poststructuralist concept of identity to frame the data, we found that these preservice teachers, not surprisingly, had multiple and conflicting identities as legitimate speakers and teachers of English. Though deeply influenced by the native speaker myth and educational practices that equate Whiteness with native speakers, these teachers were able to appropriate and imagine new identities as legitimate speakers and teachers of English through the linguistic resources provided by the course readings. These teachers also recognized that they had other means, besides native-like pronunciation, to establish their legitimacy. We argue that the value of teacher education lies in its ability to offer alternative discourses, for example multicompetence (Cook, 1992), to enable preservice teachers to imagine alternative identities. In imagining these identities, teacher learners can also develop alternative instructional practice, practice that may be contrary to the norms of the educational institutions in which they work.

188 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that both sociocultural theories and those that address academic literacies must be invoked to adequately understand language and literacy development in schools and explore the histories, school lives, and viewpoints of two kindergarten students, showing how identity work negotiated in classroom interactions can afford or deny access to the language and practices of school.
Abstract: In this article I argue that both sociocultural theories and those that address academic literacies must be invoked to adequately understand language and literacy development in schools. Through exploring the histories, school lives, and viewpoints of two kindergarten students, I show how identity work negotiated in classroom interactions can afford or deny access to the language and practices of school. My argument views language and literacy development as a socialization process and classrooms as complex ecological systems-spaces where multiple discourses and languages come into contact, interacting in complex ways. For children to acquire school-affiliated identities, they must acquire the language as well as the behaviors, attitudes, resources, and ways of engaging needed to recognizably display the identity of a successful student. The findings show that for these children, the ability to engage successfully with academic literacies was distinct from their ability to engage successfully in social interactions. Their language and literacy development was not necessarily determined by economic and cultural capital nor by their social status within the classroom. The study challenges researchers and teachers to re-envision viable classroom ecologies that provide access to school languages and literacies.

179 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between ethnic group affiliation (one's sense of belonging to a primary ethnic group) and second-language (L2) pronunciation accuracy defined here as native-like, nonaccented L2 speech or l2 speech that contains no first language (L1) influences.
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between ethnic group affiliation (one's sense of belonging to a primary ethnic group) and second-language (L2) pronunciation accuracy defined here as native-like, nonaccented L2 speech or L2 speech that contains no first language (L1) influences. The study addressed these questions: (a) Is there a relationship between learners' L2 accent and ethnic group affiliation as perceived by fellow learners? (b) If such a relationship exists, what are its behavioural consequences? The studies reported in this article involved L2 learners from two ethnic groups (Francophone and Chinese in Quebec) in two different sociopolitical contexts (conflictual and nonconflictual) listening to fellow learners speak an L2 and estimating these learners' degree of ethnic group affiliation. Results revealed a relationship between learners' L2 accent and perceived affiliation to their home ethnic group, suggesting that learners treat their peers' L2 accent as an indicator of these peers' degree of ethnic affiliation. Results also revealed behavioural consequences of this relationship, suggesting that L2 learning entails choices between the reward of being efficient and the cost of not marking identity. Overall, the findings highlight the need to consider group-engendered factors in understanding the acquisition of accuracy in L2 pronunciation. Implications of these findings for L2 pronunciation development, classroom L2 pronunciation teaching, and negotiation of L2 learners' language identity are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored the relationship between negotiated interaction, a type of focus on form episode, and learner uptake in a synchronous computer-mediated environment and found no relationship between degree of uptake (none, unsuccessful, and successful) and the acquisition of target lexical items.
Abstract: The present study builds on recent uptake research (Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2001a, 2001b; Lyster & Ranta, 1997) by exploring the relationship between negotiated interaction, a type of focus on form episode, and learner uptake. The study explores whether a negotiation routine's complexity affects learner uptake and if this uptake affects lexical acquisition in a synchronous computer-mediated environment. The data are chatscripts of task-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) interaction among intermediate-level learners of English (n = 24). Results suggest that the complexity of negotiation routines does not influence learner uptake. Findings also suggest that there is no relationship between degree of uptake (none, unsuccessful, and successful) and the acquisition of target lexical items. These results suggest a possible diminished role for uptake in SLA in a CMC environment. The pedagogical application of these findings includes a word of caution to classroom teachers to adjust their expectations about the relationship between learner uptake and acquisition. In attempting to explain the acquisition of target vocabulary items during task-based CMC interaction, teachers should focus on the nuances of negotiated interaction as well as more subtle indications of acquisition rather than learner uptake per se.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The teaching point persists, and will no doubt persist further, but as discussed by the authors review decades of thinking to challenge it as prime unit of planning for language teaching and propose instead the learning opportunity as a unit of analysis with major implications for planning.
Abstract: The teaching point persists, and will no doubt persist further, but this article reviews decades of thinking to challenge it as prime unit of planning for language teaching and proposes instead the learning opportunity as a unit of analysis with major implications for planning. This proposal leads me to advocate practitioner research (specifically Exploratory Practice) as a vehicle for practitioners (teachers and learners) to plan and work together to deepen their understandings of life in the language classroom. Describing first the persistence over recent decades of the teaching point mentality, I then review the major challenges to it over the same period. The most significant comes from 1980s academic classroom research, which casts doubt on the practical value of teaching point-based teaching and presented classroom language learning as inherently idiosyncratic and unpredictable. But it also offered a relatively optimistic view of what learners may get from lessons via the myriad learning opportunities that arise. The notion of the learning opportunity is then presented in its very considerable complexity, not to justify further academic research but instead to justify thinking of what planning might contribute to practitioners' own teaching and learning lives, primarily via planning for understanding.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession and welcomes responses or rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in the Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession. It also welcomes responses or rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in the Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an English as a lingua franca syllabus for English as an international language (EASIL) and discuss attitudes and identity in the context of language learning.
Abstract: syllabus for English as an international language. Applied Linguistics, 23, 83-103. Jenkins, J. (2005). English as a lingua franca: Attitudes and identity. Manuscript in preparation. McLeod, J. (1994). Doing counselling research. London: Sage. Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning. London: Longman. Seidlhofer, B. (2004). Research perspectives on teaching English as a lingua franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 209-239.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article conducted a survey to explore how students and host teachers perceive the strengths of nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) teacher trainees based on their classroom practice, and the results of the survey suggest that NNES teacher trainee are generally perceived as capable of delivering efficient instruction and treated as a welcome addition to the ESL practicum classroom.
Abstract: This article discusses the results of a survey conducted to explore how students and host teachers perceive the strengths of nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) teacher trainees based on their classroom practice. Responding to a questionnaire evaluating the NNES ESL teacher trainees in their classrooms, host teachers named the following as their strengths: teaching ability, professional skills, the grammaticality and idiomaticity of their English, and the multilingual and multicultural resources that they bring. Host teachers noted that NNES teacher trainees understood their students' learning problems and concerns, often served as role models for ESL students, and enriched the classroom experience. A small percentage of host teachers were dissatisfied with their trainee's performance because they felt the trainee had inadequate command of English. The results of the survey suggest that NNES teacher trainees are generally perceived as capable of delivering efficient instruction and treated as a welcome addition to the ESL practicum classroom.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors discuss how administrators and local teachers in a Turkish university English language centre perceive others in the institution and present interview data to illustrate processes of Othering, whereby a group constructs a shared, Us-Them representation of another group.
Abstract: In this article, I discuss how the administrators and local teachers in a Turkish university English language centre perceive others in the institution. I present interview data to illustrate processes of Othering, whereby a group constructs a shared, Us-Them representation of another group. The data show that administrators and local teachers view students and each other in terms of difference from themselves. In constructing such representations, they draw on local and wider discourses about learning, social order, national and institutional characteristics, class, and gender. Interrogating biases and developing a deeper understanding of Othering in TESOL contexts can help English language educators to develop appropriate and authentic pedagogies and curricula for local contexts in an increasingly globalized world.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors compared the educational experiences of two Central American immigrant women in an English as a second language (ESL) family literacy program in the San Francisco Bay area in 2002 and argued that these learners' second language and literacy development can only be understood within the larger sociopolitical context over time.
Abstract: In this ethnographic study, I contrast the educational experiences of two Central American immigrant women in an English as a second language (ESL) family literacy program in the San Francisco Bay area in 2002. Based on life-history interviews and classroom observations, I argue that these learners’ second language and literacy development can only be understood within the larger sociopolitical context over time. To this end, I draw on participants’ life-history narratives to situate their experiences of studying English within the larger social history of immigration in California and within the intergenerational trajectories of education in their families. Specifically, these narratives illustrate participants’ perspectives on how their language learning opportunities have been mediated by such factors as their parents’ messages about education, their previous experiences of schooling, U.S. immigration policies, the 2001 economic downturn, and the availability of bilingual education for their children. I conclude by arguing that to meet the diverse needs and goals of learners in their classrooms, ESL educators need to incorporate into the curriculum the specific sociocontextual issues that these learners confront in their daily lives.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a framework that integrates a consideration of how power relations determine the ethics and validity of assessment inferences, and apply that framework to the assessment of student portfolios in a master of arts in TESOL (MA-TESOL) program.
Abstract: Portfolios have been used in a variety of ways for assessing student work. In education, generally, and more specifically in second language education, portfolios have been associated with alternative assessment (Darling-Hammond, 1994; Hamayan, 1995; Shohamy, 1996; Wolf, Bixby, Glenn, & Gardener, 1991). This article defines alternative assessment as representing a paradigm and culture that is different from traditional testing, requiring a different approach to addressing the issues of validity and ethics. We present a framework that integrates a consideration of how power relations determine the ethics and validity of assessment inferences. We then apply that framework to the assessment of student portfolios in a master of arts in TESOL (MA TESOL) program.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors identify some phonetic parameters that correlate with non-native speakers' perceptual judgments of accent in English and investigate NNS listener perceptions of English from a World Englishes point of view.
Abstract: In this study we identify some of the phonetic parameters that correlate with nonnative speakers' (NNSs) perceptual judgments of accent in English and investigate NNS listener perceptions of English from a World Englishes point of view. Our main experiment involved 3,200 assessments of the perceived degree of accent in English of two speaker groups: 11 Japanese and 5 Americans. Two additional and separate phonetically untrained listener groups, one composed of 10 Japanese and the other of 5 Americans, did the perceptual assessments. A follow-up auditory analysis by two phonetically trained listeners and an acoustic analysis showed that the untrained Japanese listeners used primarily nonsegmental parameters (intonation, fluency, and speech rate) to make perceptual judgments, whereas segmental parameters had a relatively minor role. Untrained American listeners exhibited the opposite pattern: Segmentals (especially /r/ and /l/) figured prominently, and nonsegmentals played a relatively minor role. Our study shows how native-speaking (NS) and NNS listeners perceive degree of accent in English in fundamentally different ways, each based on different phonetic parameters. We consider the implications that our findings might have for a recently proposed phonological syllabus for English as an international language (EIL) designed with NNS-NNS interactions in mind.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors listen to interviews with EE speakers and were asked to transcribe orthographically what they heard, most of them had severe problems, such as th-fronting, t-glottalling, and fronting of close back vowels.
Abstract: In Singapore, many people are not familiar with Estuary English (EE), the variety of English becoming popular in much of southern England. In the current study, when students listened to interviews with EE speakers and were asked to transcribe orthographically what they heard, most of them had severe problems. Features of pronunciation that contributed to the difficulties included th-fronting, t-glottalling, and fronting of close back vowels, and in many cases even the context of the conversation did not help to resolve the confusion, for example, when three was pronounced with an initial [f]. This article suggests that some exposure to nonstandard accents such as EE would be valuable for students of English because they are quite likely to encounter EE speakers.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The use and value of CAQDAS continue to divide researchers (Bazeley, 2002; Crowley, Harre, & Tagg, 2004, p. 188).
Abstract: 0 Computers have become commonplace in research, whether for writing up results using word processing or for storing interview data. However, researchers still tend to use them for data analysis more often in the quantitative social sciences than in qualitative traditions. Although researchers routinely use software packages such as Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) in quantitative research, many qualitative researchers are uncertain about the value of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). Yet, since CAQDAS first appeared almost 20 years ago, more and more researchers are using it (DeNardo & Levers, 2002; Mangabeira, Lee, & Fielding, 2004; L. Richards, 2002; Weitzman, 2003). Commercialization has helped make a variety of packages more widely available, and more qualitative research methodologists are acknowledging their capabilities (e.g., Berg, 2004; Denzin & Lincoln, 2003; Huberman & Miles, 2002; Merriam, 1998; Silverman, 2004): "All researchers working in the qualitative mode will be clearly helped by some computer software" (Richards, 1995, p. 105); "it significantly enhanced our ability to analyse" (Rich & Patashnick, 2002, p. 259); and "software makes analysis faster and more efficient" (Blank, 2004, p. 188). However, important debates over the use and value of CAQDAS continue to divide researchers (Bazeley, 2002; Crowley, Harre, & Tagg,

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reported on an exploratory qualitative study on 37 students' acquisition of language and literacy and found that the way the dominant language is taught and acquired interacts with various sociocultural and economic factors, to produce a student's full learning experience.
Abstract: This article reports on an exploratory qualitative study on 37 students' acquisition of language and literacy. The study closely analyzes a linguistics assignment written in English, the dominant language, given to students at University of the Western Cape belonging to groups speaking English, Afrikaans, or an African language. The study demonstrated that a variety of aspects of a student's learning biography influence her written performance. Proficiency in the dominant language is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful written performance. The way the dominant language is taught and acquired interacts with various sociocultural and economic factors, to produce a student's full learning experience. Much of this interaction is traceable in the kinds of essays students produce. The article cautions against attributing significance solely to proficiency in the dominant language and against treating all members of the group of students for whom the dominant language is an additional language in the same way. A more important factor to consider is the students' differing degrees of familiarity with academic discourse, which is influenced by the students' socioeducational background.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article analyzed how school reforms in the United States during the 1990s supported transformative literacy practices in the context of a Hmong-English third grade classroom using methods that allow for an analysis of macro and micro discourses shaping the literacy practices of English language learners.
Abstract: This article analyzes how school reforms in the United States during the 1990s supported transformative literacy practices in the context of a Hmong-English third grade classroom. Using methods that allow for an analysis of both macro and micro discourses shaping the literacy practices of English language learners, this 2-year study illustrates how combined discourses at the state, district, school, and classroom levels created a discursive space that allowed for the production of hybrid texts that disrupted, if only temporarily, many of the reproductive forces associated with modern schooling. Using a critical perspective of language and social change (e.g., Fairclough, 1992), the author presents an analysis of texts produced and interpreted by participants in a classroom shaped by a statewide school reform initiative known as Senate Bill 1274, California's school restructuring initiative. An analysis of these texts reveals that they afforded language learners opportunities to display multilingual and multicultural identities and to appropriate academic uses of English.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper propose a set of pronunciation features that are essential for mutual intelligibility in communication between nonnative speakers of English, which they call the lingua franca core (LFC).
Abstract: The publication of The Phonology of English as an International Language (Jenkins, 2000) has provided help in determining suitable models and goals for work on pronunciation. The book focuses on pronunciation for English as an international language (EIL), providing important insights into deciding priorities and methodology for EIL pronunciation work, insights that have direct implications for classroom practice. Jenkins proposes a lingua franca core (LFC), a set of pronunciation features that her empirical research suggests are essential for mutual intelligibility in communication between nonnative speakers of English.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the TESOL Quarterly published an important and timely article by David Nunan, written in response to a call for "research into the impact of English as a global language" (Duff & Bailey, 2001, p. 589).
Abstract: 0 In its winter 2003 issue, TESOL Quarterly published an important and timely article by David Nunan, written in response to the TESOL International Research Foundation's call for "research into the impact of English as a global language" (Duff & Bailey, 2001, p. 589). Nunan's article addresses the need for more research as English becomes the global language of academia, commerce, entertainment, and communication (Crystal, 1997, 2000; MacPherson, 2003). It makes a significant contribution to language policy studies in general and in the Asia-Pacific region in particular. We believe his article will serve as a catalyst for more studies and critical discussions on the impact of English as a global language. With this in mind, we initiate a discussion by critiquing Nunan's discussion of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to address potential problems in researching and representing policies affecting "distant" peoples. We address these issues focusing on site selection, participant selection, data source, as well as interpretation and analysis in relation to research on English as a global language and its effects on minority and Indigenous languages.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, applied linguists in non-western communities have a professional responsibility to promote rather than undermine MT education if we are to ensure the survival of local communities, and to facilitate their participation in the social and political development of the state.
Abstract: What distinguishes MT education in Western countries from MT education in African countries, for instance, is that for the latter it is an education with a difference: It is enabling rather than disabling, empowering rather than disempowering. That is, it should ensure its consumers upward social mobility; it should allow them access to employment and to economic resources and facilitate their participation in the social and political development of the state. Applied linguists in non-Western communities have a professional responsibility to promote rather than undermine MT education if we are to ensure the survival of local

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors evaluated the effects of classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) on the social interaction behavior of children who are English language learners and children who were native English speakers in two second-grade classrooms from an elementary school.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of classwide peer tutoring (CWPT), a peer-mediated teaching approach, on the social interaction behavior of children who are English language learners and children who are native English speakers. Two second-grade classrooms from an elementary school were selected as the research setting. CWPT was the independent variable, and children's frequency of social interactions was the dependent variable. All children from the two settings were observed and videotaped during the study. Findings of this study indicated that CWPT was as effective for English language learners as it has been for native English speakers in shaping positive social interactions. In both groups, children engaged in very few negative behaviors. Questionnaires from the teachers and students indicated that both groups enjoyed the CWPT process, and they intended to continue using CWPT. The findings encourage teachers of English language students to implement CWPT regularly in their natural classroom settings. The results also indicate that the appropriate arrangement of learning environments is critical for children's social interactions. The opportunities provided for social interactions contribute significantly to the educational success of English language students despite their limited English proficiency.