The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as "non-instrumental" practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children's education and development,…

The development of students' professional skills is an important issue in higher education in China. This research reports a 3-month study investigating engineering students' communication strategies (CSs) while they were interacting to do a 12-week mobile-assisted learning project, i.e., "Organizing and Attending a Model International…

Dialogic theories and practices in education have grown over the last decade; in the United Kingdom, however, most research in the field has been carried out in primary schools. Six leading academic researchers in the field are interviewed to explore the reasons for this primary bias to date, and their perceptions of both the difficulties and the…

The role of language for learning is core across the entire school curriculum. Thus, children with speech, language and communication needs are at risk of underachieving academically. Research reports and policy drivers advocate the need for a whole school approach (WSA) to enhance children's spoken language and communication skills, yet little is…

This paper reports a case study of the nature and extent of progress in speaking skills made by a group of upper intermediate instructed learners, and also assessors' perceptions of that progress. Initial and final interview data were analysed using several measures of Grammatical and Lexical Complexity, Language Accuracy and Fluency. These…

The present study sets out to examine the strategies used by Chinese learners in a predominantly naturalistic environment and how such learner strategy use relates to their proficiency in the second language. Data were collected from four Chinese research students in the UK using semi-structured interviews. Their proficiency in English was…

Results of interviews with 13 British teachers of children with speech and/or language difficulties are summarized to illustrate teacher views on the National Curriculum, including appreciation of the oral emphasis; too broad definitions for speaking and listening; and concerns about assessment of children's attainments, which too often reflects…