This action-research project was designed to assess how the use of video as a central instructional component impacts features of cross-cultural competence among adult ESL students. The study was conducted in a college-level intensive English language program in North America. Findings suggest that students' deeply embedded beliefs and values…

Several scholars have investigated the strengths and weaknesses of native-English-speaking (NES) and nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) teachers of English as a second language (ESL), but few researchers have explored intensive English program (IEP) administrators' and ESL teachers' perspectives on teacher training and the strengths and weaknesses…

Blended learning, a combination of face-to-face and online instruction, is seen as one of the most important advancements of this century and a natural evolution of the learning agenda (Thorne, 2003). Blended learning studies that compared traditional and blended foreign language classes showed no significant differences in learner outcomes and…

This article explores ways in which a university Intensive English Program (IEP) featuring English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at a U.S. university functions as an institutionalized discursive space of neoliberalism. By examining discourses that one program adopts in promoting itself online, and in the curriculum material used in IEP/EAP classes,…

Though much of the research looking at the issue of language in the Spanish heritage language field is intended to guide the Spanish heritage language teacher in the classroom, students' voices are often stifled. This article fills this gap by giving voice to students' opinions on language use in the Spanish heritage language classroom. Survey…

"Open Doors" is a comprehensive information resource on the 723,277 international students in the United States in 2010/11 and on the 270,604 U.S. students who studied abroad for academic credit in 2009/10. The Institute of International Education (IIE), one of the largest and most experienced higher education exchange agencies in the…

This paper gives a detailed description of the needs analysis (NA) stage in the development of a set of English language intensive courses at a large Japanese industrial firm. The case study highlights the NA practices of using multiple sources and multiple methods in the data gathering stage and uses triangulation in order to validate results.…

This article examines the oral proficiency in French of students in core French, intensive French (IF), and post-IF to determine the effectiveness of these programs. Between 2003 and 2009, students in nine jurisdictions were assessed using the New Brunswick Middle School Scale (MSS). Students were tested prior to beginning IF (multiple grade…

Hulstijn and Laufer (2001) proposed a motivational-cognitive construct of task-induced involvement to account for variation in effectiveness among different vocabulary learning tasks. Building upon their original research, this study consisted of two experiments investigating the involvement load hypothesis in vocabulary learning. Experiment 1…

The effects of the distribution of instructional time on the acquisition of a second or foreign language are still not well known. This paper will analyze the performance of adult students enrolled in three different types of EFL programs in which the distribution of time varies. The first one, called "extensive", distributes a total of 110 h in 7…

This study examined the role of phonological memory in second language (L2) grammar learning in a group of native French-speaking children undergoing a 5-month intensive English program. Phonological memory (as referenced by Arabic [ANWR] and English [ENWR] nonword repetition tasks), L2 vocabulary (receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge),…

This study and analysis are designed to find a common, practical measurement tool that may be used for intra- and interprogram evaluation of Japanese programs, especially in the higher education context. First, three previous methods of evaluation (the Oral Proficiency Interview, the Nihongo Noryoku Shiken or Japanese Language Proficiency Test,…

The World Wide Web offers a global database of authentic materials that can enhance language learning and teaching. This study examines the use of the web for language learning through a study of English as a second language (ESL) learners' experiences in web-based language learning (WBLL) activities in an English language intensive course for…

This Swahili-English/English-Swahili vocabulary list accompanies the Defense Language Institute's 12-weeks course in Swahili. For a description of the first five volumes (55 lesson units), see ED 026 651. (AMM)

This repeated-measures, counter-balanced study reports on a comparison of quantity and quality of one teacher's language in face-to-face (FTF) and written electronic (WE) discussions with advanced English as a Subsequent Language (ESL) students. Transcripts from the two types of discussions were compared for complexity of teacher input and the…