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This study investigated incidental learning of single-word items and collocations through listening to teacher talk. Although there are several studies that have investigated incidental vocabulary learning through listening, no intervention studies have explicitly investigated the extent to which listening to teachers in a classroom context might contribute to vocabulary learning. The present study fills this gap. Additionally, the study explored the relationship between vocabulary learning gains and two factors: frequency of occurrence and first language (L1) translation. A meaning-recall test and a multiple-choice test were used to evaluate learning gains. The results indicated that (a) listening to teacher talk has potential to contribute to vocabulary learning of both single-word items and collocations, (b) using L1 translation to explain target word meanings contributed to larger gains on the immediate posttest, (c) frequency of occurrence was not a significant predictor of incidental vocabulary learning. (Verlag).

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.

In language learning contexts, the role of the language teacher is a particularly crucial one: it is the teacher who, through and with their use of (the foreign) language, has a significant influence on the extent to which language learners are linguistically/cognitively activated, and thus determines whether processes of language learning are initiated and promoted, or perhaps even impeded or prevented. Thus, it is of utmost importance for language teachers to acquire a high level of classroom discourse competence (CDC) - a professional competence that goes far beyond the notions of FL proficiency and communicative competence. Located at the intersection of theory, classroom research and practical approaches to (E)FL teacher education, Classroom Discourse Competence: Current Issues in Language Teaching and Teacher Education offers university students, trainee teachers, in-service teachers and teacher educators a comprehensive conceptualization of CDC (Part I). Furthermore, the chapters in this book explore facets of CDC (Part II) and present good-practice examples of CDC development in the context of pre-service teacher education (Part III).

Target varieties for language learning are contentious in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. Debates centre on the nature and utility of alternative norms. Approximation to 'native speaker' practices is the hallmark of language education. Thus, policy and pedagogy frequently orient toward achieving native-like production. While many language learning stakeholders are committed to this model, it is also contested. Opponents point to the ideological assumptions about 'native' and 'nonnative' speech inherent in the model, and to the unrealistic aims it presents to teachers and learners. While much research focuses on learner preferences, little work exists on teacher attitudes. This article aims to address this dearth in the target variety debate. By focusing on Irish as a minority language, the article supplements the literature on classroom targets for English and other major languages. A thematic analysis of interviews with Irish language pedagogues is presented and reveals their engagement with target varieties for the language. (Verlag).

This study investigates a teacher's L1 use during focus-on-form episodes (FFEs). FFEs assist L2 learning by bringing learners' attention to language. The authors studied the language used in FFEs in a Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) classroom to better understand the pedagogical purposes of L1 use in the classroom. They video-recorded 12 hours of an intermediate-high SFL classroom with an L1 English teacher at a US university. The audio data was segmented into FFEs and then coded (English L1, Spanish L2, mix) to reflect the language used in each of the teacher's utterances. The authors also identified the linguistic areas (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) targeted in the FFEs. Chi-square and descriptive statistics were used to understand the relationship between the teacher's language and the linguistic areas. Lastly, using the same data set, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis in order to depict the situations in which the teacher employed the L1 and L2. There was a significant relationship between the teacher's language and the FFEs' linguistic areas. Specifically, the L1 and L2 were used equally when FFEs concerned vocabulary and grammar. However, when FFEs concerned semantics, frequent code-switching occurred. The qualitative data illustrate that the language choice may depend on the interactional patterns and the complexity of the linguistic structure. (Verlag, adapt.).

The article examines the language choices made by native-speaker teachers of Japanese, Korean, German and French in foreign language (FL) classrooms in New Zealand secondary schools. It explores these teachers' patterns of alternation between English, the majority language, and the TL (target language), using both AS-units (Analysis of Speech units), devised by Foster et al. (2000) and a multiple-category coding system entitled 'Functional Language Alternation Analysis of Teacher Talk' (FLAATT), developed expressly to allow a cross-linguistic comparison of the relationship between teachers' language choices and particular pedagogic functions. Findings suggest that the participating teachers differed markedly from one another not only in the amount of TL used but also in the pedagogic functions they used most frequently and in the language (TL or English) they chose for these functions. There was a tendency by most teachers to avoid complex interactions in the TL, limiting the potential for intake and for real communication on the part of the students. Implications are drawn for research and for teacher education. (Verlag, adapt.).

In the article the authors examine a teacher-authored narrative in which Steve Mann (2002), an English as a second language teacher, critically reflects on how his teaching beliefs were transformed as a result of participating in 'cooperative development' (Edge, 1992, 2002). Cooperative development is an inquiry-based approach to professional development that promotes self-development as it occurs within the context of a supportive group of colleagues. The analysis of Mann's narrative - based on a Vygotskian sociocultural view of cognitive development - exposes evidence that unexpected aspects of the dialogic process that Mann and his colleagues engaged in spurred his cognitive development. Mann's conceptual development is traced from the initial gap between his cognition and emotions, manifested in a contradiction between his beliefs and practices, through the dialogic processes of externalization and reconceptualization, and towards a transformation - he asserts - in his teaching practices. By externalizing these contradictions with his colleagues, who act as temporary others, he is in essence operating in a zone of proximal development in which the mediational means provided by the group enable him to reconceptualize and restructure his beliefs and work towards self-regulation of his teaching practices. (Verlag, adapt.).

The discussed study reports on the evidence of first language (L1) attrition in a population that may appear to be the most resistant to L1 changes. Russian monolinguals (n = 3) and Russian-English bilinguals (n = 10) participated in the study. The bilinguals were graduate students teaching Russian as a foreign language at a U.S. university. The data were obtained through semispontaneous discourse on assigned interview topics and a grammaticality judgment task. Numerous instances of lexical and grammatical deviations registered in the data suggest that an extensive exposure to the L1 in the second language (L2) environment and motivation to keep it intact due to a high professional demand may still diminish the speaker's control over his or her L1 skills. Implications for L2 acquisition and foreign language teaching (FLT) are offered in the article. (Verlag, adapt.).

In a follow-up project, this study examined how and when six university language teachers actually used English and the target language in the classroom. Results suggest that switches to English may be made to help maintain classroom order, to create solidarity or empathy, to cover lack of experience or strategies, or to rephrase or modify their speech. (32 references) (LB)

Many learners, especially those in a foreign-language setting, draw on the classroom as their primary forum for using and experiencing the target language, still for the most part during teacher-led instruction. Nevertheless, communicative language teaching does not provide a decisive definition of \"good language use\". Teachers usually take an eclectic approach and, as a result, are likely to vary from each other in classroom-language use practices. The study uses quantitative and qualitative data gathered in a semester-long video project as well as supporting documentation, such as teacher interviews, students' final course grades, and end-of-course evaluations to describe (1) how three (two female, one male) experienced non-native-speaker teachers of German in an intermediate-level multi-section college course differ from each other in the amount of teacher/student talk; L1/L2 use; class pace; turn-talking; and the basic structure and focus of a class (2) how these differences correspond with the teachers' self-perceived roles; and (3) how students perceive their particular classroom experiences. (Verlag, adapt.).