We begin by considering how the recent phenomenon of English as a Lingua Franca (henceforth ELF) fits in with the older notion of lingua francas in general as well as with older versions of ELF. We then explore the beginnings of ELF in its modern manifestation, including the earliest ELF research, and tackle the thorny issue of defining ELF. After discussing the main locations and domains in which ELF research has been carried out to date, we move on to examining research into three linguistic levels, lexicogrammar, phonology and pragmatics, concluding with a discussion of very recent findings revealing ELF's linguistic fluidity. Next, we discuss research into two domains where ELF has proved especially prevalent: business English and academic English. This is followed by a consideration of ELF as a globalized and globalizing practice. We end the article by exploring the implications of ELF research for ELF-oriented English teaching and the role that attitudes are likely to play in this. We conclude that while the relaxed attitudes towards ELF of younger people are promising, strong resistance is still felt by many others, and that the major challenge remains in convincing the examination boards that they should take account of ELF.

Our goal in developing this timeline was to trace the empirical bases of current approaches to L2 pronunciation teaching, with particular attention to the concepts of accent and intelligibility. The process of identifying suitable works for inclusion challenged us in several ways. First, the number of empirical studies of pronunciation instruction is far too small to provide an interesting perspective on the issues. In fact, the dearth of such investigations has been noted many times since at least as far back as the 1960s (Strain 1963; Sisson 1970). Consequently, tracing the roots of contemporary teaching practices required that we expand our purview to consider theoretically-motivated research, as well as influential non-empirical writing about pronunciation. Here we encountered a second problem: the field of applied phonetics and phonology is so diverse that it was very difficult to decide what to omit. The research follows multifarious threads, some of which can directly inform classroom practices, while others are more concerned with general learning influences and processes. In addition, a large body of speculative and opinionated commentary on pronunciation has been published, much of which has never been submitted to empirical test.

This is an overview of research on applied linguistics and foreign language education in Turkey, surveying nearly 130 studies from the period 2005–2009. Following a brief presentation of the history and current sociopolitical situation of foreign language education in Turkey, the article focuses on research that characterizes the most common interests of academics and practitioners in the following areas: foreign language teaching and teachers, foreign language learning and learners, foreign language teacher education, the four language skills, measurement and evaluation, and the relationship between language and culture. Our discussion of each area is based on information extracted from local professional journals, conference proceedings and papers and Ph.D. dissertations. The studies examined reveal that, in general, practical concerns assume priority over theoretical issues, a substantial proportion of research being conducted on EFL learning and teaching.

While communicative competence is characterized by the negotiation of intended meanings in authentic contexts of language use, intercultural competence has to do with far less negotiable discourse worlds, the ‘circulation of values and identities across cultures, the inversions, even inventions of meaning, often hidden behind a common illusion of effective communication’ (Kramsch, Lévy & Zarate 2008: 15). The self that is engaged in intercultural communication is a symbolic self that is constituted by symbolic systems like language as well as by systems of thought and their symbolic power. This symbolic self is the most sacred part of our personal and social identity; it demands for its well-being careful positioning, delicate facework, and the ability to frame and re-frame events. The symbolic dimension of intercultural competence calls for an approach to research and teaching that is discourse-based, historically grounded, aesthetically sensitive, and that takes into account the actual, the imagined and the virtual worlds in which we live. With the help of concrete examples from the real world and foreign language classrooms, the paper attempts to redefine the notion of third place (Kramsch 1993) as symbolic competence.

In this paper I argue that online intercultural interaction and exchange remains a relatively peripheral ‘add-on’ activity in most foreign language classrooms. In its current state, it is yet to be considered an integral part of curricular activity and it does not yet form a significant part of high stakes assessment procedures. Against this background, it is becoming increasingly difficult for educators to justify to learners the value of their online work. I present here an overview of what online intercultural exchange involves and discuss what have been its contributions to foreign language education. I then present findings from a survey of telecollaborative practices and discuss why this activity has yet to become a ‘normalised’ part of foreign language learning.

This new strand in the journal provides a space for contributors to present a personal stance either on future research needs or on the perceived current applications of research in the classroom. Like much of our current content, it echoes the historical uniqueness of this journal in terms of its rich and expert overview of recent research in the field of L2 teaching and learning. However, this new strand takes such research as its starting point and attempts to look forward, using these findings both to debate their application in the language learning classroom and also to suggest where research would be best directed in the future. Thus, the objective of both papers is eminently practical: contributors to the research agenda will present suggestions for what research might usefully be undertaken, given what is currently known or what is perceived to be necessary. In the research into practice papers there will be critical appraisal both of what research is, and is not, getting through to the language learning classroom and practical suggestions made for improving such outcomes.

The Research Centre for Language Education and Acquisition in Multilingual Societies (RCLEAMS) is one of four Institute-level Research Centres at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). The principal aim of RCLEAMS is to study multilingual acquisition, language contact and the respective roles of different languages of education in contexts where the languages are not cognate (and where the scripts are often different), in order to be able to better understand the processes and issues involved and to inform governments and language policy-makers. Our particular focus is on Asian languages, including, of course, Chinese, and English. Further details about RCLEAMS, including our specific objectives and international partners, can be found at the website (www.ied.edu.hk/rcleams/). While RCLEAMS itself is relatively small, with only four full-time researchers, we conduct collaborative research with colleagues from the Institute itself, other universities in Hong Kong and with a number of international partners. There are also some thirty doctoral students in the field of language education who work closely with the Centre. We invite anyone who might be interested in working collaboratively with us to get in touch. This report will summarise current and recently completed research projects.

The European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), a Council of Europe Partial Agreement based in Graz, Austria, has been serving the community of language education professionals in its 34 member states for over 15 years now. This unique intergovernmental centre, integrated within the Council of Europe's Department of Language Education and Policy, offers concrete approaches to the issues and challenges facing Europe's multicultural societies in a period of intensive change and mobility.

The AYLLIT project (http://ayllit.ecml.at) was launched by the ECML in 2008, with the overall aim of producing material that teachers can use to establish the reading and writing level of young learners (YLs) between 9 and 13 years; the material will ultimately be linked to the CEFR (Council of Europe 2001).

The European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education (EFCT – http://clil-cd.ecml.at) is a conceptual tool for guiding the professional development of CLIL teachers. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a dual-focused approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language. The framework provides a set of principles and ideas for designing CLIL professional curricula. CLIL programmes differ widely from country to country in their organisation, content, intensity and choice of languages, and there are corresponding differences in how teacher education providers design and implement teacher training and development programmes. The EFCT aims to serve as a transnational conceptual tool for supporting the development of theoretically-sound educational practice in CLIL contexts. It is not intended as a prescriptive template.

The use of online tools in educational settings has become ubiquitous, yet effective online teaching requires very specific skills. To provide teaching professionals with an opportunity to develop such skills in a language learning context, the DOTS project (http://dots.ecml.at) was launched with support from ECML. The team is currently creating an online resource in the form of a Moodle workspace populated with bite-size training activities. Through these activities, teachers and trainee teachers of languages who want to extend their teaching into online spaces can develop and enhance their skills. The training materials are by no means limited to technical information and advice, but aim to increase the pedagogic quality of online language teaching. The training kit will provide self-training materials and worksheets that can easily be integrated into existing language teacher training programmes. Communication tools will also be integrated to make the workspace an interactive platform for communication as well as a resource for training materials. This will include forums dedicated to different topics, wikis for collating examples of good practice, and links to other online training spaces. The materials and tools are suitable both for relative novices with basic computing skills and for more advanced users who want to exchange their views and share their expertise on online language teaching.

This project is unusual as an ECML project in that it explicitly does not deal with foreign or second languages. Our working term ‘majority language’, used in the project title, denotes a language variously referred to as a ‘national’ or ‘official’ language, a ‘language of instruction’ or a ‘language of education’ in Beacco & Byram's 2007 report (http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/guide_niveau3_EN.asp), but that has recently been termed a ‘language(s) of schooling’ in the 2009 project of that name by the Council of Europe's Language Policy Division (www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Schoollang_EN.asp). Such a language is usually the native language of a majority of pupils in a country, but not necessarily in an individual class or school, where many other native languages might be represented.