From 2008, a new section of the journal will be dedicated to academic studies which use a replication approach. We invite submissions of previously unpublished articles based on literal, approximate or constructive replication of a previous study or studies of an aspect of L2 education. In keeping with the survey characteristics of Language Teaching, we also encourage submissions of meta-analyses which attempt to combine or synthesise a series of comparable research replications.

Language Teaching Review Panel

The last decade has witnessed a rapid increase in interest in multilingualism. Whereas a number of scholars in language acquisition research still base their work on the monolingual native speaker norm, others have developed more realistic viewpoints. This article provides an overview of international research on third language learning and teaching, including examples mainly from a European background. It describes sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and educational aspects of multilingual teaching and emphasizes current research trends in this fairly young area of language teaching. The challenging ways which have been suggested to achieve multilingualism for all necessarily have to address learners, teachers, educators and policy makers. It will be argued that multilingual education can only be successful if language teaching in general is restructured and oriented towards multilingual norms.

This is an overview of research on foreign language (FL) teaching published by Polish researchers in the years of 2000–2006. We begin with an outline of the history and the current sociopolitical situation of FL teaching in Poland, which prepares the ground for further discussion. Next, we focus on studies concerned with the evaluation of the recent teaching methodology. The analysis of bilingual programmes and multilingual competence is discussed in ‘Bilingual education and multilingualism’, the process of learning different aspects of language competence is explored in ‘FL learning and second language acquisition’, and cultural issues under a separate heading, ‘Cultural awareness’. In ‘The language learner’, we review studies investigating learner variables which have an important impact on language learning. With new educational directives from the Ministry of Education, emphasising the need for a more reliable assessment, new concepts and studies evaluating them are discussed in ‘Testing and evaluation’. The availability of computers has produced studies assessing various uses of computers in fostering language learning, presented in ‘Application of new technologies’. Finally, in ‘Teacher education’, we report on studies related to FL teacher development.

Once upon a time, there were four skills. But what did it mean to be a listener? A speaker? A reader? A writer? Skills in a vacuum are useful neither for describing how well one uses language nor for how to teach it effectively. As the Standards were developed, the task force made an effort to look at related disciplines and to investigate how their methods might inform the teaching of second languages. As the discipline of communication was studied, the role of context became evident. For example, the speaker as rhetorician was quite distinct from the speaker in interpersonal or small group communication. The rules that governed those behaviors and the way students were taught to speak in these two situations differed considerably. What are the ramifications for how we look at communication in foreign languages? The answer is ‘The Framework of Communicative Modes’.

Curricular articulation and the integration of cultural knowledge with language development over extended sequences are among the most persistent challenges for contemporary language teaching and learning. The paper examines the nature of those challenges in light of theories of language and culture while using as the site of investigation the culture standards that have been developed within the framework of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning, a key document for L2 education in the United States, particularly at the K-12 level. Taking four perspectives, it suggests ways in which simultaneous content and language teaching might be tackled through a genre-based way of constructing extended curricula and by using genre-based tasks for informing pedagogical decisions. In this fashion, learners might be able to progress toward a competent cultural literacy that is language-based.

Standards of English for English language teacher education need to consider political as well as linguistic factors. Any definition of such standards on the basis of speakerhood would immediately fall into the trap of native-speakerist discrimination, which is intensified by unspoken associations with ‘ethnicity’. Who can be recognized as ‘native speaker’ or ‘near-native speaker’ is not simply a matter of language. Any definition of English standards must therefore acknowledge an alternative established belief that all users of English can claim ownership of the language. This factor is, however, complicated by the recent suggestions that there can be a non-aligned, international English lingua franca, themselves being perceived as Centre-driven. Standards must therefore be convincingly de-Centred, and must allow those who consider themselves Periphery to take Centre-stage. They must be cosmopolitan, non-centred, professional, earned, prestigious and cultured.