TESL Canada Journal
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TESL Canada: National Contributions to ESL Professionalism in Canada
No full textProfessionalism is agoal for all English as a Second Language teachers, and yet it is a concept whose precise definition remains elusive. Since its inception, TESL Canada has been engaged in activities promoting professionalism, most notably in the areas of advocacy, professional development, and national standards. This
article chronicles TESL Canada's activities to support increasing professionalism among ESL educators across the nation
Integrating New Technologies into Language Teaching: Two Activities for an EAP Classroom
No full textIn its position statement, the International Reading Association states that technology needs to be an integral part of literacy instruction. This article describes two ways of integrating technology into an EAP curriculum that focuses on building students' reading and writing skills. . In essence, the goal of the article is to demonstrate that teachers can quite easily integrate the existing content with assignments and activities that involve the use of technology without necessarily adding new pieces to the curriculum
Giving Students a Fighting Chance: Pragmatics in the Language Classroom
No full textIn order to give language learners a fighting chance outside the classroom, teachers must provide them with consciousness-raising opportunities for developing pragmatic awareness. By attending to pragmatic factors in second-language (L2) situations, students will be better able to make informed decisions in negotiating effective communication., This article examines the potential use of the pragmatic discourse completion task (DCT) as a springboard for discussion in the L2 classroom. A description of a DCT used in a study involving advanced L2 learners at the University of Alberta (Ranta, 2002) is provided. The author also provides suggestions for developing students' pragmatic awareness
Professionalization and Exclusion in ESL Teaching
No full textAs ESL/EFL teachers, how do we fit into the spectrum between unskilled workers and highly trained professionals? This article examines three features of thetraditional professions and applies them to the ESL/EFL context. It considers problems with the lack ofmandatory standardized certification, critically assesses attachment to the university, and examines the role of the professional organization in raising the status of the occupation. The article concludes by calling for further empirical inquiry into the working conditions ofEnglish-language teachers. In this way, we will be able to make informed choices about the direction our
profession should take
Book Reviews
No full textReviews of: 'Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching,' by Jeanette S. DeCarrico and James R. Nattinger; 'Language Testing,' by Tim McNamara; and 'Negotiating Bilingual and Bicultural Identities: Japanese Returnees Betwixt Two Worlds,' by Yasuko Kanno
A Review of the Reading Section of the TOEIC
No full textIn 1979, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) developed the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), an English proficiency test for people working in international environments, based on a request from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The Chauncey Group International, a subsidiary of ETS, currently develops and publishes the test. Over two million people per year take the TOEIC (www.toeic.com). According to the TOEIC Report on Test-Takers Worldwide, 1997-98, 63% of the TOEIC results were used in Japan, 29% in Korea, and 8% in other countries. Most reviews of the TOEIC have been descriptions of the test (Gilfert, 1996; Perkins, 1987). The TOEIC comprises the listening and reading section. Buck (2001) reviews only the listening section. For the reading section of the TOEIC we could find only one critical review (Richards, 1992) published over the two decades since the test was developed. Therefore, our purpose in this article is to review critically the
reading section based on recent studies of language assessment, particularly for construct validity and content validity, which are considered by language testing researchers (Backman, 1990; Cumming, 1996) as fundamental for validation of language tests