Because English is a world language, the inclusion of different accents is valuable in listening materials. This article presents the rationale for using materials featuring nonnative and World English speakers and describes activities that provide listening and speaking practice for intermediate and advanced students. Read More

Many learners feel some trepidation or even great anxiety about what to say, as well as how to initiate a conversation, how to keep it going, and how to end it. Small talk is not small at all. Graduate students’ daily encounters present opportunities for enhancing their ability to engage in small talk, and, most important, to build connections that can lead to professional conversations. This article aims to help graduate English-as-an-additional-language students take advantage of opportunities to engage in small talk that facilitates connections and interactions with others in the academic community, through classroom-tested pedagogical tasks that cover the mechanics, strategies, and easy steps for entering, maintaining, and exiting conversations with ease and success. Read More

EFL teachers tend to ask pseudo-questions to control the classroom, a technique that does not facilitate authentic communication. This discourse study shows that with various drama techniques, the teachers raised authentic as well as confirming, understanding-check, clarifying, and other types of questions to seek student contribution and to help students cope with linguistic barriers. Different questioning patterns were found when the teachers were in-role in drama and out-of-role in the instructional context. An example of how drama works with EFL students is discussed. Read More

Have you ever wondered how to set pronunciation teaching priorities for ITAs and how to facilitate their learning? This article presents a principled approach to pronunciation instruction that promotes awareness raising, prioritization, collaborative goal setting, strategy use, monitoring, and reflection for pronunciation improvement. Sample activities following this approach are provided. Read More

This pilot study investigated the production of English codas by native Korean speakers. The speech samples of six participants were phonetically analyzed using Praat software to determine the modification techniques used to repair word-final English consonant(s). Variables examined were number of coda consonants, environment in which the consonant(s) occurred, and English proficiency level of participant. Data were analyzed quantitatively using chi-square comparisons. Results showed that deletion was a favored repair under most conditions. However, epenthesis was a significant repair when obstruents preceded a final cluster and in cases where the coda consisted of three consonants. Read More

Often learner diversity, lack of student access, large class sizes, and test-based integrated-speaking lessons create visible pedagogical hurdles, but what about the invisible ones? This article explores the influence test-based integrated-speaking and invisible hurdles have on speaking pedagogy. Read More

A brief description of SPLIS, its purpose, and its membership. Read More