A recent front-page story in The New York Times dealt with the phenomenon of the “Wild Geese”, Korean families who send their children with their mother to live in an English speaking country in order to learn English better, while the father stays home to make enough money to pay for the process. I also read recently a doctoral dissertation studying the English achievements of pupils in a village school in an Asian country. Not surprisingly, it found a major socioeconomic difference between high achievers and low. The high achievers came from wealthier homes with high values for English and education, and were partially at least exposed to the language. Neither of these stories will surprise readers. It is widely recognized that school success is dependent in large measure on the socioeconomic status of the home. And it is also understand that parents who can afford it will provide a richer sociolinguistic environment for their children.
A related issue is the report of a continued survey of English teaching in Asia reported by Yeon Hee Choi (editor-in-chief of Asia TEFL Books) and Hyo Woong Lee (President of Asia TEFL) in the distinction they find between Asian countries where English is a second language and a medium of instruction, those where it is clearly a foreign language, and those countries where historically it is a foreign language but its use as a medium of instruction in school is moving it towards second language status. Just as the “Wild geese” are sending their children to an environment where they will be more completely immersed in English, so there are countries that look for ways to increase exposure beyond the few weekly hours that can be allocated to language classes. The challenge (as described in the article by Eun-Ju Kim on English medium lecturers at universities, is to guarantee access to universities which increasingly assume English language proficiency as a requirement.
There remain of course systems, as Ali S.M. Al-Issa describes, whose teacher training programs are committed to traditional textbooks and methods of teaching that will not develop the kinds of English proficiencies that students and their parents believe are needed. Still locked in formal instruction, they are not ready for the results of the studies described by Masoud Rahim Domakani in one country and Juliana Othman and Lilliati Ismail in another supporting those who argue for the need to accompany communicative teaching with focus on form.
One more paper in the issue is by Lei Lei (a name chosen perhaps by parents who recognized the problem editors have in international publications in deciding which is the family name) which shows that the C-Test is useful for testing Chinese students in English. The issue concludes with a review by Myong Hee Ko of a textbook commonly used in Korea.
Once again, thanks to the contributors (from Korea, Iran, Oman, Malaysia, China and USA) and the editorial team for keeping up the standards of the Journal.

This study has surveyed current trends and issues in English language education in Asia, that is, 16 nations including Hong Kong and Taiwan (total 18 regions). The results of the survey reveal commonalities and diversity across Asian regions in the following aspects: the starting grade, class hours, national curriculum, textbooks, the medium of instruction, the use of computer, university entrance examination, teachers, tertiary English education, and problems and concerns. English language education in each Asian nation/region seems an outcome of diverse factors including political environment, social and individual needs, and resources (e.g., teachers and computer). The findings from the survey raise five key issues to be resolved: the amount of time allotted for English language education; the use of English as the medium of instruction; centralization or decentralization; teachers; and the nation-wide university entrance examination.

Key words: starting grade of English language education, curriculum, class hours, textbooks, medium of instruction, use of computer, university entrance English exams, English teachers, tertiary English education

* Yeon Hee Choi is the correspondent author; Hyo Woong Lee is the coauthor.

Formal instruction is at the heart of the debate in language acquisition and has been subject to controversy and discussion among researchers. Recent studies have witnessed a reaction to the hypothesis that comprehensible input is sufficient for second language (L2) acquisition and, conversely, they emphasize the role of instruction. This paper investigates the definition of the role of different types of form-focused instruction in L2 English acquisition. Two research questions were defined for the study: 1) Do differences in the type of instructional treatment lead to differences in language learning? 2) Do differences in the types of instruction also display different long-term effects? The subjects were three groups of adult college students from the Shahrekord University who were enrolled in a general English course. They received three types of instructions: Focus-on- Meaning (FonM), implicit Focus-on-Form (ImFonF) and explicit Focused on-Form (ExFonF). The target linguistic features were passive syntactic structures. These features were selected based on the results of placement tests indicating that the participants had difficulty in those domains. The findings of the study indicate that the instructional treatment lead to differences in language learning in the short-term. The results for the long term effects display a complex picture of gains depending on the instruction, the nature of the target linguistic features and the modes of assessment tasks. The implications of the findings for both research and pedagogy are presented.

Second language teacher education is an important agency with a powerful capacity to impact student teachers’ socialization. Like all other prospective teachers, second language student teachers go through various experiences while attending their initial training program and these experiences impact their beliefs, images, and thinking in relation to teaching and learning (foreign) languages.
This paper, hence, triangulates data from the Philosophy and Guidelines for the Omani English Language School Curriculum document (Nunan, Tyacke & Walton, 1987), which I will herewith refer to as the National English Language Policy/Plan (NELP), other policy texts, the pertinent literature, and semi-structured interviews conducted with various agents involved in the Omani English language teaching (ELT) system.
The paper critically discusses the different ideologies embodied in the various statements and draws conclusions about their implications to initial English language teacher education in Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman and other similar or identical parts in the world and to second language policy implementation.

Key words: NELP, policy, teacher training and education, teaching and learning English, second and foreign language

This study examines the effects of using focus on form instruction on a group of L2 learners’ accurate production of the past simple tense and the past perfect tense. This study also seeks to determine the characteristics of focus on form episodes (FFEs) that contributed to uptake. Using a quasi-experimental research design, data were elicited from two English as a second language (ESL) classes in a secondary school. One class was taught using focus on form instruction, while the other was taught using current standard practices. A pretest and a posttest were administered to determine the effects of focus on form instruction on the accurate production of the past simple tense and past perfect tense. In addition, the discourse during each FFE in the treatment group was audio-recorded, transcribed and coded to identify the characteristics of FFEs that influenced uptake. A quantitative analysis of the data, using a t-test for independent samples and chi-square tests indicate that the treatment group produced a significantly higher frequency of accurate past simple tense and past perfect tense than the control group. The results also suggest that characteristics such as linguistic focus, complexity, type of feedback, source and directness of FFEs influenced both the frequency of uptake and its successfulness. The findings from this study would have practical implications for second language teaching and learning.

This paper reports on the validation of the C-Test amongst Chinese ESL learners. The hypothesis formulated is that the C-Test is a measure of general language proficiency. A total of 265 Chinese tertiary ESL learners participated in the study. Results from item discrimination analysis, internal consistency analysis, correlation analysis and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the C-Test has satisfactory item discrimination and is a reliable and valid measure of general language proficiency amongst Chinese ESL learners. I propose that two texts of the C-Test battery be chosen with its difficulty appropriate to the testees’ proficiency and three beyond their proficiency in order to achieve satisfactory item discrimination. As for its pedagogical implications, we propose that the C-Test be utilized as a placement test and an anchor test in test equating.

Key words: C-Test, Validation, Chinese ESL learners

The present study aims to examine lectures by native- and nonnative-English speaking instructors in university English reading classes in Korea. Specifically, it attempts to look into these classes for the purpose of gaining deeper understanding of the nature and contents of university English teaching. For this investigation, two native- and two nonnative-English speaking instructors allowed the researcher to examine closely their classrooms. The lectures were observed and analyzed at macro- and micro-levels by employing and further adapting the framework of English teaching analyses developed by Young (1994) and Rost (2002). The transcribed data of the lectures revealed that there were some similarities and differences among the instructors in organizing and implementing the lectures. In particular, each of the instructors managed differently the main phase of the lecture using various techniques, reflecting their own beliefs about teaching. Next, it was observed that in general, they employed restrictive simplification slightly more than elaborative simplification, needing further investigation into the issue of providing enriched input to EFL adult students. Pedagogical implications are discussed for effective integration of EGP and ESP at tertiary level.