What sort of papers can one expect to see in a regional journal like this? First, we should not be surprised to find an emphasis in specific problems of teaching in Asian countries: three of the papers in this issue do in fact look critically at such topics as teacher perceptions of a standardized national test in Iran, suggestions to improve late immersion teaching in Hong Kong and an evaluation of the effectiveness of English teaching in Laos, bringing scholarly investigation to bear on matters that seem to require improvement. While local, they deal with issue of wide concern. The others deal with topics that are also important wherever English is taught as a foreign language: they include an empirical study of the methodology of investigating learner strategies, a study of variation in classroom presentation of textbook material as two different teachers interact with different classes, an essay presenting arguments for the importance of standard English and arguing against localized variants, an effort to correlate interest in selected topics and reasons for wanting to learn English, and an investigation of differences of reading strategy with printed and web material. Second, as I have previously remarked, the studies tend to have comparatively small numbers of subjects, and to report fairly shortterm studies. They are essentially reports of research carried out by active teachers without additional funding or released time alongside their other duties. To overcome the difficulties, half of them report work of two or more collaborators. Third, most of them contribute to current issues of concern among researchers in the field, representing new developments and continuations of ongoing concerns. In the circumstance, there is little opportunity for major innovation.
We continue to receive contributions from the full region: this issue includes two papers from Iran (and another set in Iran), one each from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam. The quality continues good, showing evidence of the rigorous peer review to which all contributions are submitted. In future issues our review system will be even more strongly bolstered by the addition of several score new readers, selected internationally on the advice of local representatives. And we are exploring the possibility and advantages of finding an international publisher.
The journal continues to grow and serve as a valuable window on the growing professionalism of TEFL scholarship in Asia and the way that it is being supported by research that meets international standards. And we are grateful to Professor Jihyeon Jeon and her team of fellow editors for maintaining this quality. But the guarantee of the standards is ultimately in the hands of the contributors. We depend on you to offer us your best work.

This study examines the nature and scope of the washback impact of the university entrance examination (UEE) on pre-university English teachers’ (PETs) perceptions. Teaching experience, educational background, professionalism, and gender were studied as independent variables.
Based on stratified random sampling, 377 PETs were selected to respond to the questionnaires. Eight PETs were also purposively selected to participate in two focus group interviews. Pearson product moment and t-test were used to analyze the quantitative data from the survey questionnaires and a systematic note-based technique recommended by Kruger (2002) was used to analyze the qualitative data from the focus group interviews.
The findings show that only PETs’ perceived professionalism in teaching was associated with their perceptions (r = .38). All of the interviewed PETs perceived the negative effect of the UEE and expected the authorities to reform it based on the current teaching and testing theories.

Key words: Washback, University Entrance Examination, and English Teaching

This exploratory research tracks the development of a process orientated task-based lesson entitled Deserted in order to identify how materials design can be more ergonomically aligned with and conducive to variability in classroom task enactment. This sequence begins with the visualization of a series of communicative micro-level tasks functioning within the boundary of a larger macro-level task as proposed by a university materials designer. The sequence concludes with the enactment of these micro-level tasks within an EFL classroom environment. Incorporating a dual case-study research design, two university lecturers at a Japanese university were interviewed pre-lesson in order to elicit their attitudes toward the notion of task. They were also required to present a workplan outlining their intended use of the Deserted materials. Subsequently, two 90-minute lessons were observed and field notes were combined with post-lesson interviews. It was found that there were distinct differences in teacher enactment. This not only changed the material designer’s visualized enactment procedure but also changed the nature of the task as a pedagogical construct. Detailed reports of each teacher’s enactment are presented and the need for further large-scale research looking at the variability between task design and task enactment is called for.

Key words: pedagogical task, materials design, teacher enactment, task-based language teaching

Does ‘China English’? a Chinese variety of English ? exist? This question has been a topic of much debate for more than two decades among Chinese scholars and teachers of English. At the moment, the advocates of ‘China English’ seem to be winning, as their position caters to Chinese patriotic feelings, e.g. we can do anything, including nativizing a foreign language, and their opponents have failed to present solid proof. This paper argues that ‘China English’ is totally self-proclaimed, neither meeting international standards nor acknowledged by native-speaking experts of English, and that the supporters have ignored the sociolinguistic history of the language. After examining English in China by three sets of different but similar international standards for the recognition of a new variety of English, it concludes that the so-called ‘China English’ is not a reality yet. Nor will it be or should it be.

Key words: China English, facts, fantasies, fallacies

This paper reports a study investigating the relationship between students’ levels of topic interest and their goal orientations in EFL learning. Two scales adopted from the literature related to mastery and performance goal orientations and 42 popular topics used currently in different textbooks were given to 834 9th Grade Vietnamese students for the sampling. As a result of the research, topic interest was identified as being more strongly correlated with mastery goals than with performance goals. Further analyses of the relationships between these two constructs provided insightful understandings for topical textbook design, goal enhancement incentives, and their interactions in ESL learning.

Key words: EFL learning in Vietnam, goal orientation, topic-based textbooks, topic interest

Despite a long history of publicly-funded English immersion education, late immersion in Hong Kong is not achieving the dual goals of content and second language learning at levels that an immersion curriculum can expect. The growing importance of English in the Asia Pacific region places an urgent demand on Hong Kong, and indeed its neighbouring cities and countries, to improve language-in-education policies and practices. To support the improvement of an aspect of practice within the late immersion curriculum, this paper offers a pedagogical framework for integrating content and second language teaching and learning to guide late immersion pedagogy. The proposed framework draws on three main sources of knowledge: first, the concepts of knowledge structures, text structures and language objectives; second, some of the teaching and learning problems observed in late immersion classrooms in Hong Kong; third, extensive experience of working with teachers who have attended an in-service immersion teacher education programme.

Key words: late immersion, content-language integration, knowledge structures, text structures, language objectives

This study investigates the effectiveness of the English curriculum in secondary schools in Laos. The sample consists of 24 teachers, and 1,179 Grade 5 students from 25 secondary schools in Vientiane Municipality and Vientiane Province. The results show that the current curriculum is not effective in raising student achievement. The students have modest achievement in all three parts of the test: grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension. This is because of textbooks and the way of using them. In fact, in the textbooks, there is too much content to be accomplished within the limited time. Also there is no explanation of vocabularies and grammar points. Another reason is that teaching techniques are inappropriate, and most of the schools lack teaching equipments such as tape recorders and cassettes. These make students unable to acquire English knowledge as expected. The results reveal that there is a large gap between intended curriculum and acquired curriculum. It is an urgent task to examine the teaching method and revise the curriculum.

Key words: Laos, EFL, secondary education, Lao ELT, teaching materials, intended/acquired curriculum

This study is an attempt to investigate whether significant differences exist between metacognitive awareness and perceived use of hypertext and printed text reading strategies of Iranian EFL learners. Twenty two Iranian EFL learners completed two questionnaires regarding metacognitive awareness of printed text and hypertext reading strategy use. The results revealed that there is a significant difference for overall reading strategies in general and problem solving and support strategies in particular. However, no significant difference was found for metacognitive awareness of global reading strategies in both mediums of on-line and print. These findings are, in fact, in line with the opinion of those scholars who believe that the process of reading in print and hypertext environment may differ from each other (Gillingham, 1993; Kamil and Chou, 2005; Konishi, 2003). They also highlight the importance of strategy awareness and training component when classroom teachers engage their learners in on-line reading tasks.

Key words: metacognitive awareness, reading strategies, hypertext, printed text, EFL learners

Recently there has been heated debate on the nature of strategy assessment in task-absent situations where it might lead to learners’ over- or underreporting of the strategies they actually use. More specifically, it is argued that that learners need to be involved in the real process of completing a language task just before they are asked to report the strategies they use. The present study, thus, was aimed at investigating the effect of presence of tasks and task difficulty on advanced students’ reports of their listening strategy use. Results from the analysis of the data measured by the Listening Strategy Questionnaire and collected from 62 Advanced students, in three task conditions, indicated that (1) task condition (No Task, Easy Task, Difficult Task) has an effect on advanced EFL learners’ listening strategy use, and (2) considering each strategy subcategory under study, the subjects reported different frequencies of strategy use across the above task conditions. This was especially true for cognitive and memory strategies, whereas for compensation strategies the difference in frequency of strategy use across the three conditions was not statistically significant. The findings promise some implications for developing context-specific task design frameworks, and task-based strategy instruction and evaluation.