For a long time, scholars have attempted to tease out the factors leading to difficulty in foreign language learners. In the first paper, Soo-Ok Kweon from Korea investigates verb splits, Korean words like malhata that have several alternatives in English (tell, say, talk, speak). In the next, Karen Kow Yip Cheng and Amir Biglar Beigi Ghajarieh, both from Malaysia, discuss gendered discourse and how it may be manifested and avoided in the EFL classroom. The concern for focus on form in EFL is discussed by Beibei Zhao from China looking at corrective feedback in some primary classrooms. In the next paper, Benjamin Li from Hong Kong reports on the attitudes of teachers and principals there to a new second school English curriculum. In another study, Wenhua Cheng from China studies the development of teachers over a four month period in an on-site model of teachers' professional development. In another study from Hong Kong, Eunice Tang establishes that the lexicon of local textbooks is impoverished when compared to two standard word lists. Next, Ahmad Reza Eghtesadi and Hossein Navidinia from Iran show that the academic writing in two Iranian EFL journals varies considerably in metadiscourse. In the next paper, three Iranian scholars, Mohammad Rahimi, Firooz Sadighi and Zahra Alimorad Dastkhezr, report on an intensive study of the reading strategies of some learners. From Taiwan, Hung-chun Wang describes a study of the learning of phrasal verbs by university students. Mojtaba Mohammadi from Iran also deals with corrective feedback, but in teaching writing at the university level. Following up on studies in the UK and New Zealand, Le Van Canh (preparing now for the next Asia TEFL conference in Vietnam) and Roger Barnard (from New Zealand) report on teacher beliefs about the best way to teach grammar. In the next study, three Iranian scholars Razieh Rabbani Yekta, Saeed Ketabi and Mansoor Tavakoli investigate the value of using videos in developing critical thinking in EFL studies. Shien Sakai and Akiko Takagi from Japan studied students at 16 universities and confirmed the relation between proficiency and learner autonomy. Studying university students in Taiwan, Shin-ying Huang found that they appreciated but were not threatened by the power of English as a global language. Subrata Kumar Bhowmik, a doctoral student in the USA from Bangladesh, reports evidence supporting the view that EFL (as opposed to ESL) contexts are over-representing in second language writing teaching research and literature. Finally, Xiaoling Ji compares compositions of sophomore and senior students from four universities, finding institutional variation and learning of some features and a decline in accuracy.
The issue as a whole shows the continuation of good quality research in topics of current issues. The scope of the studies, as I have previously noted, is still quite limited, taking part in the spare time of busy teachers with no support for larger research studies. One is impressed again by the number of papers from Iran. There are several countries unrepresented and one hopes this will be remedied. Again, I express the admiration of the work of Jihyeon Jeon and her team of assistants in judging and helping revise these papers.
Angel M. Y. Lin (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Anne Burns (Macquarie University, Australia) Asruddin Tou (Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia) David Nunan (Anaheim University, Hong Kong) Farhat Khan (Aligarh Muslim University, India) Fatma Alwan (UAE Ministry of Education, UAE) Hemamala Vajira Madawala Ratwatte (Open University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka) Hyacinth Gaudart (University of Malaya, Malaysia) Jun Liu (University of Arizona, USA) Kensaku Yoshida (Sophia University, Japan) Qiufang Wen (Beijing Foreign Studies University, China) Oryang Kwon (Seoul National University, Korea) Leo VanLier (Monterey Institute of International Studies, Thailand) Lubna Alsagoff (Nanyang Techological University, Singapore) Marlu Vilches (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines) Mehdi Riazi (Shiraz University, Iran) Michael McCarthy (University of Nottingham, UK) Mick Randall (British University in Dubai, UAE) Mike Levy (Griffith University, Australia) Nasreen Mujahida Ahsan (Aga Khan University, Pakistan) Neil Anderson (Brigham Young University, USA) Richard Baldauf (The University of Queensland, Austrailia) Roger Barnard (University of Waikato, New Zealand) Ronald Carter (University of Nottingham, UK) Saran Kaur Gill (University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia) Shahid Siddiqui (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan) Stephen Andrews (Hong Kong University, Hong Kong) Thomas Farrell (Brock University, Canada) William Littlewood (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Won-Key Lee (Seoul National University of Education, Korea) Yasuo Nakatni (Japan, Tokyo University of Science, Japan) Yuko Butler (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Editorial Board (Editors)
Arifa Rahman (University of Dhaka, Bangladesh) Christine Coombe (Dubai Men's College, UAE) David C.S. Li (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Elinor Saiegh Haddad (Bar Ilan University, Israel) Fuad Abdul Hamied (Indonesia University of Education, Indonesia) He Lianzhen (Zhejiang University, China) Heyoung Kim (Chung Ang University, Korea) Hee-Kyung Lee (Yonsei University, Korea) Jin-Young Shim (Open Cyber University, Korea) Jungmin Ko (Sungshin University, Korea) Kazem Lotfipour-Saedi (Akita International University, Japan) Leslie Barratt (Indiana State University, USA) Mardziah Hayati Abdullah (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia) Marianne Perfecto (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines) Mei Lin Caroline Ho (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) Nobuo Okada (Osaka University, Japan) Olga Sichyova (Amur State University, Russia) Pragasit Sitthitikul (Walailak University, Thailand) Punchalee Wasanasomsithi (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) RS Gupta (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India) Samina Qadir (Fatima Jinnah University, Pakistan) Toshihiko Suzuki (Waseda University, Japan) Yonglin Yang (Tsinghua University, China) Young-in Moon (University of Seoul, Korea) Yusun Kang (Korea University, Korea) Zoya Profshina (Far Eastern University, Russia)
Editorial Board (Readers)
Duqin Wang (Beijing Institute of Petro-chemical Technology, China) Zhichang Xu (The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Tomohito Ishikawa (Soka Women's College, Japan) Wataru Suzuki (University of Toronto, Canada) Honggang Liu (Peking University, China) Lixin Xiao (Tianjin Polytechnic University, P. R. China) Marie J. Guilloteaux (Gyeongsang National University, Korea) Natalia Prosh'yants (Far Eastern National University, Russia) Bee Hoon Tan (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia) Ju Zhan (Jilin University, China) Dil Afroze Quader (Dhaka University, Bangladesh) Tae-Young Kim (Chung-Ang University, Korea) Saovapa Wichadee (Bangkok University, Thailand) Hongjun Fu (Xinjiang University, China) Faizah A Majid (Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia) Rieko Matsuoka (National College of Nursing, Japan) Phuc Cao Nguyen (Khanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, Vietnam) An E He (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Xuesong Gao (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong SAR, China) Ed Nicholson (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China) Meihua Liu (Tsinghua University, China) Eunice Tang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Masdinah Alauyah Md. Yusof (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia) Nematullah Shomoossi (Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Iran) Kamisah Ariffin (University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia) Justin Shewell (United Arab Emirates University, UAE) Hua Chen (Nanjing University, China) Deron Walker (California Baptist University, USA) Younghwa Lee (Sun Moon University, Korea) Junju Wang (Shandong University, China) Li Li (Queen's University, Belfast, UK) Thu Dinh Nguyen (HochiMinh City University of Technical Education, Vietnam) Helena Agustien (SEAMEO-RELC, Singapore) Sayeedur Rahman (University of Dhaka, Bangladesh) Md. Maniruzzaman (Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh) Svetlana Suchkova (Samara State Aerospace University, Russia) Chayanika Hazarika (The English and Foreign Languages University, India) SungSoo Jang (Inje University, Korea) Hasan Ansary (Islamic Azad University, Iran) Nasrin Shokrpour (Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran) Yan Yan Zhang (Wuhan University, China) Arna Peretz (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) Yazid Basthomi Abbas Zare-ee (University of Kashan, Iran) Awad Ahmed (An-Najah National University, Palestine) Esmat Babaii (University for Teacher Education, Iran) Francis Xavier (Universiti Teknologi MARA Kedah, Malaysia) Trudy Zuckermann (Hebrew University, Israel; Achva Academic College of Education, Israel) Kishwar Khan (Haraganga college, Bangladesh) Mohammed Jasim Betti (University of Thi-Qar, Iraq) Tzu-chia Chao (Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan) N.D.R. Chandra (Nagaland University, India) Huw Jarvis (University of Salford, UK) Tan Bee Tin (The University of Auckland, New Zealand) Dongwan Cho (Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea) Abdorreza Tahriri (Shiraz University, Iran)
