After explaining why consideration of the use of technology in second language (L2) teaching in the primary and secondary sectors is necessary, this systematic review presents a keyword map of 117 studies of technology in L2 learning since 1990. It reveals that research effort in these educational sectors has increased in line with technological developments and there have been important differences between the primary and secondary sectors in the adoption of applications. There then follows an in-depth review of 47 post-2000 studies investigating the efficacy of technology in the teaching of L2 English. It asks what technology has been used and why, what evidence there is that technology facilitates language learning, and what other insights can be drawn from the research in this field. The evidence that technology has a direct beneficial impact on linguistic outcomes is slight and inconclusive, but it may impact indirectly and positively on learner attitudes and behaviours and may promote collaboration. On the whole, the research reviewed lacked the quality that would reassure practitioners and policy-makers that technological investment is warranted. We argue that future research needs to provide a tighter link between technological applications, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory, and learning outcomes.

This review highlights recent doctoral research in English language education and related areas completed between 2007 and 2010 in three countries in Southeast Asia: Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Out of sixty dissertations initially chosen from major universities in these countries, five from the Philippines, four from Malaysia and three from Singapore were selected for review, the selection being based mainly on their quality of work and representation of key areas of intellectual work in the field in these countries. This review shows how the shared postcolonial identities of these countries and their unique sociohistorical locations help explain the coalescing and diverging agendas and trajectories in English language education doctoral research in the region. Much of the work affirms the dominant intellectual position of the West as the producer of knowledge, so there is a need to reposition the intellectual stance of research in English language education in the region within and emerging from its multilingual but unequally globalizing landscapes. Thus, there is an urgent need for more nuanced attention to socio-cultural factors that impact on English language education in the three countries under review, which, in turn, can help scholars produce new knowledge that can contribute to academic conversations in the field.

This presentation builds on the concept of orientations to languages other than English in the US first suggested by Ruíz (1984). Using examples from recent ethnographic, sociolinguistic, and policy-related investigations undertaken principally in North America, the discussion explores possible connections between individual and group language identities. It demonstrates that orientations to languages are dynamic inside and outside speech communities, varying across time and according to multiple contextual factors, including the history and size of local bilingual groups along with the impact of contemporary economic and political conditions. Often the conceptions of multiple languages reflected in policy and pedagogy oversimplify the complexity documented by research and raise questions for teaching practice.

This paper develops the concept of meaningful literacy and offers a classroom methodology – poetry writing – that manifests this approach to ESL/EFL literacy instruction. The paper is divided into three sections. The first deals with the concept of meaningful literacy learning in second and foreign language pedagogy; the second summarizes empirical evidence that characterizes second language (L2) poetry writing; and the third describes the practical aspects of teaching poetry writing. This approach is presented as a way of humanizing the second and foreign language classroom by refocusing on the individual language learner as the center of the learning process.

Most explanatory work on first and second language learning assumes the primacy of the acquisition phenomenon itself, and a good deal of work has been devoted to the search for an ‘acquisition device’ that is specific to humans, and perhaps even to language. I will consider the possibility that this strategy is misguided and that language acquisition is a secondary effect of processing amelioration: attempts by the processor to facilitate its own functioning by developing routines of particular sorts.

The Open University, Milton Keynes, 21 April 2010

This seminar, organised by Caroline Coffin and Jim Donohue (both from the Open University, UK), took the form of a day of dialogue between invited experts and other interested parties, including academic writing practitioners, researchers and postgraduate students. The invited speakers were asked to form panels representing either Academic Literacies or Systemic Functional Linguistics.

University of Birmingham, 24–25 June 2010

The event (co-ordinated by Alison Sealey and Paul Thompson, University of Birmingham) was divided so that the first day focused mainly on the use of corpus-informed teaching with L1 learners and the second on additional language teaching contexts.

The Centre for Applied Language Studies (CALS), founded in 1997, is a research centre within the School of Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication. It brings together researchers and postgraduate students from several disciplines within the School, which includes six languages: English (English Language Teaching and English Literature), French, German, Irish, Japanese and Spanish. The Centre provides a focus for research in applied language studies within the University and a focal point for national and international links. It also promotes the interaction of research and the application of language activities in areas such as language learning, corpus linguistics, language in society, and language planning and policy. CALS also has a number of associate members from other Irish and European universities who make an important contribution to the work of the Centre by co-supervising Ph.D. theses and collaborating in publications and events. The Centre currently has 65 members, including 21 Ph.D. students.