As is customary in this annual review, the focus is on research which has been published mainly in international research journals and which has a bearing on the teaching of languages and on those aspects of languages learning and use which seem to have implications for teaching. For the most part, it is additional languages which are under discussion, whether of the second, (third, fourth) or modern foreign or some other variety. 2001 yielded a large number of valuable articles of this sort. Rather than seeking to mention them all, I have made a selection in order to allow certain themes to be developed.

Three themes seemed to me to be of particular interest in 2001: ‘Focus on form’, ‘Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and languages’ and ‘Early language learning’. None of these of course represents a new area of research, but in 2001 they seemed to play strongly. My review begins with a discussion of each of these in turn.

In the sections to follow, cross-reference is made to the abstracts in Language Teaching. Thus, Haley (2001: 02–253) refers to the article published in 2001 and appearing as abstract 253 in the 2002 volume of the journal.

This article describes the structure, functions and origins of the Council of Europe's European Language Portfolio (ELP); summarizes the scope and findings of the pilot projects (1998–2000) and the measures that have been taken to encourage large-scale implementation in 2001 and beyond; outlines the pedagogical challenge posed by the ELP; and suggests various possibilities for future work.

02–498 Armengol-Castells, Lourdes (Universitat de Lleida, Spain; Email: [email protected]). Text-generating strategies of three multilingual writers: A protocol-based study. Language Awareness (Clevedon, UK), 10, 2/3 (2001), 91–106.

02–531 Bebout, Linda (U. of Windsor, USA). ‘What was it like to learn English?’ Learner interviews in TESL training. TESL Canada Journal ' La Revue TESL du Canada (Burnaby, BC, Canada), 19, 1 (2001), 73–79.

02–382 Alalou, Ali (U. of Delaware, USA). Reevaluating curricular objectives using students' perceived needs: The case of three language programmes. Foreign Language Annals (New York, USA), 34, 5 (2001), 453–69.

02–446 Abrams, Zsuzsanna lttzes (U. of Texas-Austin, Austin, TX, USA; Email: [email protected]). Computer-mediated communication and group journals: Expanding the repertoire of participant roles. System (Oxford, UK), 29, 4 (2001), 489–503.

02–517 Brindley, Geoff (Macquarie U., New South Wales, Australia; Email: [email protected]). Outcomes-based assessment in practice: Some examples and emerging insights. Language Testing (London, UK), 18, 4 (2001), 393–407.

02–535 Burnaby, Barbara and Mackenzie, Marguerite (Memorial U. of Newfoundland, Canada; Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]). Cree decision making concerning language: A case study. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (Clevedon, UK), 22, 3 (2001), 191–209.