In this issue's state-of-the-art article, Lucie moussu and Enric Llurda discuss research on non-native English-speaking teachers of English, highlighting throughout the need for more considered social recognition of the native-speaker/non-native-speaker identity. After discussing the current legitimacy of such labels in the light of research, they argue for a more reasoned approach both to the definition and function of non-native-speaker teachers, in particular in light of recent research on World Englishes. Particular attention is paid to the perception of the non-native and native-speaker teachers by students and to the attitudes and beliefs of both these students and hiring staff regarding such teachers' perceived differences, strengths, and weaknesses. In the final part of the paper the authors address past and present research methods used in studies and suggest areas, such as longitudinal and classroom-based studies, where future research might usefully add to the current state of knowledge. The article is accompanied by Amir Soheili-Mehr's review of four recent books.

Although the majority of English language teachers worldwide are non-native English speakers, no research was conducted on these teachers until recently. After the pioneering work of Robert Phillipson in 1992 and Peter Medgyes in 1994, nearly a decade had to elapse for more research to emerge on the issues relating to non-native English teachers. The publication in 1999 of George Braine's book Nonnative educators in English language teaching appears to have encouraged a number of graduate students and scholars to research this issue, with topics ranging from teachers' perceptions of their own identity to students' views and aspects of teacher education. This article compiles, classifies, and examines research conducted in the last two decades on this topic, placing a special emphasis on World Englishes concerns, methods of investigation, and areas in need of further attention.

The National Standards for Foreign Language Education offer goals for student learning. During the past decade, they have been used increasingly as objectives for foreign language teaching. In the Standards document, the five Standards are presented in a hierarchical order: 1. Communication, 2. Cultures, 3. Connections, 4. Comparisons, and 5. Communities. Looking to Dell Hymes's portrayal of communicative competence and building on notions from sociocultural theory and the concept communities of practice, this paper questions this hierarchical ordering especially in terms of the primacy of Communication over Cultures and Communities. It is suggested that, of the five Cs, Communities should be considered the most fundamental.

Language is not just a tool for communication. It is also a resource for creative thought, a framework for understanding the world, a key to new knowledge and human history, and a source of pleasure and inspiration. The Connections Standard is about linking language and literature study to other disciplines (for example, art, music, film, history, among others) and about getting students to experience unique viewpoints available only through a particular language and its cultures. This presentation will argue for the importance of analyzing texts (written, oral, visual, audio-visual) in language teaching. The goal is to give students the chance to position themselves in relation to distinct viewpoints and distinct cultures and to make connections between language and other symbolic ways of making meaning, connections between language and other disciplines, and connections between language and culture. These connections are not easy to make, but they are essential if we are to prepare our students for the broadest range of language use and allow them to achieve their full communicative potential.

Ecological approaches to language learning and teaching have captured the interest of language educators as both native and non-native speakers find themselves operating in increasingly multilingual and multicultural environments. This paper builds on Kramsch & Whiteside (in press) to conceptualize what an ecological perspective on foreign language education, based on complexity theory, would look like. It first explains some of the major tenets of complexity theory, and analyzes transcriptions of exchanges taking place among multilingual individuals in multicultural settings using the ecological approach offered by complexity theory. Based on what these analyses reveal about the ability of these individuals to shape the very context in which language is learned and used, it discusses the notion of ‘symbolic competence’ recently proposed by Kramsch (2006) and explores how symbolic competence might be developed through foreign language education in institutional contexts.

This paper follows up on the work of Crossley, Louwerse, McCarthy & McNamara (2007), who conducted an exploratory study of the linguistic differences of simplified and authentic texts found in beginner level English as a Second Language (ESL) textbooks using the computational tool Coh-Metrix. The purpose of this study is to provide a more comprehensive study of second language (L2) reading texts than that provided by Crossley et al. (2007) by investigating the differences between the linguistic structures of a larger and more selective corpus of intermediate reading texts. This study is important because advocates of both approaches to ESL text construction cite linguistic features, syntax, and discourse structures as essential elements of text readability, but only the Crossley et al. (2007) study has measured the differences between these text types and their implications for L2 learners. This research replicates the methods of the earlier study. The findings of this study provide a more thorough understanding of the linguistic features that construct simplified and authentic texts. This work will enable material developers, publishers, and reading researchers to more accurately judge the values of simplified and authentic L2 texts as well as improve measures for matching readers to text.

IATEFL is the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (www.iatefl.org). This report outlines research papers which have appeared in recent IATEFL publications. Four publications are discussed in turn. Three of these were published by the IATEFL Research Special Interest Group (SIG), while the fourth was published by the Young Learners SIG. The range of research reported here reflects the international nature of IATEFL's activities and its commitment to supporting and promoting research within the association. The publications reviewed are available for purchase from IATEFL.

The hallmark of the Council of Europe's European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) is the organisation of international language education projects within four-year programmes. Coordinated by European teams, these projects primarily target language experts involved in national and international developments, in associations and in institutions working to enhance standards in language education.