This article reviews research on oral corrective feedback (CF) in second language (L2) classrooms. Various types of oral CF are first identified, and the results of research revealing CF frequency across instructional contexts are presented. Research on CF preferences is then reviewed, revealing a tendency for learners to prefer receiving CF more than teachers feel they should provide it. Next, theoretical perspectives in support of CF are presented and some contentious issues addressed related to the role of learner uptake, the role of instruction, and the overall purpose of CF: to initiate the acquisition of new knowledge or to consolidate already acquired knowledge. A brief review of laboratory studies assessing the effects of recasts is then presented before we focus on classroom studies assessing the effects of different types of CF. Many variables mediate CF effectiveness: of these, we discuss linguistic targets and learners' age in terms of both previous and prospective research. Finally, CF provided by learners and the potential benefits of strategy training for strengthening the role of CF during peer interaction are highlighted.

This paper challenges the widespread view that writing is somehow peripheral to the more serious aspects of university life – doing research and teaching students. It argues that universities are about writing and that specialist forms of academic literacy are at the heart of everything we do: central to constructing knowledge, educating students and negotiating a professional academic career. Seeing literacy as embedded in the beliefs and practices of individual disciplines, instead of a generic skill that students have failed to develop at school, helps explain the difficulties both students and academics have in controlling the conventions of disciplinary discourses. Ultimately, and in an important sense, we are what we write, and we need to understand the distinctive ways our disciplines have of addressing colleagues and presenting arguments, as it is through language that academics and students conceptualise their subjects and argue their claims persuasively.

This paper focuses on the advantages that bilinguals have over monolinguals when acquiring an additional language. Bilinguals are more experienced language learners and have potentially developed learning strategies to a larger extent than monolinguals. They also have a larger linguistic and intercultural repertoire at their disposal. In this paper the methodology and results of studies on the influence of bilingualism on third language acquisition (TLA) will be reviewed and their contribution to the study of multilingualism discussed. A new perspective, focus on multilingualism, is presented as a more appropriate way to analyse the effect of bilingualism on TLA. This perspective is holistic and focuses on multilingual speakers and their linguistic repertoires, including the interaction between their languages.

This paper reviews a selection of doctoral theses on language learning and teaching completed in Spain between 2008 and 2010. A total of 16 theses have been identified as representative – in terms of the topics under investigation and the methodology employed – of the doctoral research undertaken in Spain. Current topics include the development of speaking skills, motivation, learner autonomy, pragmatics, learning context, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), language learning by immigrant populations and, especially, classroom teaching. A variety of research methods were employed in the theses under review, and while most of them focus on adult learners, some also consider children. The interest of researchers in these topics is consistent with the challenges faced by language teachers in Spain, as well as with the new realities of teaching in this country, with its recently-arrived immigrant population, the expansion of CLIL programmes and the use of new technologies.

South African National Language Education policy (South Africa, DoE 2002) enshrines multilingualism (ML) as one of its major goals. The implementation of such a policy is a slow process, however, particularly in the educational domain, where parents, teachers and students favour the dominant, ex-colonial language (English) for both historic and instrumental reasons (Dalvit & de Klerk 2005). However, results of the National Benchmarking Test (NBMT Report 2009) conducted at selected South African universities show that most non-English speaking students in higher education have underdeveloped language and numeracy skills for study at this level, one of the main barriers to access being that of language (Council on Higher Education 2007: 2). Efforts have thus intensified in South African institutions to introduce the home languages of learners into the educational domain, either as learning support alongside the main medium of instruction or as alternative languages of instruction, working towards the development of a bilingual education model. This report documents developments in research in the promotion and use of the African languages in education in South Africa in recent years, particularly since the publication of the previous report (Wildsmith-Cromarty 2009), which discussed various initiatives in the teaching, development and use of the African languages in South African education during the period 2005–2008. This report considers further developments in the use of the African languages for academic purposes in the following areas: the learning and teaching of these languages as additional languages and for professional purposes in selected disciplines for specialist programmes, and their intellectualization, which includes their use as languages of instruction, in the translation of materials and other learning resources, and development of terminology.

The aim of this seminar was to promote dialogue between two research areas addressing educational multilingualism: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and community languages. In bringing together these two strands of research, the seminar explored and fostered potential methodological and theoretical synergies. As organisers we invited abstracts which addressed innovative research in areas related to the conference theme, especially contributions which explored ways of linking school and community-based language learning. We aimed to create an atmosphere of stimulating discussion and debate in a convivial, intellectual environment. The programme included a variety of formats that would encourage discussion.