Wei Duan introduces herself to a group of Bangladeshi students at Yunnan University As a postgraduate student at Yunnan University in Southwest China, I have been conducting a longitudinal ethnography…
For one of my postgraduate courses in Applied Linguistics, I was asked to write an assignment about my language learning history. Recalling all the phases I went through to learn…
Cover page of the first textbook in the Lift Off series Although the Saudi government does its best to provide effective English language teaching and learning, there are widespread concerns…
PASCH Schools: Partners for the future Last week I was privileged to attend the 3rd Conference of School Principals of PASCH Schools in Southeast Asia. A ‘PASCH school’ is a regular…
The Omidvar brothers on the road: amazing feats of discovery and language learning? In his most recent round of interviews with the magazine Særzæmin-e Mæn (“My Country”), Issa Omidvar, one…
In English language teaching ads English seems always fun, easy and accessible to everyone Taiwanese people’s motivation for learning English is a desire to communicate and a major obstacle to…
Carrie Chen's successful chalk-and-talk method In my previous post, I discussed the celebrity status of star teachers in Taiwan. Although their good looks and personality do play a key role…
The house of the English high school teacher in the village in Sulawesi where Pasassung conducted his fieldwork In a recent post, I reviewed language policy research that shows how…
Promoting English language learning: billboard for private early English instruction in Wuhan Knowledge of English has come to be seen as the key talent of the 21st century, a way…
So much hot air: the character for "meeting" consists of the one for "cloud" under a roof Before my recent visit to Wuhan and Hong Kong I was planning to…
Ad for ‘English for travel’ classes ( www.gaba.co.jp/ad) A few weeks ago, my family and I went to Jim Thompson’s special sales at BITEC in Bang Na, a short train…
Have you ever felt a wall of textbooks around you, obstructing your vision and thinking, rather than widening your horizon? That’s how one of my research participants, let’s call him…