PERSPECTIVES

Top image credit - work and courtesy of Ceres Pioquinto

Reflection on the connection between intercultural communicative competence and receptive skills in a blended learning context

Luís Elói

Abstract

This article presents a view on the concept of intercultural communicative competence and how it connects with reading and listening skills in the context of foreign language learning at higher education. Additionally, a suggestion of activities is set forth, taking into consideration a blended approach to language development.

‘Breaking boulders into pebbles’: Christine Coombe on teacher research

Daniel Xerri

Teacher research is deemed to be an important way for practitioners to develop professionally and learn more about their classroom and students. However, there exist a number of challenges that hinder teachers from engaging in research. In this interview, Christine Coombe, Past President of TESOL Arabia and TESOL International Association, discusses what role teacher associations can play in supporting teachers to do and disseminate research.

Popularity of teacher research

A doctoral journey: The first steps

Patricia Daniels

Making the right choice

The first question I asked myself when I decided that I was going to take the plunge and embark on a doctoral journey was, ‘Where do I start?’ You often hear about people commencing their research or entering into this phase or that, but not about what they actually had to do to reach that stage. Hence, I would like to share with you the first steps of my doctoral journey and how I experienced them.

Assessing Assessment with Anne Katz and Scott Thornbury: Two perspectives on the state and future of assessment

Anne Katz’s work is centered around assessment, curriculum design, and standards development. Her latest publication about assessment, published in Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Snow’s (2014) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, examines the role of assessment in contributing to learning in the English language classroom.

Being useful, authentic, and empowering: An interview with Professor Sylvie Donna

According to your understanding, how are Business English courses different from general ESL?

Clients’ expectation is that Business English (BE) classes will facilitate students’ work and be immediately useful. To achieve this, during our needs analysis we need to focus not only on performance skills but also on the pragmatics of language use and norms of linguistic behaviour in specific corporate and industrial cultures. We need to remember too that by BE clients usually mean ESP (English for Specific Purposes).

Creative Writing in a Conflict Zone: An interview with Lone Bendixen Goulani

Elsbeth Mäder

What originally started off as a bit of small talk at the LitSIG’s trip to Stratford before the 2016 IATEFL Conference in Birmingham has meanwhile developed into a very interesting exchange due to Lone sharing a collection of stories in her talk on ‘Creative Writing in a Conflict Zone’, which inspired me to share her collection with my own students (see Versatile Stories in ETAS Journal, Summer 2017, pp. 24-27).

Modern Shakespeare Studies or Shakespeare and the sleuths: An interview with Professor James Shapiro

by Jean-Martin Büttner

PERSPECTIVES: Conversation with Genevieve White

On Shakespeare, Globalisation, and Creativity in the English Language Classroom

A Conversation with Genevieve White

An interview with Alison Taylor, ETAS Past President

Thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions about your life as a retired EFL teacher. Could you perhaps start by telling us a bit about yourself with regard to your teaching before retirement, where you taught and who your students were?

PERSPECTIVES: Interview with Adrian Judele

A look at IELTS: The high-stakes exam for study, migration and work

Interview with Adrian Judele

An interview with Adrian Judele, Head of Examination Services for the British Council Switzerland. Adrian is an international relations graduate, passionate about languages and cultures. Life and career have taken him from software services to recruitment and education, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East then back to Europe. For the last six years Adrian has been heading the British Council exams activity in Switzerland.