This volume comprises of chapters that deal with language proficiency relating to a wide range of language program issues including curriculum, assessment, learners and instructors, and skill development. The chapters cover various aspects of a broad-based proficiency initiative, focusing on numerous aspects of foreign language learning, including how skills develop, how assessments can inform curriculum, how learners and instructors view proficiency and proficiency assessment, and how individual use of technology furthers language learning. The concluding chapter points the way forward for issues and questions that need to be addressed.

The monumental impact of globalization on the higher education sector has placed the English language skills of tertiary students firmly under the spotlight. This book addresses the inherent issues faced by: a growing band of transnational students, lecturers across all disciplines who are charged with delivering the courses, and universities in both English-speaking nations and those where English is the primary medium of instruction. The underpinning tenets of this pivotal book are that English language acquisition is central to academic success, and that this requires continuous and systematic development throughout the course of study. Steeped in empirical research, yet conveyed in a concise, highly accessible form, the book acknowledges that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Instead, it proposes a variety of constructive approaches to developing English language proficiency at the face-to-face lecturing level, as well as frameworks for pedagogical planning at an institutional level. English Language Standards in Higher Education is the quintessential resource for academics, language policymakers, researchers, and senior administrators to ensure the English language proficiency of students is not only present at the time of entry, but upheld and enhanced throughout their tertiary studies, in preparation for life beyond.

Language teaching approaches, methods and procedures are constantly undergoing reassessment. New ideas keep emerging as the growing complexity of the means of communication and the opportunities created by technology put language skills to new uses. In addition, the political, social and economic impact of globalisation, the new demands of the labour market that result from it, the pursuit of competitiveness, the challenges of intercultural communication and the diversification of culture have opened new perspectives on the central role that foreign languages have come to play in the development of contemporary societies. This book provides an insight into the latest developments in the field and discusses the new trends in foreign language teaching in four major areas, namely methods and approaches, teacher training, innovation in the classroom, and evaluation and assessment.

Since its original publication in 1968, Rivers's comprehensive and practical text has become a standard reference for both student teachers and veteran instructors. All who wish to draw from the most recent thinking in the field will welcome this new edition. Methodology is appraised, followed up by discussions on such matters as keeping students of differing abilities active, evaluating textbooks, using language labs creatively, and preparing effective exercises and drills. The author ends each chapter of this new edition with questions for research and discussion—a useful classroom tool—and provides an up-to-date bibliography that facilitates further understanding of such matters as the bilingual classroom.

This book focuses on strategies and procedures for assessing the academic language ability of students entering an English-medium university, so that those with significant needs can have access to opportunities to enhance their language skills.