Introducing Needs Analysis and English for Specific Purposes is a clear and accessible guide to the theoretical background and practical tools needed for this early stage of curriculum development in ESP. Beginning with definitions of needs analysis and ESP, this book takes a jargon-free approach which leads the reader step-by-step through the process of performing a needs analysis in ESP, including:

• how to focus a needs analysis according to the course and student level;
• the selection and sequencing of a wide variety of data collection procedures;
...

Over the past decade criterion-referenced testing (CRT) has become an emerging issue in language assessment. Most language testing books have hitherto focused almost exclusively on norm-referenced testing, whereby test takers' scores are interpreted with reference to the performance of other test takers, and have ignored CRT, an approach that examines the level of knowledge of a specific domain of target behaviours. It is designed to comprehensively address the wide variety of CRT and decision-making needs that more and more language-teaching professionals must address in their daily work....

This book contributes to building the research knowledge that language teaching professionals need in developing curriculum for the large population of East Asian heritage students (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia, where speakers of East Asian languages are among the fastest growing populations. Heritage learners are defined as those who initially acquired certain levels of linguistic and cultural competence in a non-dominant language mainly through interaction with foreign-born parents and other family members at home....

This book contributes to building the research knowledge that language teaching professionals need in developing curriculum for the large population of East Asian heritage students (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia, where speakers of East Asian languages are among the fastest growing populations. Heritage learners are defined as those who initially acquired certain levels of linguistic and cultural competence in a non-dominant language mainly through interaction with foreign-born parents and other family members at home....

This technical report focuses on the decision-making potential provided by second language performance assessments. The authors first situate performance assessment within a broader discussion of alternatives in language assessment and in educational assessment in general. Then they discuss issues in performance assessment design, implementation, reliability and validity. Finally, they present a prototype framework for second language performance assessment, based on the integration of theoretical underpinnings and research findings from the task-based language teaching literature, the...

This book provides an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of research methods in second-language teaching and learning, from experts in the field.