Printed Journals

1. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics

2. Applied Linguistics.

3. Canadian Modern Language Review

4. CALICO Journal

5. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies

6. ELT Journal

7. English for Specific Purposes

8. English Teaching and Learning

9. Foreign Language Annals

10. International Journal of Applied Linguistics

11. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL)

12. Journal of English for Academic Purposes

13. Journal of Second Language Writing

14. Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics

15. Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies

16. Language Teaching Research

17. Modern Language Journal

18. RELC Journal: A Journal of Language Teaching and Research

in Southeast Asia

19. Second Language Research

20. Studies in Second Language Acquisition

21. System

22. Taiwan Journal of TESOL

23. TESOL Journal

24. TESOL Quarterly

Online journals

1. Asian EFL Journal

2. English Teaching Forum

3. Language Learning & Technology

4. TESL-EJ

5. Teaching English with Technology

6. The Internet TESL Journal

7. ELT Newsletter

8. ESL Magazine

See also: http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/SLA/SLA_articles.htm

KEYS AND TRANSCRIPTS

MODULE 1.

Methods and approaches to Teaching EFL

Unit 1. 1.

Listening 1.1

Where Did the English Language Come From? 19 August 2008

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

More people are trying to learn English than any other language in the world. English is the language of political negotiations and international business. It has become the international language of science and medicine. International treaties say passenger airplane pilots must speak English.

English is the major foreign language taught in most schools in South America and Europe. School children in the Philippines and Japan begin learning English at an early age. English is the official language of more than seventy-five countries including Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, and South Africa.

In countries where many different languages are spoken, English is often used as an official language to help people communicate. India is a good example. English is the common language in this country where at least twenty-four languages are spoken by more than one million people.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Where did the English language come from? Why has it become so popular? To answer these questions we must travel back in time about five thousand years to an area north of the Black Sea in southeastern Europe.

Experts say the people in that area spoke a language called Proto-Indo-European. That language is no longer spoken. Researchers do not really know what it sounded like.

Yet, Proto-Indo-European is believed to be the ancestor of most European languages. These include the languages that became ancient Greek, ancient German and the ancient Latin.

Latin disappeared as a spoken language. Yet it left behind three great languages that became modern Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and one of the languages that developed into English.

VOICE ONE:

The English language is a result of the invasions of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years. The invaders lived along the northern coast of Europe.

The first invasions were by a people called Angles about one thousand five hundred years ago. The Angles were a German tribe who crossed the English Channel. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes.

These groups found a people called the Celts, who had

lived in Britain for many thousands of years. The Celts and the invaders fought.

After a while, most of the Celts were killed, or made slaves. Some escaped to live in the area that became Wales. Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is called Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Old English is extremely difficult to understand. Only a few experts can read this earliest form of English.

VOICE TWO:

Several written works have survived from the Old English period. Perhaps the most famous is called Beowulf. It is the oldest known English poem. Experts say it was written in Britain more than one thousand years ago. The name of the person who wrote it is not known.

Beowulf is the story of a great king who fought against monsters. He was a good king, well liked by his people.

Listen as Warren Scheer reads the beginning of this ancient story in modern English.

VOICE THREE:

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by

and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.

We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,

a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.

This terror of the hall-troops had come far.

A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on

as his powers waxed and his worth was proved,

In the end each clan on the outlying coasts

beyond the whale-road had to yield to him

and begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.

VOICE ONE:

The next great invasion of Britain came from the far north beginning about one thousand one hundred years ago. Fierce people called Vikings raided the coast areas of Britain. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and other northern countries. They were looking to capture trade goods and slaves and take away anything of value.

In some areas, the Vikings became so powerful they built temporary bases. These temporary bases sometimes became permanent. Later, many Vikings stayed in Britain. Many English words used today come from these ancient Vikings. Words like "sky," "leg," "skull," "egg," "crawl," " lift" and "take" are from the old languages of the far northern countries.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The next invasion of Britain took place more than nine hundred years ago, in ten sixty-six. History experts call this invasion the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror led it.

The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France. They became the new rulers of Britain. These new rulers spoke only French for several hundred years. It was the most important language in the world at that time. It was the language of educated people. But the common people of Britain still spoke Old English.

Old English took many words from the Norman French. Some of these include "damage," "prison," and "marriage." Most English words that describe law and government come from Norman French. Words such as "jury," "parliament," and "justice."

The French language used by the Norman rulers greatly changed the way English was spoken by eight hundred years ago. English became what language experts call Middle English. As time passed, the ruling Normans no longer spoke true French. Their language had become a mix of French and Middle English.

VOICE ONE:

Middle English sounds like modern English. But it is very difficult to understand now. Many written works from this period have survived. Perhaps the most famous was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet who lived in London and died there in fourteen hundred. Chaucer's most famous work is "The Canterbury Tales," written more than six hundred years ago.

"The Canterbury Tales" is a collection of poems about different people traveling to the town of Canterbury. Listen for a few moments as Warren Scheer reads the beginning of Chaucer's famous "Canterbury Tales."

VOICE THREE:

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour; 

Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heath.

VOICE ONE:

Now listen as Mister Scheer reads the same sentences again, but this time in Modern English.

VOICE THREE:

When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein with liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun.

VOICE TWO:

English language experts say Geoffrey Chaucer was the first important writer to use the English language. They also agree that Chaucer's great Middle English poem gives us a clear picture of the people of his time.

VOICE ONE:

The prologue you just heard describes a group of religious travelers going to Canterbury. To entertain themselves, they agree to tell stories while they travel.

The Knight's Tale is about two men who compete for the love of a beautiful woman. The Miller's Tale is a funny story that tells about a young man who is in love with a married woman. The two play a mean trick on the woman's old husband.

One of the most famous characters in the series of stories is the Wife of Bath. She is a strong, and opinionated woman who likes to talk about her many adventures in life and marriage.

Some of the people described in "The Canterbury Tales" are wise and brave; some are stupid and foolish. Some believe they are extremely important. Some are very nice, others are mean. But they all still seem real.

The history of the English language continues as Middle English becomes Modern English, which is spoken today. That will be our story next time.

Unit 1. 2.

Lead –In 1.2

1 D 2 A 3 B 4 C 5 E

Listening 1.2

US Colleges Move to Increase Financial Aid

Action by Harvard turns up heat on other schools to use more of their endowment money to help their students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

09 January 2008

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A recent decision by Harvard University to expand financial aid is putting pressure on other schools to do the same.

The full price for one year at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is more than forty-five thousand dollars. Many other private colleges cost just as much. But Harvard is much wealthier than any other American university, so it has more to give.

Harvard already offers a free education to students from families that earn up to sixty thousand dollars a year. This has helped increase the numbers of lower income and minority students.

Now, the aim is to help all but the wealthiest American families pay for a Harvard education. The new policies announced last month will assist families that earn as much as one hundred eighty thousand dollars. These families will be asked to pay no more than ten percent of their income for college.

For example, a family earning one hundred twenty thousand dollars would pay about twelve thousand a year. Under existing student aid policies the amount is more than nineteen thousand.

What Harvard has done is change the way it offers financial aid. Undergraduates will not be expected to take out loans. Increases in grant aid will replace loans. Also, Harvard officials will no longer consider the value of a family's home when deciding how much aid to give.

Harvard says it expects to spend up to twenty-two million dollars more a year in financial aid. This will come from its endowment. A college endowment is money given by former students and others as gifts. Schools invest the money to earn more. Harvard’s endowment is valued at thirty-five billion dollars.

Other universities with large endowments are also changing their financial aid policies. Examples include Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

Yale’s endowment is the second largest after Harvard, at twenty-two and a half billion dollars. This week, Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, announced it will use more of that money for financial aid as well as scientific research. Yale may also admit more students.

But some colleges say they simply do not have enough money to compete with the new policies that are being announced.

Critics of the rising costs of a college education say schools are making these changes in an attempt to avoid action by Congress. Some lawmakers have criticized universities for raising their prices even as their endowments grow larger and larger.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. We will talk more about endowments next week. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.