Another fine collection of papers, covering a wide range of topics and from a wide range of Asia TESL countries! All are carefully planned and executed, pursuing hypotheses derived from the current literature of the field and applied to specifically Asian settings.
Fei-Wen Cheng of National Chiayi University Taiwan taught a composition class at National Taiwan university stasis theory distinguishing five types of argument: fact, definition, cause, value and proposal, and found it led to the presentation of stronger arguments. In a second paper on rhetoric, Deron Walker of California Baptist University, U.S.A., carries on Robert Kaplan's work on contrastive rhetoric to analyze Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and postmodernism and show how it helps writing pedagogy in Asia. Alireza Karbalaei of Mysore University, India and Mohammad Golshan of Maybod Azad University, Iran compare the reading strategies of 96 Iranian students and 93 Indian students, and find a similar coverage of reported strategies but more reports of use among the Indian students. Donghong Liu of Huazhong Normal University, China studies anaphora as a method of achieving coherence in over 200 student essays, and show its development as students become more competent.
Working with volunteers recruited on the Internet and paid to participate, Masahiro Takimoto of Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan studied the effectiveness of referential and affective oriented activities in improving pragmatic competence. Ai-hua Chen of Chinmin Institute of Technology, Taiwan trained two more or less matched classes of Taiwanese business students and noted the effects of specific training in listening strategies. Azadeh Nemati of Jahrom Azad University, Iran studied 300 Indian high school students and found evidence of inaccuracy in self-reports, but is still in favor of teaching memory strategies.
Christina Gitsaki of Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates and Naif Althobaiti studying at The University of Queensland, Australia studied two teachers' selection of corrective feedback and the effects on their students. Is'haaq Akbarian of University of Qom, Iran suggests teaching proverbs in English classes. Lourdes S. Abad of Miriam College, Philippines analyzes the effect of codeswitching in teaching chemistry and geometry in a high school class. Sng Bee Bee, an independent researcher from Singapore, and Anil Pathak of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore used a biographical approach to analyze the beliefs about language learning of some nursing students as they move into an environment where English is a second language.
Wilairat Kirin of Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Thailand found that extensive reading helped the writing of better students but not of a weaker group. Zahra Shahsavar and Tan Bee Hoon of Universiti Putra Malaysia found that a group of bloggers who received feedback improved in writing ability. Kamrul Hasan of United International University, Bangladesh reported high correlations between socio-economic status, school quality and English learning. Eoin Jordan of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan, studied responses of Japanese students to a Japanese movie star Ken Watanabe as an English pronunciation role model; the students found his English less attractive if more comprehensible and achievable.
Again, I congratulate the authors and their institutions on producing research studies on an international standard, and thank the editorial team for their invaluable contributions to the journal.
Jerusalem, December 2010 Bernard Spolsky, Editor-in-chief and Asia TEFL Publications Executive Director
Angel M. Y. Lin (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Anne Burns (Macquarie University, Australia) Asruddin Tou (Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia) David Nunan (Anaheim University, Hong Kong) Farhat Khan (Aligarh Muslim University, India) Fatma Alwan (UAE Ministry of Education, UAE) Hemamala Vajira Madawala Ratwatte (Open University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka) Hyacinth Gaudart (University of Malaya, Malaysia) Jun Liu (University of Arizona, USA) Kensaku Yoshida (Sophia University, Japan) Qiufang Wen (Beijing Foreign Studies University, China) Oryang Kwon (Seoul National University, Korea) Leo VanLier (Monterey Institute of International Studies, Thailand) Lubna Alsagoff (Nanyang Techological University, Singapore) Marlu Vilches (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines) Mehdi Riazi (Shiraz University, Iran) Michael McCarthy (University of Nottingham, UK) Mick Randall (British University in Dubai, UAE) Mike Levy (Griffith University, Australia) Nasreen Mujahida Ahsan (Aga Khan University, Pakistan) Neil Anderson (Brigham Young University, USA) Richard Baldauf (The University of Queensland, Austrailia) Roger Barnard (University of Waikato, New Zealand) Ronald Carter (University of Nottingham, UK) Saran Kaur Gill (University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia) Shahid Siddiqui (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan) Stephen Andrews (Hong Kong University, Hong Kong) Thomas Farrell (Brock University, Canada) William Littlewood (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Won-Key Lee (Seoul National University of Education, Korea) Yasuo Nakatni (Japan, Tokyo University of Science, Japan) Yuko Butler (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Editorial Board (Editors)
Arifa Rahman (University of Dhaka, Bangladesh) Christine Coombe (Dubai Men's College, UAE) Chul Joo Uhm (Chonnam Univ., Korea) David C.S. Li (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Dongwan Cho (Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea) Elinor Saiegh Haddad (Bar Ilan University, Israel) Fuad Abdul Hamied (Indonesia University of Education, Indonesia) He Lianzhen (Zhejiang University, China) Heyoung Kim (Chung Ang University, Korea) Hee-Kyung Lee (Yonsei University, Korea) Jungmin Ko (Sungshin University, Korea) Kazem Lotfipour-Saedi (Akita International University, Japan) Leslie Barratt (Indiana State University, USA) Mardziah Hayati Abdullah (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia) Marianne Perfecto (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines) Mei Lin Caroline Ho (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) Nobuo Okada (Osaka University, Japan) Olga Sichyova (Amur State University, Russia) Pragasit Sitthitikul (Walailak University, Thailand) Punchalee Wasanasomsithi (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) RS Gupta (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India) Samina Qadir (Fatima Jinnah University, Pakistan) Soyoung Lee (Inha Univ., Korea) Sung-Mook Choi (Dong-A Univ., Korea) Toshihiko Suzuki (Waseda University, Japan) Yonglin Yang (Tsinghua University, China) Young-Sook Shim (Catholic Univ. Of Korea, Korea) Yusun Kang (Korea University, Korea) Zoya Profshina (Far Eastern University, Russia)
Editorial Board (Readers)
Duqin Wang (Beijing Institute of Petro-chemical Technology, China) Zhichang Xu (The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Tomohito Ishikawa (Soka Women's College, Japan) Wataru Suzuki (University of Toronto, Canada) Honggang Liu (Peking University, China) Lixin Xiao (Tianjin Polytechnic University, P. R. China) Marie J. Guilloteaux (Gyeongsang National University, Korea) Natalia Prosh'yants (Far Eastern National University, Russia) Bee Hoon Tan (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia) Ju Zhan (Jilin University, China) Dil Afroze Quader (Dhaka University, Bangladesh) Tae-Young Kim (Chung-Ang University, Korea) Saovapa Wichadee (Bangkok University, Thailand) Hongjun Fu (Xinjiang University, China) Faizah A Majid (Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia) Rieko Matsuoka (National College of Nursing, Japan) Phuc Cao Nguyen (Khanh Hoa Department of Education and Training, Vietnam) An E He (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong) Xuesong Gao (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong SAR, China) Ed Nicholson (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China) Meihua Liu (Tsinghua University, China) Eunice Tang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) Masdinah Alauyah Md. Yusof (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia) Nematullah Shomoossi (Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Iran) Kamisah Ariffin (University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia) Justin Shewell (United Arab Emirates University, UAE) Hua Chen (Nanjing University, China) Deron Walker (California Baptist University, USA) Younghwa Lee (Sun Moon University, Korea) Junju Wang (Shandong University, China) Li Li (Queen's University, Belfast, UK) Thu Dinh Nguyen (HochiMinh City University of Technical Education, Vietnam) Helena Agustien (SEAMEO-RELC, Singapore) Sayeedur Rahman (University of Dhaka, Bangladesh) Md. Maniruzzaman (Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh) Svetlana Suchkova (Samara State Aerospace University, Russia) Chayanika Hazarika (The English and Foreign Languages University, India) SungSoo Jang (Inje University, Korea) Hasan Ansary (Islamic Azad University, Iran) Nasrin Shokrpour (Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran) Yan Yan Zhang (Wuhan University, China) Arna Peretz (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel) Abbas Zare-ee (University of Kashan, Iran) Awad Ahmed (An-Najah National University, Palestine) Esmat Babaii (University for Teacher Education, Iran) Francis Xavier (Universiti Teknologi MARA Kedah, Malaysia) Trudy Zuckermann (Hebrew University, Israel; Achva Academic College of Education, Israel) Kishwar Khan (Haraganga college, Bangladesh) Mohammed Jasim Betti (University of Thi-Qar, Iraq) Tzu-chia Chao (Ming Hsin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan) N.D.R. Chandra (Nagaland University, India) Huw Jarvis (University of Salford, UK) Tan Bee Tin (The University of Auckland, New Zealand) Abdorreza Tahriri (Shiraz University, Iran)
