Effects of EFL Proficiency on Students

As language plays a key role in the transmission of information and the regulation of cognitive processes, proficiency may have profound effects on learning and development, particularly when it involves mastering a foreign language. A recent Australian study examines the experiences of five international students from Brazil, China, Colombia, Mongolia, and Saudi Arabia, and finds that the higher the level of English language proficiency, the lower the levels of cultural stress, academic difficulties, and negative emotions. For details, see "The Influence of Language Difficulties on the Wellbeing of International Students: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis."

Simple Truths Mask Complex Losses

The days that English shares our planet with thousands of other languages are numbered. A century from now, a time traveler from our age would be apt to notice two things about the 22nd-century language landscape, predicts Columbia University's Dr. John McWhorter. There are vastly fewer languages, and they are far simpler, in particular, as they are spoken. While some may lament the reduction of 6,000 different languages to just 600, the process is already underway, as the world witnesses the birth of optimized versions of old languages, McWhorter concludes in "What the World Will Speak in 2115." 

How To Get Published: Editors' Advice

A pressing challenge facing journal editors is the badly written papers sent by authors eager for publication. As Brian Lucey, editor of the International  Review of Financial Analysis, notes, an initial hurdle may be that English isn't the writer's first tongue. This can be overcome or compounded, as when writers fail to have their work edited by a competent editor, preferably one whose English is native. Lucey and fellow editors offer sound advice on getting published in their pages. As the race begins with the starting gun, don't neglect the link to tips on how to write for academic journals.

Academic Writing Sine Qua Non: Something That Works

A scholarly editor is looking for what any editor is — something that will work, Prof. William Germano, a former editor in chief at Columbia University Press, observes in a recent interview. Noting times when pre-submission editing can prove beneficial, the Cooper Union dean cites ESL academic writers who need a "professional boost." Echoing my advice to writers I've been privileged to serve, Dean Germano counsels that it helps focus one's writing to imagine writing for erudite readers in other disciplines.