ABSTRACT

Standing in front of neat rows of students in a freshman English class, instructors can anticipate two things: one, despite having studied English in junior and senior high school for a minimum of around 500 class hours over the past six years, 1 communicating in English will be a challenge for students; and two, although some will be able to speak English, they’ll likely be reluctant to actually speak out in class—“nails that don’t want to stick up” as some educators have observed. We can all, of course, recall a freshman class that has pleasantly surprised us, but for the majority of university language instructors, the scenario described here has been the longstanding reality. 2