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The Canadian Modern Language Review / La revue canadienne des langues vivantes 62.2 (2005) 239-242



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Editorial / Éditorial

December is a time both for reflecting on the year gone by and for looking ahead to the future. At CMLR, we have had some changes over the past year. We are extremely pleased that Emma Scratch, our outstanding Editorial Assistant, has spent the last year with the journal. Emma, along with Sylvia Hunter, the Editorial Services Supervisor; Audrey Greenwood, the Advertising and Marketing Coordinator; Catherine MacIntosh, the Production Coordinator; and Anne Marie Corrigan, the Vice President, Journals, make a great team at the University of Toronto Press. Even though we are in Ottawa and Edmonton, respectively, we feel a part of a group of people with a singular intent: to ensure that the CMLR continues to be a fine resource for Canadian researchers and language teachers.

As we write this, we are anticipating the introduction of a new feature at CMLR: an online submission and [End Page 239] peer review system. If it is not already in place, it will be very early in the new year. This system will allow CMLR authors, peer reviewers, and book reviewers to submit articles, evaluations, and book reviews online. Authors and reviewers will also be able to track the status of their own manuscripts. Technical support will be available in case of any problems. Visit our Web site at www.utpjournals.com/cmlr for further details.

The quality of submissions to CMLR is impressive; we have received many first-rate manuscripts over the last year on a wide array of topics. We are indebted to our superb reviewers, who have helped make our job much easier by ensuring that each article is read carefully from several different viewpoints. We are also grateful to the CMLR Board for its leadership over the past year.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue's fine line-up of papers. We start with François Pichette's study of 'Time Spent on Reading and Reading Comprehension in Second Language Learning.' Pichette suggests that there may be an L2 proficiency threshold that must be met for time [End Page 240] spent reading in L2 to benefit students' reading comprehension. In 'Indexical Relations and Sound Motion Pictures in L2 Curricula: The Dynamic Role of the Teacher,' Liang Chen and John W. Oller, Jr., have contributed a study of the teacher's responsibility in helping learners to make maximum use of language learning opportunities through motion pictures. Kimberly Noels discusses the role of heritage language background and motivational processes in a study of German learners; students of German ancestry were more likely to connect the learning of their heritage language to their own self-concepts than students of other ancestral backgrounds. In 'The Use of Triadic Dialogue in L2 Classrooms,' Mari Haneda explores the effectiveness of teachers' use of triadic dialogue in three distinct contexts. Kwon Minsook and David Kellogg have contributed a stimulating article entitled 'Teaching Talk as a Game of "Catch"' to the Focus in the Classroom section in which they revisit Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. The authors point out that although the ZPD is almost always interpreted at the level of the [End Page 241] individual, Vygotsky himself never limited the concept to one person but acknowledged that a class could share the same proximal zone. Finally, the issue features several book reviews to guide your reading choices.

We hope that 2006 brings you health and happiness. We are looking forward to the new year here at CMLR, knowing that since the best predictor of the future is the past, we will be reading more exceptional submissions very soon.

Editors


Le mois de décembre est une période qui permet à la fois de réfléchir sur l'année qui vient de s'écouler et de contempler l'avenir. À la RCLV, nous avons vécu certains changements au cours de la dernière année. Nous sommes extrêmement heureux qu'Emma Scratch, notre excellente...

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