This entry focuses on the problem of mistreatment of teachers by school principals. A brief conceptual overview of workplace mistreatment in general is presented. This is followed by a review of published studies of school principal mistreatment/abuse of public school teachers and a description of principals' abusive behaviors and their effects on teachers. A discussion of the implications of the problem of mistreatment/abuse for teachers, principals, and leadership education is also included. The entry concludes with a description of the benefits of transformational school leadership.

This entry addresses the issue of standards in TESOL, both in terms of teacher preparation and in teaching English learners, within a global context, but where the primary focus is on K–12 students within the United States, offered here as a case example. Arguments both in favor of standards as well as critiques of them are offered, as are pedagogical recommendations intended to promote greater educational outcomes for English learners in the current era of high‐stakes standards, assessments and accountability.

Current paradigms for ELT suggest authentic, flexible, and collaborative scenarios for classroom practice. Such approaches have resulted in a re‐thinking as to the types of materials and teaching aids used. This entry, therefore, revisits some of these approaches and presents current reflections concerning the role of textbooks as the sole driving force of lesson planning. On this basis, materials and teaching aids are discussed in more general terms, leading to more integrated settings that include a variety of resources in language‐learning processes. Guidelines as to the selection and adaptation of appropriate and effective teaching materials are also discussed.

This entry offers an overview of what corpus linguistics is and the kinds of corpora that can be used to teach or enhance English language teaching practices. The purpose of the entry is to show the usefulness of either compiling your own corpus or making use of the online corpora in order to prepare instructional activities for teaching speaking. Some suggestions on how to develop activities are included, as well as information about spoken corpora that can be explored by teachers and students.

Teachers and supervisors of theses or dissertations typically focus their feedback to students on five key areas: the accuracy, completeness and relevance of the content; genre knowledge about different parts of the thesis/dissertation; the rhetorical structure and organization of the content; the coherence and cohesion of the argument; the linguistic accuracy and appropriateness of the written text. Ways of addressing such issues are discussed in this entry.

Listening activities should engage learners in listening for a communicative purpose. Instead of just listening to and answering comprehension questions, learners should be taught to listen effectively. Listening activities should aim to offer them experiences that are close to real‐life listening and at the same time provide them with the support they need in order to understand and manage their own performance. There are two types of listening in everyday communication. The first type, one‐way listening, is nonparticipatory insofar as the listener is not part of a face‐to‐face interaction that requires direct verbal responses. The second type is interactive listening, a process in which the listener participates in real‐time communication with other participants. These interactional contexts form the basis upon which listening activities are designed in the language classroom. These activities should develop essential listening skills and to improve learners' recognition of sounds; at the same time they create opportunities for learners to use their background knowledge in enhancing their comprehension.

Adjectives and adverbs of degree have semantic, collocational, and stylistic characteristics that can cause a myriad of difficulties to EFL learners. It is therefore not pedagogically appropriate to teach degree adjectives and adverbs with decontextualized word lists. These items need to be the focus of awareness‐raising activities that focus on meaning differences, semantic restrictions, collocational preferences, stylistic specificities, and cultural differences.

A speech act is an utterance that has a performative function, such as congratulating, greeting, inviting, ordering, and warning. Speech acts are basically of three types: (1) locutionary, (2) illocutionary, and (3) perlocutionary. In this entry, each type of speech act is defined and examples are given. Because illocutionary acts are difficult for English learners, they are explored more fully to include indirect speech acts. The four maxims that underpin Grice's cooperative principle are also explored along with some pedagogical implications of speech act theory for English language teaching classrooms.

Discrete‐point vs. integrative testing presupposes different views of language learning and assessment. Extant research has addressed this dichotomy by showing the benefits and drawbacks of each testing paradigm. This entry highlights theoretical foundations and practical tips for teachers and test developers to have fair measurement that emanates from well‐defined constructs. It also underscores a myriad of discrete‐point tasks and test items and integrative testing.