Introduction

This edited volume is the outcome of a conference called University of Pécs Roundtable 2006: Empirical Studies in English Applied Linguistics. The event was held on January 20, 2006 at the Department of English Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pécs with thirty enthusiastic participants from five countries. It is our pleasure to make the written papers available to a wider audience. As you will see, the contributions cover a wider range of themes in applied linguistics and language pedagogy.

The first five papers discuss what roles individual differences, more exactly, motivation, anxiety, creativity and working memory play in foreign language learning. The study by Jelena Mihaljević Djigunović examines the relationships between affective factors and the productive skills of year 8 and 12 Croatian learners. The qualitative enquiry conducted by Zsuzsa Tóth explores Hungarian English majors' perceptions of the effects of foreign language anxiety on their oral performance. Katalin Piniel's study uses mixed methodology to tap into classroom foreign language classroom anxiety of Hungarian secondary-school EFL learners, whereas Polish dyslexic language learners' foreign language anxiety is the focus of Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel's longitudinal study. Two further studies involved Hungarian students: the relationships between creativity, language aptitude and English language proficiency are in the focus of Ágnes Albert's research on advanced learners, whereas the role of working memory is examined in intensive programmes of secondary-school students' groups by Judit Kormos and Anna Sáfár.

The next four studies enquire into the learning of foreign language vocabulary and rules. Brigitta Dóczi's study maps the mental lexicon of pre-intermediate learners, while Magdolna Lehmann discusses how advanced learners' vocabulary is tested in a proficiency exam. The effects of hypertextual input are examined in Gyula Sankó's longitudinal study involving intermediate level secondary-school learners. Ildikó Furkóné Banka's paper addresses the issues of parameter resetting and the role of transfer.

Assessment projects are in the centre of the next three papers. Marianne Nikolov and Krisztián Józsa examine relationships between Hungarian learners' achievements in English and German and classroom-related variables. Gloria Vickov gives an account of an experimental study aiming to examine young Croatian learners' writing skill in English and the mother tongue. Gábor Szabó analyzes the impact of anchor items' number and difficulty range on item difficulty calibrations in use of English tests.

The last six papers examine classroom processes and teachers' development. Francis J. Prescott's classroom study explores the importance of the group in a first-year university class. Teachers' discourse is analyzed and compared in two corpora collected in Croatian primary and secondary schools by Sanja Čurković Kalebić. Gordon Dobson's classroom research study examines how exploratory practice has contributed to his own professional development in tertiary education. The role of cooperation in pre-service education and in-service development is examined in Stefka Barócsi's qualitative study. Réka Lugossy provides insights into how teachers' beliefs developed about using stories in their English classes, and finally, Éva Szabó examines the process of Hungarian school teachers' lesson planning practices.