The Editor: Christine Penman holds a Strategic Research Fellowship on second language acquisition and interculturality in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Stirling. Her research interests are intercultural training, advertising, semiotics, lexicography and translation. She is currently involved in a research project on the potential of web-based virtual learning environments.

• Contents: Christine Penman: Holistic approaches to language learning – Gerhard Bach: Whole person, whole language - fragmented theories: common and scientific paradigms of holistic language learning – Nikola Mayer: The contribution of holism to language teaching – Ana Halbach: Involving the whole person in the whole process of language learning – Astrid Dahnken: The learner’s view of second language learning and implications for second language teaching – James S. Munro: «You teach with the whole of you»: some reflections from the chalk face – Daniela Sime: Perceiving the whole teacher: speaking and gesturing in the language class – Jean E. Conacher: New learning environments: holistic approach or challenge? – Karin Vogt: Dimensions of complexity in computer-mediated intercultural communication – Emilie Grinan: Expérience pédagogique à distance entre natifs et non natifs: perspective holistique dans l’interprétation des données – Marion Spöring: «I found myself hiding there between the lines»: holistic approaches within a Virtual Learning Environment for language teaching professionals – Nikola Mayer/Britta Viebrock: First Encounters: holism as a central concept for experiencing foreign languages in kindergarten – Daniela Elsner: Teaching and learning English vocabulary in the foreign language primary classroom: the German context – Christine Penman: Towards a holistic evaluation of communicative ability in tandem interactions – Richard Johnstone: Holistic language learning from the present into the future.