Since language is socially mediated and context dependent, it would be expected that learners' use of language learning strategies may vary with the environment. Using the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990), this study examines the language learning behaviors and thought processes of two geographically and socio-educationally different groups by comparing learning strategy use as reported by 428 monolingual Korean and 420 bilingual Korean-Chinese university students....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comparative Analysis, Language Usage, Monolingualism, Metacognition, English (Second...
The integrated-skills approach (ISA), which incorporates the four language skills--reading, writing, speaking, and listening--has become a dominant trend in FL college instruction in Taiwan. The purpose of the study was to examine how the ISA is being used in Taiwan's EFL college classes, develop an understanding of students' satisfaction with the integrated-skill class and authentic activities, and determine if students' views about separated-skill instruction changed during the year of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Language Skills, College Instruction, Class Activities, Student...
The study sought to investigate how pre school teachers and their pupils interact during instruction in numeracy lessons in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 2859 pupils from 72 pre-primary institutions/classrooms (selected through stratified random sampling to ensure adequate representation of private, public, urban and rural schools). The collection of data involved using two observational instruments (Classroom Interaction Sheet, CIS and Ten-Minute Interaction Instrument, TMI) to record...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Students, Language Usage, Group Activities, Data Analysis, Class...
Knowledge of the strategies used by English as a foreign language (EFL) or second language (ESL) readers can help instructors teach these techniques and thereby enhance their students' reading comprehension. The present study compared three categories of reading comprehension strategies (metacognitive, cognitive, and socio-affective) to determine their effects on 31 EFL students' reading comprehension. A standard reading comprehension test taken from the First Certificate in English (FCE) and a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Inferences, Metacognition, Reading Comprehension, English (Second Language), Second...
This paper focuses on discursive practices of postgraduate research as a crucial element in constructs of international student subjectivities when they undertake postgraduate studies in Australian universities. As such, it focuses on a discursive field emerging within domains of internationalisation, globalisation, and resistance. It examines processes and protocols in a number of Australian universities' postgraduate divisions' practices in the conduct of postgraduate supervision, in the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Models, Supervisor Supervisee Relationship, Foreign Students, Graduate Students,...
Founded in 1920, the Hadley School for the Blind is known worldwide for its tuition-free distance-education courses for people who are visually impaired. Hadley's main school in the United States serves more than 9,000 students, and the overseas school in the People's Republic of China provides vital educational services to more than 1,000 Chinese students. Headed by Xia Rongqiang, the Chinese branch of the Hadley School for the Blind, Hadley-China, offers distance-education courses in English,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Internet, English (Second Language), Computer Mediated...
Presumably, everyone shares the understanding that teaching for social justice means providing students with a supportive learning environment that is just, fair, democratic, and even compassionate. In reality, people are probably using this term to mean many things without actually embracing it as a perspective for educating students in urban school settings. In this article, the author examines the different definitions and conceptualizations offered by a number of educator-researchers on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Justice, Urban Schools, Student Diversity, Cultural Pluralism, Teaching Methods,...
Middle school teachers, like all educators around the nation, are encountering classrooms comprised of an unprecedented number of students from various cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Due to the influx of immigrants entering the U.S. educational system, the number of students who speak a native language other than English has grown dramatically and will account for about 40% of the school-age population by 2040. The reality of a multicultural, multilingual student population dictates...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Student Needs, Middle School Students, Teacher Effectiveness,...
Many students of Mexican descent must learn how to be successful students. This study describes 5 students of Mexican descent from situationally marginalized lives who were a part of a support and retention scholarship program (College Assistance Migrant Program--CAMP). These case studies document how they perceived their learning and how they changed as students after their first college experience and involvement in CAMP. Through her involvement in CAMP, Laura, a high school dropout without a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mexican American Education, Mexican Americans, Dropouts, Success, Academic...
Research has shown that extensive reading offers a wide range of learning benefits to second language (L2) learners. However, most studies on L2 extensive reading are conducted collectively on groups of learners and do not provide a detailed picture of individual experience. Moreover, there are few studies conducted on the reading experiences of early L2 learners. This paper presents a longitudinal case study on the reading strategies and motivation of 2 Japanese middle school students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Motivation, Reading Instruction, Longitudinal Studies, Case Studies, Middle...
This article presents an archive of articles and books published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of "Reading in a Foreign Language" (RFL). The "Articles" section treats any topic within the scope of RFL and second language reading. Articles are organized by topic and are listed in alphabetical order. This section includes titles of the articles, as well as brief summaries. Two additional sections include a list of books, volumes,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Comprehension, Second Languages, Annotated Bibliographies, English (Second...
This article examines the effects of synonymy (i.e., learning words with and without high-frequency synonyms that were known to the learners) on word knowledge in a study of 84 Japanese students learning English. It employed 10 tests measuring 5 aspects of word knowledge (orthography, paradigmatic association, syntagmatic association, meaning and form, and grammatical functions) to assess learning. Both receptive and productive tests were used to measure each aspect of vocabulary knowledge. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Sentences, Vocabulary Development, English (Second Language), Japanese, Native...
This article describes the implementation of an extensive reading (ER) program with 43 first language (L1) and second language (L2) adult literacy students. Among them, 16% were nonnative speakers of English. The main principles considered in the design of the program were (a) purpose of reading, (b) reading tactics, (c) material used, and (d) teacher role. The program included sustained silent reading, book talk, and reading aloud. Because a well-equipped library is essential for a successful...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Sustained Silent Reading, Silent Reading, Reading Programs, Teacher Role, Adult...
This study looks into issues pertaining to the policy of including native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) in elementary schools in Taiwan, i.e., NEST programs, from the perspective of the teachers involved. Through data gathered from interviews and classroom observations, this qualitative study examines the necessity of NEST programs and reveals the challenges facing NESTs and local English teachers as they negotiate the process of working together. It shows that while a NEST program is not a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Second Language Instruction, Native Speakers, Elementary Schools,...
In this article, the author talks about guided reading which she incorporated to second-language learners. First, she gives a brief description about guided reading and current myths about second-language learners. Then, she presents her goals whether she could integrate second-language learners into guided reading. She discusses what reading strategies work best with second-language learners. She presents three areas in which teachers can use scaffolding to support children in language...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Reading Strategies, Language Acquisition, Reading Instruction,...
Bilingual education has been an extremely controversial and contentious topic in recent years among both educators and the general public in the United States. Long a bastion of what some writers have called "ideological monolingualism," the United States has not demonstrated either great sensitivity to or tolerance of linguistic diversity historically. In this article, the authors discuss the case for bilingual education programs, though, from a somewhat different perspective from...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Educational Practices, Bilingualism, Bilingual Education...
Most of the students at Milpera State High School are in Australia because of wars, famine, or economic devastation in their homelands. Many have suffered the additional loss of parents and other family members. Some have low (or nonexistent) literacy in their native languages, and many have had few opportunities for formal education. Such students enter high school well behind the grade level that their ages would indicate, and when they learn to read and write in English, they are learning to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Literacy Education, Educational Quality, Refugees, Multiple...
This study examined the effects of a professional development program for teachers of social sciences for English learners. Results from pre- and post-measures of social sciences content indicated greater improvement in student achievement in these areas when scores from students from teachers who had gone through the training were compared with those that did not. There was also a correlation found between the level of use among the teachers with training and the level of achievement of their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Limited English Speaking, Social Sciences, Faculty Development, English (Second...
The purpose of this article is two-fold: first, to explore the role played by linguistic and cultural factors in the mathematics classroom, particularly in relation to diverse learners; and, second, to provide insight into teaching, learning, and professional development that takes into account current mathematics education reform recommendations. In this article, the authors explore and discuss four selected cultural and linguistic factors to consider when teaching mathematics to diverse...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Mathematics Instruction, Educational Change, Cultural Influences,...
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Mina Shaughnessy's groundbreaking book, "Errors and Expectations," a roundtable discussion was held at the March 2007 Conference on College Composition and Communication in New York City. This article, based on the earlier discussion, examines the question of CUNY's multiple identities within the legacy of Shaughnessy, who coined the term "basic writing" and founded the Journal of Basic Writing in 1975. Composition...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Basic Writing, Writing (Composition), Democracy, Open Enrollment, Urban Schools,...
Several states have now implemented policies restricting basic writers' access to four-year universities, and the students most likely to be affected are African American, Latino, and nonnative English speakers. The pressure to speed students' mastery of standard written English, along with the trend toward more explicit instruction in second language pedagogy, has resulted in a renewed interest in teaching grammar. While some of these recommendations claim that standard written English can be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, English (Second Language), Teaching Methods, Grammar, Educational Games, Minority...
Both the current school reform and standards movements call for enhanced quality of instruction for all learners. Recent emphases on heterogeneity, special education inclusion, and reduction in out-of-class services for gifted learners, combined with escalations in cultural diversity in classrooms, make the challenge of serving academically diverse learners in regular classrooms seem an inevitable part of a teacher's role. Nonetheless, indications are that most teachers make few proactive...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Restructuring, Inclusive Schools, Gifted, Cultural Pluralism, Profiles,...
How should district and school leaders improve education for students traditionally underserved by public education: by increasing control over teaching and curriculum, or by empowering groups of teachers to have more collective autonomy, responsibility, and opportunities for professional learning? The second approach--promoting multiple trajectories of learning among groups of teachers--has advantages, as well as some challenges, as a means of closing various achievement gaps. Sociocultural...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Teacher Collaboration, Educational Change, English (Second...
The achievement gap, traditionally measured by test scores, also can be documented by dropout behavior. Examining dropout behavior among Black, White, and Hispanic students, with a particular focus on gaps within groups and not just between Whites and minorities, shows a clearer picture of the achievement gap. The results of our study show multiple achievement gaps both between and within groups, ultimately concluding that within-group gaps were often more significant than gaps between groups....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Dropout Rate, Dropout Prevention, Low Achievement, Parent Participation, Academic...
In this article, the author, a volunteer college counselor for Palestinian and Israeli members of "Seeds of Peace"--students who want to study in the U.S., describes her experience working with these youths as they embark upon their voyage to acquire a U.S. university education. Founded in 1993 by the late John Wallach, Seeds of Peace is a peace education program for young people from conflict regions. Teenagers from regions of conflict attend a three-week summer camp in Maine and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Resident Camp Programs, Conflict, Peace, Foreign Countries, School Counselors, Youth,...
As part of a Canadian International Development Agency funded project working with rural teachers in central China, recent graduates Lebans and Radigan spent a month teaching in Chinese schools. The primary purpose of the project is to work with members of the Sichuan Provincial Teacher Training Centre and rural teachers from Wenchuan County develop a professional development plan in response to China's current focus on education reform. This article is a synthesis of Lebans' and Radigan's...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Educational Change, Foreign Countries, Faculty Development, Teacher...
This article focuses on the process of promoting academic achievement for second-language learners by imaginatively connecting expository comprehension. The goals of this article are: (1) to increase understanding of instructional strategies among teachers at all levels that impact on reading comprehension in the content areas for second language speakers of English; (2) to provide curiosity and insight into the development of comprehensive instructional programs for linguistically and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Reading Comprehension, English (Second Language), Content...
Heritage languages (HL) are language spoken by the children of immigrants or by those who immigrated to a country when young. The purpose of this article is to briefly review what is known about heritage language development over time and to identify some gaps in people's knowledge. In this article, the authors consider three aspects: how much HL speakers use their HLs, how well they know them, and the attitudes they have toward their HLs, focusing here on older children, adolescents, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Immigrants, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Heritage Education,...
This research, using questionnaire and interview data, examined practices and challenges of educators in areas of southern Ontario in fostering immigrant parents' support for their children's literacy. Results showed that teachers learn about the language and culture of their students, modify homework assigned to their ESL students, and encourage parents to read to their children in their mother tongue. Teachers need to increase their awareness of parents' perceptions of authority and the role...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationship, Foreign Countries, Immigrants,...
Many English language learners (ELL) struggle to function in English-only classes and to compete with their native English-speaking peers, and tend not to fare well on high-stakes testing. One such example is the Vietnamese American students at City Middle School whose reading levels ranged from an alarming 1.5 to 4 (mid-year first grade to fourth grade), and English language development from level 1 (beginning) to level 3 (intermediate). In this article, the author relates how she helped 14...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Second Language Learning, High Stakes Tests, English (Second...
The student population in United States early childhood education programs is becoming more diverse every year. As schools and communities become more diverse, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to be well prepared for teaching and learning in cross-racial, cross-ethnic, and cross-cultural situations. Based on the premise that teachers hold their own beliefs, values, knowledge, assumptions, and attitudes about diversity from their own life experiences, this study is an effort to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Early Childhood Education, Second Language Learning, English (Second Language),...
This article focuses on the first phase of a recent National Research Center on Giftedness and Talented (NRC/GT) project, which used survey research to target a disproportionate nationally stratified random sample of primary grade teachers about their beliefs and practices related to talent development in young children and their responses to case studies describing four different types of students--one easily identified as gifted from a traditional paradigm; the others manifested talents...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Primary Education, Talent Development, Minority Group Children,...
Many classroom teachers across the United States feel unprepared to work with students and families who speak limited or no English. Knowing that schools are accountable for the achievement results of these students, teachers increasingly seek help. This article describes a professional development project designed to introduce K-12 teachers to effective strategies for enhancing the learning of English language learners and shares the results that occurred as the teachers placed greater...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Family Involvement, Academic Achievement, Second...
Teachers are often unaware that bilingual students often switch between their languages when doing mathematics. Little research has been undertaken into this phenomenon. Results are reported here from a study of language switching by sixteen Year 4/5 Iranian bilingual students as they solved mathematical problems in an interview situation. Reasons given for switching between English and their L1 language (Persian or Farsi) were the difficulty of the problem, familiarity with particular numbers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Immigrants, Grade 4, Grade 5, Foreign Countries, Elementary School Students,...
The globalisation of English and a growing demand for good English-speaking skills in the job market in particular have been placing a greater emphasis on the teaching of English speaking skills in Bangladesh. The private universities emphasise developing English skills. It seems that students of public and private universities have the same level of proficiency when they start but, at the end of four years of study, the students of private universities have acquired a higher level of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Speech Communication, Universities, Private Colleges, Adult Basic Education, Labor...
Although video has long been used as a teaching aid in adult literacy and basic education, literacy researchers seem to have ignored the potential benefits of using video as a tool that could add rigour to research. Reporting on their field experiences of an adult literacy learning study in Canada, the authors provide a narrative account of their use of video as a data collection tool. The article describes the methodological challenges associated with the use of video data and the procedures...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Adult Literacy, Videotape Recordings, Classroom Research, Visual...
Second language learners continue to languish in California public schools in spite of six years of promises following passage of the controversial ballot initiative "English for the Children" (Proposition 227) to fix the education of English Language Learners (ELLs) through English-only instruction. In addition, with the development of new standards for teacher preparation programs following Senate Bill 2042, it is likely that the curriculum and instructional practices for heritage...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Second Language Learning, Cooperative Learning, Educational Change, Peer Teaching,...
It is not unusual for an instructional model or approach to be misinterpreted in practice. Madeline Hunter bemoaned the way her Mastery Teaching approach was reduced to a seven step lesson plan. Although the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model of sheltered instruction for English language learners (ELLs) was developed fairly recently (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2000), it has already been reported implemented in unintended ways. The SIOP Model is an instructional framework...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary School Science, English (Second Language), Teaching Methods, Lesson Plans,...
When planning to teach science to students who are English language learners (ELLs), science teachers and some science educators look to sheltered instruction as a potential guide. The possibility of blending inquiry-based teaching with a sheltered instruction framework seems a promising method for providing high-quality science learning experiences to students who are still working to attain English fluency. However, through the authors' work with second graders, many of whom were ELLs, they...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Second Language Learning, Science Teachers, Grade 2, English (Second Language),...
Despite the ethnic and linguistic diversity found in California's public schools, or because of it, in 1998 voters approved Proposition 227, a ballot initiative designed to dismantle bilingual education programs in the state. By the 2003-2004 school year, the California Department of Education reports that statewide 8,908 teachers were providing primary language instruction to English learners (ELs), down dramatically from the 16,360 teachers who taught in primary language settings just five...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Public Schools, Speech Communication, Bilingual Education, Bilingual Education...
This study considered the problem of ineffective fieldwork experiences in the English Single Subject Credential Program at California State University, Long Beach prior to student teaching by combining structured fieldwork into a newly established state-mandated assessment, Teaching Performance Assessment Task 1 (TPA 1). This combination of a structured fieldwork component with TPA 1 was implemented in the last course, Curriculum and Methods of Teaching English (C&M), that pre-service...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Teaching, Student Teachers, Performance Based Assessment, Performance Tests,...
Several major demographic shifts over the past half-century have transformed who we are and how we live in this country in many ways. Most striking, however, is the fact that children today are much more likely to be members of ethnic or racial minority groups. Racial/ethnic minorities are destined, in aggregate, to become the numerical majority within the next few decades. This article presents a wide range of statistics reflecting cultural, family, social, economic, and housing circumstances...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Racial Differences, Socioeconomic Influences, Ethnicity, Poverty, Educational...
Increasing pressure has been placed on teacher education to prepare teachers to educate bilingual/bicultural students using scientifically-based teaching methods. Socio-cultural theory and pedagogy have emerged as a research-based foundation for diversity teacher preparation. Socio-cultural theory rests on the premise that learning is social, and that it is through social interaction with teachers and peers who are more knowledgeable that students receive assistance as needed in their Zone of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Education, Teacher Education Programs, Distance Education, Program...
One of the goals of Professional Development School (PDS) programs is to provide preservice teachers with opportunities for developing in-depth knowledge and experience as they learn to teach (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, 2001). A theme-based PDS adds value to the PDS program model because it allows faculty members to share their particular expertise and research interests with preservice teachers and with teachers at the PDS school site. Additionally, a theme-based...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Professional Development Schools, Faculty Development,...
This article presents a framework that identifies areas of expertise necessary for mainstream teachers to be prepared to teach in classrooms with native and non-native English speakers. Currently, explicit attention to the linguistic and cultural needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) is lacking in most teacher preparation programs. A recent AACTE survey of 417 institutes of higher education found that fewer than one in six required any preparation for mainstream elementary or secondary...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Effectiveness, Linguistics, Second Language Learning, Literacy, English...
In recent years the number of students who are English Language Learners (ELL) in U.S. schools has increased dramatically. When they meet bilingual paraprofessionals in the classroom and on school grounds, ELL students learn that these paraprofessionals do seem to know everything (or at least the important things to survive at school). Bilingual paraprofessionals help students move through multiple, complex, unfamiliar school settings and make connections to life outside school. In this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Ethnography, Secondary School Students, Paraprofessional School Personnel, English...
In this time of high stakes testing, teachers' working with English Language Learners (ELLs) becomes a high-stakes teaching act. Nationally, mandated testing is increasing in the schools even as school demographics are changing. The growing numbers of language-minority students come with varying levels of English proficiency, from little or none to fluent bilingualism. Teachers find it difficult to bring all their native-English-speaking children along to an acceptable level of performance in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Literacy Education, Language of Instruction, Testing, Second...
The Academy for Teacher Excellence (ATE) at the University of Texas at San Antonio and San Antonio College is proposed as a comprehensive model whose overarching goals include: (1) creating a learning ecology that values diversity and prepares teacher candidates for work in diverse communities; (2) increasing the number of Latino students pursuing teacher certification; and (3) preparing all teachers for linguistically and culturally diverse populations. ATE's ultimate outcome is to assure that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Certification, Teacher Education, Teacher Competencies, Hispanic Americans,...
The purpose of the study is to examine teachers' perceptions of the Open Court language program. Open Court is published by McGraw Hill and has been approved by the "No Child Left Behind Act" as an appropriate research-based reading program. The Open Court program was adopted as part of the efforts to provide all elementary school students in California the English Language competence needed to succeed academically and socially. This study specifically attempts to examine teacher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary School Students, Federal Legislation, Reading Programs, Program...
Family literacy programs reflect a recent trend in educational reform that has proven to be a successful educational model for all members of the family unit. Based on the literature that links family involvement to student achievement, these initiatives focus on empowering parents of school children. These programs have been particularly beneficial for linguistically and culturally diverse families, since they provide opportunities for adult family members to acquire English language/literacy...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Personnel Selection, Family Involvement, Academic Achievement, Educational Change,...