Research confirms that critical thinking plays a fundamental role in decision making and problem solving, skills that are essential to function as successful adults in a complex world. Consequently, it has been a focus of educational research for decades. Faculty meetings and teacher training sessions repeatedly run sessions on ways that teachers…

Text classification and text gradation are important for language teachers. Profiling and readability studies examine textual and linguistic features that determine text difficulty. Arabic, as an under-resourced language, suffers from a lack of such studies which results in material developers and textbook writers relying on their intuitions and…

"Language Acquisition in a Nutshell: A Primer for Teachers" will be your definitive guide on second languages and how they are acquired. Written in an easy-to-understand tone with an occasional touch of light-heartedness, "Language Acquisition in a Nutshell" is made for both teachers and teachers in training. It will show you…

The all-encompassing term "Medical Spanish" references the Spanish used by healthcare professionals. Medical Spanish courses have gained traction as the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. continues to grow. Consequently, demand for courses in Medical Spanish and other areas of Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP), a subfield of…

The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners® is a core set of principles for English language teaching and learning. The 6 Principles are targets of excellence that provide teachers with the knowledge to make informed decisions to improve instruction and assessment. This second edition of "The 6 Principles for Exemplary…

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the topic of assessing students who use two or more languages in their daily life. The book provides foundational information for assessing multilingual learners (MLs) in schools, with an emphasis on school language and content. Major assessment ideas are viewed through a framework called PUMI (Purpose,…

The RP Group's Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) produced this technical report as part of a series on how California's community colleges can ensure more English learners (ELs) successfully complete "gateway" English coursework -- courses that satisfy the English writing requirements for completion of an associate's degree as…

This book is unique in bringing together studies on instructed second language acquisition that focus on a common question: "What renders this research particularly relevant to classroom applications, and what are the advantages, challenges, and potential pitfalls of the methodology adopted?" The empirical studies feature experimental,…

Making decisions about English reading instruction is as core a component to teaching as providing the instruction itself. When providing support to learners at risk for poor reading outcomes, for which currently there is a large percentage in South Africa, it is especially important to ensure that the decisions that are made have the highest…

This book is relevant for language testers, listening researchers, and oral proficiency teachers, in that it explores four broad themes related to the assessment of L2 listening ability: the use of authentic, real-world spoken texts; the effects of different speech varieties of listening inputs; the use of audio-visual texts; and assessing…

This paper discusses steps that high school foreign language teachers can take to select appropriate textbooks for their classes. Teachers should: (1) determine their department's philosophy; (2) look at their students' needs; (3) ask department members for suggestions; (4) review school district guidelines; (5) examine as many textbooks as…

Two elements of constructivist pedagogy warrant attention with respect to second language (L2) learning: collaborative dialogue and learner decision-making. These two elements in instruction bring about experiential and task oriented classrooms. The constructivist approach to the L2 classroom foregrounds conceptual development focused on…

In a study of instructional actions and decision making, videotapes and interviews of six preservice English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers were used to determine the ways in which teachers received and responded to student input during second-language instruction. The findings highlight the cognitive demands on preservice ESL teachers. (27…

A guide to various instructional technology (IT) approaches is aimed at modern language teachers who are just beginning to integrate IT into their methodology. Hints and suggestions are given about what questions to ask when acquiring a computer and buying software and how to avoid some problems. Chapters include the following: (1) Why should I?;…

Details the design of a hypertext decision-making activity located on the Internet for business English students wishing to review techniques and vocabulary for conducting business meetings (World Wide Web address is given). Provides statistical data on students using the activity worldwide, and makes recommendations for further development of…