Analytical writing serves to learn and communicate learning. Our goal was to determine the impact of students' bilingual profile, defined by self-evaluated bilingual competence, use of language(s) for mental operations and language(s) use across different contexts, on their developing analytical writing abilities. Catalan/Spanish bilinguals -- in…

Approximately 30% of students in Australian schools are from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE). Some LBOTE students speak English as their first language and do not require English language support, while others (about 25% of the student population) are learning English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D). These students…

This research summary describes an Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) research project that explored how long it takes Australian students learning English as an additional language (EAL) to develop the English language skills necessary to participate equitably in curriculum learning. It outlines the key findings, context and…

The following are additional results from the research described in the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)'s main project report, "How Long it Takes to Learn English While Learning the Curriculum." Specifically, these results supplement the results from Part 2 of the project, which used the NSW DoE's EAL/D Annual Survey…

Purpose: The primary aims of this study were to: (1) to describe average change in the writing quality of fifth grade students from the fall and spring of the school year; (2) examine relations between linguistic features and writing quality rating; and (3) test for differential growth between groups of students who differ in linguistic and…

Educational systems worldwide underscore the importance of developing higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) to prepare students for the new challenges of the XXI century. Some pressing issues faced by educators include the ambiguity of the construct; the implementation of HOTS in classroom practices; and the implications for teaching students from…

Literacy in a first language or in additional languages involves a set of complex cognitive, social, and linguistic skills that develop over time. However, pedagogical materials for low-proficiency English as an additional language (EAL) learners tend to target low-level literacy skills only, such as responding to fact-based questions. Materials…

Development of child language is tremendously complex, remarkable and wondrous. In a second language acquisition context, a child can acquire his second language in either acquiring both languages at the same time or learning the second language after mastering the first one. This present research is concerned to describe the syntactical…

Background: In the intermediate phase of schooling, learners' academic success is largely dependent on their ability to read and write academic texts. Teachers need to teach academic language intentionally and explicitly. In order for teachers to do this, they themselves need knowledge of academic language and its features. Teacher education…

This article reports on an action-research study which examined the impact of a radio program as a strategy to develop the speaking skills of a mixed course at a private institution in Colombia. Hence, data were collected from 18 students through tests, surveys, field notes, and interviews. The results indicate that there is an important…

This study examines the writing skills of students in grades 1 to 5 of an Italian-English two-way immersion program. Narrative writing samples were collected in both languages and scored for content, organization, grammar, mechanics, vocabulary, text length, and overall total score. The results show that writing skills improved as a function of…

Using a randomized controlled trial, we tested a new teacher professional development program for increasing the language and literacy skills of young Latino English Learners with 45 teachers and 105 students in 12 elementary schools. School-based teams randomly assigned to the intervention received professional development focused on cultural…

Using a randomized controlled trial, we tested a new teacher professional development program for increasing the language and literacy skills of young Latino English learners with 45 teachers and 105 students in 12 elementary schools. School-based teams randomly assigned to the intervention received professional development focused on cultural…

Assessing and monitoring student progress is becoming increasingly important in classrooms and for accountability purposes. Yet, in order to interpret changes in assessment results from one year to the next as reflecting differences in underlying ability rather than as variations in the measurement, the assessments used should be measuring the…

Word problems for English language learners (ELLs) at risk for math disabilities are challenging in terms of the constant need to develop precise math language and comprehension knowledge. As a result of this, ELLs may not only need math support but also reading and linguistic support. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a…