Environmental sources of variance in the Italian vocabulary and reading skills of bilingual primary school children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children (LMBC)) in Italy were investigated, and the LMBC's skill levels were compared to those of their monolingual classmates. A total of 140 children from the first, third,…

This research examined the effectiveness that the Instructional Conversations (ICs) teaching method had on elementary-aged English Language Learning (ELLs) students. Specifically, how ICs impact student academic achievement, academic language usage, and student engagement. The study compared two first grade classrooms, 39 participants, consisting…

This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to 4th grade for three groups of English Learners (ELs): (a) ever-ELs; (b) ELs consistently eligible for service; and (c) EL and Special Education dually-identified students. All three EL groups had lower test scores than never-ELs throughout K-4. In math, ELs grew more than never-ELs…

This study presents first-year findings of a 25-week longitudinal project derived from a two-year longitudinal randomized trial study at the elementary school level in Costa Rica on effective computer-assisted language learning (CALL) approaches in an English as a foreign language (EFL) setting. A pre-test-post-test experimental group design was…

Lexicon Pirate was originally developed as a strategy intervention programme to treat lexical disorders of pre-school children. To evaluate the therapy's effectiveness for school-age students, a randomized controlled trial (RCT, N = 157) was conducted. Based on a pre--post-test design, the programme's impacts were compared with a control group…

This study explores preliminary results from a pedagogical intervention designed to improve instruction for all students, particularly emergent bilinguals in the United States (or English language learners). The study is part of a larger efficacy randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Instructional Conversation (IC) pedagogy for improving the…

This study investigated the effectiveness of ABRACADABRA (ABRA), a web-based literacy program, developed by the Center for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University, in facilitating the literacy attainment of third-grade primary school students in an area of rural China. Researchers shared the experiences of localizing ABRA to…

The Instructional Conversation (IC) is a complete classroom pedagogy that focuses on teaching through small-group dialogue with students allowing responsive instruction for each student. The IC is anchored by cognitive-developmental theory and by four decades of multi-method quasi-experimental studies. This study describes the first research of an…

This study was designed to examine the effects of an intervention program aimed at improving reading, spelling, and vocabulary skills through linguistically explicit instruction in morphological awareness. Sixteen children, diagnosed with language impairment, participated in this study. Instruction for the experimental group focused on increasing…

The longitudinal intervention study reported here is the first to investigate the efficiency of computer learning software specifically designed for dyslexic Swiss German learners of Standard German as a second language (L2) and English as a third language (L3). A total of 40 subjects (20 of them dyslexics and 20 of them nondyslexics; 10 students…

A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, non-equivalent control group design was used to examine the effect of a mobile gamification application on third and fourth grade students' Spanish language achievement and student academic self-efficacy. In this study, the treatment group's Spanish language instruction was through the use of…

Educational outcomes across multiple countries show large gaps between children's grade level curricular expectations and the actual learning levels of children. This paper discusses findings from an early grades literacy study and attempts to explore factors that potentially improve the English language learning results of Grades 3 and 4 learners…

Skilled reading comprehension is an important goal of educational instruction and models of reading development. In this study, the authors investigated how core skills surrounding morphemes, that is, the minimal units of meaning in language, support the development of reading comprehension. The authors specifically contrast the roles of…

This study explores the effects of a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) program on language majority and minority students. The fundamental hypothesis was that the process of receiving instruction in two languages (English and Spanish) throughout elementary school (i.e., attendance at a TWBI school) would help the native Spanish-speaking students…

Computers have taken an increasingly prominent role in education around the world in recent years in developed and developing countries alike. As developing country governments have turned their focus from increasing enrollment to improving the quality of education in their schools, many have made access to computers a key component to their…