This article, a case study of a single instance of collaborative translation in the classroom, explores the role of material mediation and embodied activity in the linguistic problem solving work of emergent multilinguals. We describe one teacher's lesson with a small group of Spanish speaking students in her 7th grade ESL classroom. Collaborative…

Reading comprehension questions scaffold deeper comprehension, help students to analyze texts, improve students' thinking skills, and help them realize permanent and meaningful learning. By comparing reading comprehension questions used in Turkish lessons with student-generated comprehension questions in terms of level, this study aimed to…

Given the increasing emphasis of communicative competence in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts and the lack of validation research on speaking assessments for adolescent EFL learners, in the current study we examined the validity of the TOEFL Junior® speaking test, a relatively new speaking assessment developed by Educational Testing…

International comparisons of languages have shown how mathematical concepts can be expressed and conceptualised in different languages. For multilingual students, these findings raise the question of how the interplay of languages and conceptualisations shape multilingual learning processes. This paper presents an investigation of case studies of…

This study applies the Mathematics Acquisition Framework (MAF) (Bossé, Ringler, Bayaga, Fountain, & Young, 2018) to investigate fifth- through seventh-grade students' comprehension of fractions and decimals and examines how students build understanding of mathematical principles and concepts regarding fractions and decimals. Based on case…

This case study investigated the effectiveness of the United Beyond Our Diversity (UBOD) project for the development of language skills and intercultural communicative competence (including attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical intercultural awareness) in Taiwanese seventh grade learners. The learners' attitudes and evaluations of UBOD were…

Although researchers call for inquiry learning in science, science assessments rarely capture the impact of inquiry instruction. This paper reports on the development and validation of assessments designed to measure middle-school students' progress in gaining integrated understanding of energy while studying an inquiry-oriented curriculum. The…

Although a variety of research has investigated the use and benefits of home language in school settings, research on using translation to support school learning is scarce. With the goal of designing a differentiated and culturally relevant strategy that supports the reading of bilingual students, we worked with seventh-grade students in pull-out…

This article focuses on argumentation in mathematics classrooms in two different geographic contexts, the US and New Zealand. Drawing on data from a case with immigrant students (Pasifika) in NZ and a case with Mexican American students in the US, we argue for the need to study the concept of argumentation through a cultural and language lens. Our…

In this article, we put forward 4 pedagogic principles that we consider to be particularly important in helping English language learners (ELLs) to succeed in school. These principles are: creating multiple and varied opportunities for ELLs to use the target language in both speech and writing, promoting high engagement by building on students'…

One-to-one laptop programs, where each student has their own laptop to use in classroom, are becoming popular in schools especially in Australia and the United States. The purpose of the study was to contribute to the limited knowledge base explaining the implementation of laptop programs specifically with English language learners. Four ESL…

The last few years have seen the implementation of fundamental structural and curricular policy initiatives affecting the teaching of languages in schools in England. Several policy initiatives have been introduced by the government affecting the position and status of languages in schools, such as the development of foreign language teaching in…

There is little research on differential reading performance in multilingual contexts in less than ideal learning conditions. This article reports on a reading intervention project in a poor multilingual primary school in South Africa where reading levels in Northern Sotho (home language) and English (language of schooling) were initially very low…

This study analyzes what characterizes the negotiations of seventh graders at a public school in Bogotá when working in pairs to develop speaking tasks in EFL classes. The inquiry is a descriptive case study that follows the qualitative paradigm. As a result of analyzing the data, we obtained four consecutive steps that characterize students'…

In this three-state study, the authors estimate the magnitudes of achievement gaps between English learner (EL) students and their non-EL peers, while avoiding typical caveats in cross-sectional studies. The authors further compare the observed achievement gaps across three distinct dimensions (content areas, grades, and states) and report…