Recent research has documented the ways that schools adapt to increasingly multilingual and multicultural student bodies. This qualitative study explores the schooling experiences of nine K-12 multilinguals not identified as English language learners in US schools. Using "deep interviewing" strategies, the authors expose the racializing…

What purposes might literary translation serve in the K-12 classroom? In this article, I use practitioner research to explore a heritage language poetry translation project I taught with third and fourth grade multi- and monolingual students in a suburban independent school. Students interviewed family members about their heritage languages,…

As a result of a university partnership, elementary students at two midwest Catholic elementary schools have been provided with exploratory world language instruction (FLEX) from pre-service teachers. To investigate students' attitudes and learning of Spanish, researchers interviewed second and fourth graders. The students' parents and pre-service…

School outcomes and good performance in different subjects depends on children's ability to read. Thus teaching children on how to read during early grades is critical in promoting learning to read. More advanced skills acquired in later grades depend on early grade learning, so children who do not acquire these reading skills in their early…

The study addressed a cognitive-affective gap in a primary English curriculum and noticed whether the curriculum, texts and class activities utilized empathetic and pro-social themes in teaching English language. The findings from the document review, interviews and observations revealed that the said themes were underrepresented in the…

Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) provide elementary, secondary, and postsecondary instructors with the opportunity to align standards-based foreign language instruction with assessment practices. While IPA guidelines make it clear that all three modes of communication are to be assessed, the limited body of research on IPAs provides few…

This article draws on qualitative classroom observation and interview data from a case study of one native-English speaker teacher (NEST) teaching in a Hong Kong kindergarten. Features of the NEST's teaching are identified, namely their professional limitations, their part-time involvement in teaching, and their limited collaboration with the…

This article reports on the results of an action research project carried out with a group of third graders at a public school in Bogotá. The project aimed to gain insights into the use of English as foreign language storytelling and to analyze the way in which students reflect upon their own social values. The findings suggest that the use of…

This particularistic qualitative case study design examined reading strategies, approaches, and resources teachers of ELL (English Language Learner) students in kindergarten through third grade use to support reading development and promote the home to school connection regarding literacy proficiency. The purpose of this study was to examine…

English proficiency difference among students is a challenging pedagogical issue in EFL classrooms worldwide. Collaborative digital storytelling has been adopted in language learning settings to increase motivation and engagement, especially for young learners. However, it remains unknown whether students of different proficiency levels can…

We report on an action research project aimed at developing oral communication in first-graders, using songs as a strategy for young learners to use and enjoy English. It was developed at a Colombian public school over three months. The teacher-researchers attempted to encourage students using simple and amusing songs to help them learn new…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mediational role of gesture and body movement/positioning between a teacher and an English language learner in a second-grade classroom. Responding to Thibault's (2011) call for understanding language through whole-body sense making, aspects of gesture and body positioning were analyzed for…

This action research project was carried out in order to identify the role of first language in the second-language classroom. This study was conducted in a Colombian international school with an English immersion program for kindergarten students attending their first year of school. The purpose of this study was to identify if the use of the…

The need to improve the spoken English of kindergarten students in an international preschool in Surabaya prompted this Classroom Action Research (CAR). It involved the implementation of Form-Focused Instruction (FFI) strategy coupled with Corrective Feedback (CF) in Grammar lessons. Four grammar topics were selected, namely Regular Plural form,…

This study explores a second-grade English language learner's literacy development and ability to use blogging for social and academic purposes, in the context of learning academic writing genres in a US urban school. Grounded in sociocultural theories, it conceptualizes learning as appropriation, and language as a dynamic and functional system of…