Purpose: Emergent bilinguals (EBs) from Spanish-speaking households are a sizable and quickly growing segment of the preschool population in the United States. However, there is limited research on the provision of opportunities for EBs to engage in language-rich classroom discussion, particularly in English-dominant contexts where most EBs attend…

This mixed methods study explores one urban elementary classroom's use of stability ball chairs. Through surveys, interviews, and video observation, we investigated the teacher and her students' experiences in changing from traditional chairs to more active furniture. Results indicate that students' preferences for using the stability ball chairs…

This qualitative study examined how specific instructional supports intended to scaffold emergent bilinguals' oral production of explanations facilitated or constrained students' attempts to explain. Findings demonstrate that explanations were very rarely produced, and when they were produced, the explanations were not particularly informative.…

Motivation is thought to contribute to better text comprehension (Grabe, 2009), but L2 reading motivation of adult ESL students in the US is an underexplored area of research. The current study adopted self-determination theory--the concepts of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and controlled motivation, in particular--to examine IEP…

Immigrant students and their families sometimes experience conflict or alienation in U.S. schools owing to differences between the collectivistic values of home (focused on the well-being of the family and group) and the individualistic values of schools (focused on the well-being of individuals) that drive instructional practices and school…

Teacher educators need linguistic tools to help preservice teachers develop a deeper understanding of the academic language demands of the literacy practices required by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) serves as a tool for developing teachers' knowledge of content-area language. Teachers' increased…

This report explores participant perspectives on L1 (English) use in foreign language classrooms. The study includes data collected from 25 participants, 23 students and 2 professors, from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS). A combination of classroom observations, interviews, and questionnaires were used to collect data. The…

The relationship between structural linguists and applied linguists is notoriously uncomfortable; each tends to view the others' focus and methods with suspicion. Despite this uneasy relationship many TESOL-focused master's programs are housed in Linguistics Departments. This article reflects on my experience in 1 such department and makes…

This article examines the culminating activity--"la cosecha" or the harvest--in a yearlong project in which teachers at a bilingual afterschool program and staff from a citywide environmental advocacy group taught students to plant, harvest, and sell produce grown at the school site. The authors show how students are socialized to become…

Achievement motivation is something that all members of the school community want to support in students, however few may recognize that it is influenced by culture. The very meaning of "achievement" is culturally variable, and the motives that students have for achieving may be quite different, depending upon their cultural background.…

Grounded in sociocultural theory, this study uses an ecological approach to examine how student interactions within a dual-language school context may offer affordances for increased linguistic and conceptual understanding. Using qualitative analysis of student discourse, this paper focuses on data from recorded interactions between pairs of…

This article contains a description of the Dual Proficiency (DP) program in an urban elementary school located in the heart of a large south-western city, as well as the teachers who designed and now implement DP, and the immigrant community participating by choice in DP. We write from a context where, ironically, the number of English language…

The report, based on a study of journal entries written by English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students in San Diego Community Colleges (California), examines the value of journal writing for ESL learning and acculturation and offers classroom techniques for its use. An introductory section describes the study and its outcomes. Chapter 1 looks at…

A study examining the perceptions of college students in beginning foreign language classes toward various teaching discovered a discrepancy between the value students and teachers ascribe to communicative language teaching. The study was conducted at the University of South Carolina, in two classes where a variety of teaching techniques were…

Maintains that California and the nation's school districts have been challenged by growing numbers of limited English proficient students in grades 6 through 12. Presents a series of social studies classroom activities designed to improve students' reading and writing skills. Includes graphic organizers and activity objectives. (CFR)