Narratives, or stories, are used every day by people as a way of making sense of and communicating events in the world. Narratives can be highly useful as a learning tool in science education. Though research on narrative-based pedagogy in science education and communication is very common, most of that research was done in formal settings. Our…

We examined an intervention in kindergarten using an e-book for vocabulary enrichment. In programme (a), the children read the e-book with a dictionary and the teacher's support. In programme (b), the children read the e-book with the dictionary independently. In programme (c), the children read the e-book without a dictionary (control). The…

Conceptualizing numbers as discursive constructs generated in, and for the sake of, communication, we investigated the development of the numerical discourse of Milo, a boy who was 2 years and 8 months old when we first met him and whom we then followed for 18 months. Our analyses of the child's evolving responses to the question "Where is…

The current study attempted to investigate the contribution of an intervention program to fostering Arabic academic vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skills among seventh grade Arabic native speaking pupils. For this purpose, 247 pupils from four schools in northern Israel have participated in the study. Arabic literacy units that…

This is the second of two articles based on a study of the contribution of vocabulary notebooks to the development of second language vocabulary, language awareness, metacognitive skills and pedagogical skills of non-native English-speaking pre-service teachers. In this article, the impact of reflections on non-native pre-service teachers'…

The contribution of repeated e-book reading with and without word explanation support and its effect on receptive and expressive word learning among preschoolers was examined. Seventy-eight kindergartners were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received two individual reading sessions of an e-book…

Vocabulary knowledge is recognized as an essential element for second language acquisition and reading comprehension. One known way to encourage and support vocabulary development amongst second language learners is keeping a vocabulary notebook. The primary purpose of the present study was to document two aspects of student teachers' own…

In this paper, we present a series of studies performed in the last decade that examined the contribution of e-books reading to the language and literacy of young Hebrew-speaking children. Children worked with two e-books designed by the researchers to achieve this aim. We present the effect of reading these e-books on the language and literacy of…

SMS based learning delivery platforms have been increasingly used in different countries and university learning situations to deliver vocabulary and concept learning content to university students. The present study sums up five mini studies in which a total of 1028 first year university students, majoring in social studies at chartered Israeli…

The goal of this article is to make research on English language teaching and learning published locally in Israel more widely available. Given that so many Israeli researchers are internationally trained and maintain wide connections, it necessarily omits much important work that appears in European and US journals. It focuses on shorter studies,…

We examine the effect of direct and indirect teaching of vocabulary and word reading on pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children following use of an electronic storybook (e-book). The children in each age group were randomly assigned to an intervention group which read the e-book or to a control group which was afforded the regular school…

A "reading gap" exists in Israel in teaching of intermediate-level English. Reading aloud, focusing on new words and on literal comprehension questions may conflict with the goal of reading for meaning. A dual approach is proposed and demonstrated to achieve reading for language and for meaning. Sample mini-units are included. (CHK)

This study investigated the relationship between what people looked up about new words when different kinds of information were available and how well they remembered those words. Dictionary information was incorporated into a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) program comprised of text, highlighted low-frequency words, and access to…

Reports results of research on the effects of open education on student outcomes, using classroom authority structure analysis. Maintains that student outcomes are contingent on the congruence between formal and informal authority structure. Concludes that more congruent authority structure was related to higher reading comprehension and…

This document consists of the two issues of "English Teachers' Journal (Israel)" issued during 1991. Contents include: "Introduction for English Teachers"; "Announcements for Bagrut Teachers and Examiners"; "News from E.T.A.I. (English Teachers' Association of Israel)" (Ephraim Weintroub); "Learning…