Research in metacognitive listening strategies in first language (L[superscript 1]) listening is in its infancy. The research presented here, which is the first study in a larger research program, compares the strategies L[superscript 1] students in the US say they do in the classroom with the strategies L[superscript 2] students say they use, as…

The central focus of this study was to determine the overall perceptions of school administrators, and the district bilingual coordinator on transferring theory to classroom practice, implementation, as viewed by those involved in the implementation process of the Gómez and Gómez Model of Dual Language Education. Responses were solicited from…

This study examines international students' study anxiety in a mid-sized university in Southeast Texas comparing their existing study anxiety along lines of nationality, gender, age, major, degree, and stage of education. It focuses on the students' perceptions and the dominant goal of this research was to investigate whether there is a…

This study examined how emergent bilingual children's English and Spanish proficiencies moderated the relationships between Spanish and English input at home (bilingual home language input [BHLI]) and children's oral language skills in each language. The sample comprised over 1,400 Spanish-dominant kindergartners in California and Texas. BHLI was…

Increasing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. classrooms have prioritized to building quality teacher education programs so that all teachers have the tools necessary to support their students. National, state, and local mandates have also enacted certain requirements to ensure that ELLs are receiving quality instruction with new…

This study was designed to explore the relationships between the international students' perception of professors' instructional practices (the usage of active and collaborative learning techniques in class) and the international students' study anxiety. The dominant goal of this research was to investigate whether the professors' usage of active…

This comparative study examines relationships between phonemic awareness and Spanish reading skill acquisition among three groups of Spanish-speaking first and second graders: children in Mexico receiving reading instruction in Spanish and children in the United States receiving reading instruction in either Spanish or English. Children were…

This study examines the lexical representation and recall of abstract words by beginning L2 learners of Spanish in the light of the predictions of the dual coding theory (Paivio 1971; Paivio and Desrochers 1980). Ninety-seven learners (forty-four males and fifty-three females) were randomly placed in the picture or non-picture group and taught…

The purpose of this research study was to examine principals' leadership styles and how and what extent it impacted teachers' job satisfaction. Principals' leadership styles were examined by middle and high school teachers' perceptions. This study drew from 10 middle and 10 high schools in a large school district located in Texas. Participants…

The number of native Arabic-speaking students coming to America to study English in university programs has grown over the past few years, and continues to be substantial. It has also been noticed by the English Language Institute (ELI) at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) that these students often struggle more with reading activities in class,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine sentence-recognition performance for a large, diverse group of nonnative speakers of English on the recently developed Basic English Lexicon (BEL) sentence materials and to determine whether BEL sentence lists are equated in difficulty for this population. Method: The BEL sentences were presented…

Building on Freire's (1970) emancipatory learning theory and Yosso's (2005) community cultural wealth (CCW) approach, this article examines parents' participation in a family literacy project. Specifically, we focus on 10 Latina mothers and explore their interactions and relationships as a type of meaningful parental involvement. The research…

This qualitative study reports the findings implementing a pen pal letter exchange project between adult English language learners and volunteer native English speakers. The pen pal project was implemented using a holistic and socio-cultural approach to English literacy development. This article presents pen pal writing as an authentic language…

Seventy-eight native English speakers rated the foreign-accented speech (FAS) of 24 international students enrolled in an Intensive English programme at a public university in Texas on degree of accent, comprehensibility and communicative ability. Variables considered to potentially impact listeners' ratings were the sex of the speaker, the first…

Critical approaches to Spanish heritage language (SHL) pedagogy have called for more meaningful engagement with heritage language communities (Leeman, 2005). In a recent survey, furthermore, SHL students expressed a desire for more community-based activities in SHL curricula (Beaudrie, Ducar, & Relano-Pastor, 2009). This paper reports on the…