Taking part in literacy experiences at home can develop your child's reading ability, comprehension, and language skills. Activities that you can engage in at home include: joint reading, drawing, singing, storytelling, reciting, game playing, and rhyming. You can tailor activities to your child's age and ability level, and can incorporate…

This toolkit is designed to guide school staff in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. This toolkit offers an integrated approach to family and community engagement, bringing together research, promising practices, and a wide range of useful tools and resources with explanations and directions…

This guidance report offers early years professionals seven practical evidence-based recommendations to provide every child--but particularly those from disadvantaged homes--with a high quality and well-rounded grounding in early literacy, language and communication. One recommendation focuses on the importance of high quality interactions between…

This paper describes a technique for giving ESL (English as a second language) students with rather limited English ability an opportunity to talk on a regular basis. The technique takes into consideration: (1) the time limitations of the classroom; (2) the tendency of some students to dominate discussion and the need for giving others…

This manual attempts to provide practical and useful linguistic information for classroom teachers and classroom aides in bilingual programs, K to 12. It stresses the importance of teamwork in any bilingual program, a team consisting of teachers, aides, volunteers and student tutors. The goal of the manual is to help teachers and aides become more…

Redefines the "situational" approach to language teaching as meaning more than mere reference to space and time. Criteria for judging the realism of a situation and the authenticity of the language used are discussed as presented in materials for students of foreign languages. (CFM)

This dual cassette program, accompanied by a script book, is designed to give students listening practice in Spanish, particularly for regional differences of pronunciation and for variety in idiomatic construction. The program may be integrated with texts used in intermediate and advanced levels of instruction. The announcements, jingles, and…

This dual cassette package, accompanied by a script book, is designed to give students listening practice in French, particularly for regional differences of pronunciation and for variety in idiomatic constructions. The program may be integrated with texts used in intermediate and advanced levels of instruction. The announcements, jingles, and…

This bulletin is intended to help classroom teachers who have Indochinese refugee children in their classes. In many places where there is no English as a second language (ESL) program, it is the classroom teacher and auxiliary personnel who must teach the children English sentence patterns, pronunciation and vocabulary. When more than one teacher…

The dialect of English as spoken by native Puerto Rican Spanish speakers is estensively influenced by interference from the speakers' native language. Since exposure to a language affects one's ability to use it, the speaker's position might affect his access to English and/or his willingness to speak it, and, therefore, his proficiency in it. It…

Discusses the effectiveness of a treasure hunt as an educational language-activity for students of English as a second language. Instructions for the treasure hunt and a sample list of items are included. (CFM)

This volume deals with different methods for teaching foreign languages, and is intended as an instrument to foster creative thinking and teaching. The first chapter, "The Need for Liberation," discusses the need to progress beyond structure drills towards meaningful language use. Chapters 2-5, "The Beginning Phase,""The Lower-Intermediate…

No language is as varied in history as American English and no language is as rich in word choices. Additions to our language from other cultures are discussed. Four categories of activities involving words are presented. (MT)

This book gathers ideas and practices in teaching English as a second language to serve as a reference for the leader of a conversation group. A variety of tested techniques is included for stimulating conversation among students with a basic command of English. The book begins with a discussion of what is involved in directed conversation…

This manual outlines a beginning course in Spanish based on audio-visual-lingual methodology. Each lesson plan states the objectives, the activities to be performed, the materials to be used, and the method to use in evaluating the student's mastery of the lesson. Some examples of lesson topics are: greeting each other using Spanish names;…