When working with bilingual readers, teaching for equity means building on students' linguistic strengths. To do so, we must provide intentionally designed holistic literacy instruction that encourages students to use their full literacy and linguistic repertoire. This article describes an asset-oriented approach called "Transliteracy"…

Following the multilingual trend in language education, translanguaging advocates active use of multiple languages and other meaning-making resources in a dynamic and integrated way in teaching and learning. When it comes to foreign language education, translanguaging advocates a view that the languages the learners already have should and can…

"Testimonios" are used as a method to help understand and share the authors' lived experiences as "tocayos" with society and the human world, and to create interaction between both of them. The term "tocayo" is used to identify people who share the same name. The purpose of this paper is to share the lived experiences…

A case study is a teaching method based on the description of a real or hypothetical situation that requires a solution or action. No analysis is provided, so learners analyze the case themselves to make a decision or produce possible solutions. Case studies have been in use for several decades to train students in business, law, medicine, and…

The processes to assess students' learning acquired in various non-formal and informal learning environments have become increasingly common in Finnish university language centres in recent years. This paper describes new developments at the University of Eastern Finland to assess students' non-formal and informal learning of English for Academic…

In this article, Kang discusses how she scaffolded a comic book project in a university L2 writing class and argued for its pedagogical value in teaching multimodal argument and fostering critical thinking skills. Although this project was assigned in a specific university L2 writing class, it can be adapted to other types of writing courses and…

Recent research on disciplinary literacy has called for a paradigm shift among secondary content teachers from perceiving themselves as disciplinary content transmitters to disciplinary literacy teachers who model and engage students in reading, writing, inquiring, and doing like experts within each discipline. How do content teachers incorporate…

Previous studies have identified that genres and genre knowledge are not only pivotal for the development of writing expertise but also for facilitating writing-related transfer. However, little research concerns issues of teaching genres for writing transfer to first-year English as a second language (L2) writers at universities in the US. This…

This article offers a critical interpretation of the current trends in instructional models for English language learners in California. We review key instructional models and analyze them from traditional (teacher-centered), progressive (student-centered), and critical orientations (society- and power-centered). These instructional models share…

Determining the writing skill level of students commencing tertiary education is a key element in predicting their likely study success and in providing appropriate writing development opportunities. Writing tests constructed around written instructions often assume high levels of reading and comprehension skills, which in some instances impose…

The authors explore ways teachers and school administrators can draw on the prior experiences and diverse language and literacy practices of refugee ELLs to develop culturally and linguistically responsive curriculums that support language learning and overall school success of these students.

At the intersection of social studies and world language curricula are opportunities to explore students' prior learning with vocabulary-rich content designed to support language acquisition goals. "Funds of knowledge" is defined as socio-cultural, economic, and historical knowledge from home and community settings. The instructional…

Engagement is related to important student outcomes such as persistence, retention, and grades. It is key to all students' learning, but it may be particularly important for culturally diverse students who may have fewer models and other resources for keeping themselves engaged. As the institutions of higher education become increasingly…

The course the author teaches in Cultural Diversity is a requirement for pre-service teachers seeking a Preliminary Teaching Credential as well as for in-service teachers who have returned to earn the California Teachers of English Learners (CTEL) Certificate. As part of this course the author requires a literature analysis assignment. In this…

In this article, the authors endorse a model that uses themes as springboards for language improvement, accompanied by the added benefit of content learning, though to differing degrees depending on the instructional setting. The themes that teachers choose to integrate into their language classrooms may reflect serious issues (e.g., elections,…