Memorization is essential when new knowledge is based on association with existing knowledge. It is key in acquiring logographic languages, such as Chinese and Japanese. Such languages present challenges to students possessed of alphabet-based mother tongues. To meet these challenges, we discuss a technology-enhanced learning method to address the…

This review highlights some areas of current interest in teaching students to spell and how spelling skills develop. The topics covered in the paper include: theories of spelling acquisition, theories guiding effective teaching, the importance of word study approaches across the age range, the influence of technology on learning to spell, spelling…

Because a large number of Chinese characters are commonly used in both Japanese and Chinese, Chinese-speaking learners of Japanese as a second language (JSL) find it more challenging to learn Japanese functional expressions than to learn other Japanese vocabulary. To address this challenge, we have developed "Jastudy," a…

This article reviews the current research on stroke order of "hanzi" (as used to write the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages) in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). Based on an extensive review of current research on stroke order, it first discusses the importance and difficulty of stroke order in "hanzi"…

The greatest difficulty in reading Arabic script for nonnatives is the absence of short vowels. The correlation of 28 consonants with sounds poses no great difficulty. In Arabic, there are six vowel phonemes which are voiced only by three letters with help of some relevant diacritical marks (?arakat). As the bulk of Arabic publications is written…

Spelling error corpora can be collected from students' written essays, homework, dictations, translations, tests and lecture notes. Spelling errors can be classified into whole word errors, faulty graphemes and faulty phonemes in which graphemes are deleted, added, reversed or substituted. They can be used for identifying phonological and…

Transfer of reading strategies from the first language (L1) to the second language (L2) has long puzzled educators, but what happens if the L1 is an alphabet language and the second is not, or if there is a mismatch in the languages' grapheme-phoneme connection? Although some students readily adjust to reading and writing in their second language,…

This comprehensive volume describes evidence-based strategies for supporting English language learners (ELLs) by promoting meaningful communication and language use across the curriculum. Leading experts explain how and why learning is different for ELLs and pinpoint specific best practices for the classroom, illustrated with vivid examples.…

When the United States formally took control of Hawai'i in 1898, the eighty-something years of Americans living among the "kanaka maoli," called "Hawaiians" in English, had already positioned them above the "maka'ainana," or commoners. By the end of the nineteenth century 90 percent of all kanaka had died from foreign diseases, and the 40,000 or…

One of the difficulties secondary non-Chinese-speaking background (NCSB) learners are facing is to remember the characters learned in order to recall them when necessary. The traditional way of teaching secondary NCSB learners to remember Chinese characters is through mere repetition, e.g. writing out each single character by following its stroke…

Computers, computer programs, and other novel and vivid technological applications to language learning can unintentionally redirect attentional resources and therefore increase the salience of unplanned as well as targeted features. Incidental activities such as keyboarding (Henry, 1992), manipulation of a mouse (Meunier, 1996), and other…

Since independence, the government of Botswana has allowed only the use of English in government circles, excluding the other 26 languages represented in the country and allowing only limited use of the national language, Setswana. Since 1995, however, restrictions have been relaxed and non-government organizations are developing the use of other…