The following article is an adapted and abridged excerpt from The Language Immersion Life: A Guide for Families by Millie Park Mellgren (2017). This book features answers to the most common questions Dr. Mellgren was asked as an elementary immersion principal. The volume features commentary and data gleaned from surveys given to hundreds of former…

Jeff McQuillan offers case studies of intermediate level language learners who read young adult and adult fiction successfully as an argument against explicit vocabulary instruction. Case studies provide useful insights into whatever is being investigated but may not always be generalizable. However, McQuillan's reference to case studies has made…

This is a conceptual paper, based on several semesters of collaboration in which the American author interacted with students in the Taiwanese author's EFL classes in Taiwan. The best native language users are typically those who read extensively, especially reading for pleasure in their youth. This gives them a large vocabulary and an intuitive…

In this case history, the author describes how her journey as a reader evolved from a poor reader who did not like to read in elementary school into an avid trilingual reader in graduate school. Once she discovered the joy of reading, each language in which she read had its own purpose and emotional connection. She credits self-selected reading…

Describes the use of Accelerated Reader, a computer program that instantly provides scored tests on a variety of books read by high school ESL (English as a Second Language) students as free voluntary reading. Topics include reading improvement programs, including writing assignments; and changes in students' reading habits. (LRW)

Offers eight teaching suggestions from teachers, regarding an effective strategy for teaching inferential comprehension, how to chose a good book, book celebrations, annotation writing for developmental readers, an assignment to promote reading for pleasure, a discussion group program for adult new readers, memo writing as an information network,…

Four approaches to the teaching of second language (L2) reading are described (grammar-translation, comprehension questions/exercises, skills and strategies, and extensive reading) and their status in the reading classroom is examined, and important issues in L2 reading are then discussed, including word recognition, affective and sociocultural…