Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a vocabulary deficit. One of the most effective interventions for increasing children's lexicon size is the semantic and phonological approach, an approach that has been used mainly with adolescents. The goals of our study are (1) to test whether the semantic-phonological approach…

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of a language-focused professional development programme on the knowledge and behaviour of preschool practitioners (sometimes called early years practitioners) in the UK. In Study 1 we determined whether the training received by practitioners is effective in improving their knowledge…

Do learners of a second language (L2) need frequent contact with native speakers of that language in order to master its phonology? What if they hear audio recordings of native speakers and receive immediate corrective feedback about their perception? We used a randomized controlled experiment with 135 Chinese speakers (with English as their L2)…

Dual language (DL) programs propose to be vehicles of social justice and transformation by valuing an additional language other than the dominant one in a society and thereby contesting language hierarchies and the subordination of those who speak/use a non-dominant language (Flores, Flores, Educational Policy 30:13-38, 2016; Menken and García,…

The present study, framed from a critical and transformative approach to teacher education, aims to investigate whether language portraits (Prasad, 2010)--the mapping of one's language and cultural make-up on a body template--can help improve student teachers' self-understanding about language and identities and can foster critical reflection…

During the summer of 2005, a longtime Japanese teacher at a K-8 school in southwestern Pennsylvania unexpectedly resigned. The school, unable to recruit a new teacher for the 2005-2006 school year, chose to suspend the teaching of Japanese and to establish a committee to examine the foreign language program within the overall school curriculum. In…

Urges educators to utilize metaphors in language instruction. Two experiments support this position. The results of the first experiment reveal that students learn lexical items more efficiently if presented in metaphors. The results of the second experiment indicate the usefulness of metaphors in developing students' critical thinking. (CFM)

Some Grade 4 educators have expressed feelings of ineptitude regarding the support of ESL (English Second Language) learners with limited English proficiency as they do not know how to support these learners effectively. Their litany emphasises ESL educators' need for supportive and preventive intervention. A story-based Language Enrichment…

Reports on use of poetry as a teaching tool. Discusses value of reading poetry to students daily, and presents writing samples from student journals. Includes definitions of forms of poetry and guidelines for sharing poetry. (DLH)

Discusses the collaboration that developed among two classroom teachers and a university instructor while one of the teachers visited classrooms to investigate the question: How can classroom teachers promote children's language and language skills? (HTH)

This pamphlet offers some suggestions on the use of Welsh as a second language in Welsh schools. In the present-day situation the goal of a bilingual Wales is far from realized; it appears that equal fluency in both languages is seldom achieved. A case is made for: (1) thorough grounding in a child's home language before the introduction of a…

The many ways in which children use language are examined in this paper, and classroom implications are outlined. The first part of the paper discusses such topics as young children's focus on meaning in language, teachers' tendency to examine language in terms of form rather than meaning, and the importance of the student/teacher interaction…

Reviews two studies whose results indicate that students who share computers develop better work skills and social attitudes. One study, using eighth graders and a computer simulation, measured performance on worksheets and final exams. The second study used language learning via computer-assisted instruction to compare results on achievement…

A longitudinal investigation determined the growth of reading comprehension from third to fifth grades in a cohort of students who received Language Enrichment (LE), an Orton-Gillingham-based literacy program, during first and second grades. The LE instruction was provided by regular education teachers who received comprehensive training in…

This study delineates the interaction of language and culture as it relates to foreign language instruction and describes appropriate teaching strategies for the implementation of culture in the foreign language classroom. The study is based on the thesis that language and culture are not separable; the teaching of culture is properly a part of…