The expansion of MOOCs (massive open online courses) is very much associated with instructors interested in the craft of teaching, innovating, and experimenting with different methods to improve and expand students' learning experience. The Erasmus+ project MOONLITE has worked to create cross-institutional scenarios and new educational pathways…

Language tests are useful for many purposes, including monitoring language learning progress and evaluating language programs. This study investigated the interpretations and usefulness of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview -- Computer (OPIc) scores across four languages at a large US…

Experts in the field have advocated for critical approaches to Spanish heritage language (HL) curricula in which learners' proficiency in the language varieties that they bring from their homes and communities is considered an asset and culturally valuable knowledge. The proposal described here focuses on the adoption of a programmatic…

The need for foreign language education in the US has increased in recent years, and teaching methods based on traditional textbooks are unlikely to meet the real-world needs of current learners. As a response, interest in Language for Specific Purposes programs has grown and so has Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) methodology. This article…

This report summarizes highlights from the Austin Independent School District Dual Language Program rubric classroom observations conducted in October 2015. Observers rated several aspects of program implementation according to the rubric and provided comments about classroom practices observed.

While families play a vital role in the early literacy skills of young English Learners, their educators often do not share the same backgrounds or cultures, and may not know how to connect with parents who are linguistically and culturally different. As part of a year-long grant funded professional development project, the authors led teams of…

First implemented in 1987, Success for All (SFA) is one of the best-known and most thoroughly evaluated school reform models. It combines three basic elements: (1) Reading instruction that emphasizes phonics for beginning readers and comprehension for students at all levels, and that is characterized by a highly structured curriculum, an emphasis…

The Ainsworth School Spanish Partial Immersion Program (Portland, Oregon) was established in 1987 to provide an elementary foreign language magnet program to children in the district. The program's major goals are bilingual proficiency and increased understanding of the second language culture. During 1989-1990, the program enrolled 205 students…

The results (compiled in 1989) of two studies relating to the Culver City (California) Spanish Immersion Program are presented. The program, begun in 1971, provides immersion education for kindergarten through fifth grade and is articulated with a middle school program for immersion students. In 1987, two surveys gathered parent and teacher…

A checklist is presented for the evaluation of an elementary-level bilingual program for Spanish speakers. Questions for check-off cover classroom organization, teacher behavior, specifics of English and Spanish instruction, home culture instruction, teaching methods, and reclassification criteria. It is maintained that a positive response to each…

To ascertain whether libraries are providing materials, services, and programs to their Spanish-speaking communities, a 26-item questionnaire was mailed to 37 public library directors in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Thirty-one completed questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 81%. The majority of libraries were found…

Project Comienzo, a bilingual pre-kindergarten program, was designed to help Spanish-speaking 3-year-old children flourish academically and socially, supported by the ratio of adults to children. The program served 17 students of limited English proficiency. A full-time bilingual teacher and a full-time educational assistant were used, and parents…

Data were collected relevant to the major decision and evaluation questions concerning the Title VII Pre-Kindergarten Program. This volume is a reference for those interested in replicating or studying the research and evaluation of this project. The instruments used to evaluate students and teachers are explained and evaluated. The Peabody…

First year planning and implementation of the Portland (Oregon) Partial Immersion Program in Spanish--an elementary magnet program providing a total language experience in a multi-cultural setting--were assessed. The program uses both Spanish and English to instruct students; half of the instructional day is conducted in each language. The…

This paper describes results of a questionnaire administered to over 700 students registered in lower-division Spanish courses in November 1973 at the University of Texas at Austin. The purpose of the questionnaire was to survey student attitudes and to move toward a means of evaluating beginning and intermediate level courses. On the basis of the…