Discusses the theoretical foundation for sentence combining exercises for intermediate and advanced students in English as a second language (ESL) composition classes. A description is given of a three-stage sequencing of exercises, each successive stage corresponding to a less-controlled level within Paulston's framework of mechical, meaningful,…

Reports on findings from the first phase of an ongoing research project that is investigating English-language learners in middle school social studies classrooms. The article analyzes features of social studies academic language from text and classroom discourse and reviews cultural diversity as it is represented in popular textbooks. (Contains…

Summarizes research on educational programs that use stigmatized varieties of English in the classroom, and reviews relevant theory and research in psycholinguistics and second language acquisition. Research on educational programs shows that using the stigmatized variety in formal education seems to have a positive effect on the acquisition of…