This article is a comparative study of five pedagogical experiments that involved the use of the digital eZoomBook tool. An "eZoomBook" is a customized multi-level document incorporating links among the different layers that are accessible by tabs in a menu. eZoomBooks include a zooming in and out function allowing readers to navigate…

This study aimed to investigate EFL learner language anxiety and learning motivation of high school students. Subjects included 155 students from the same private senior high school in central Taiwan, 60 in academic track and 95 in vocational track. The majority of the participants started taking English lessons either before entering elementary…

Conventional wisdom holds that children learn languages implicitly whereas older learners learn languages explicitly, and some have claimed that after puberty only explicit language learning is possible. However, older learners often receive more explicit instruction than child L2 learners, which may affect their learning strategies. This study…

In this article, I describe studies conducted over 25 years with secondary and post-secondary L2 learners in the United States. The evidence from these studies shows that there are important connections between students' early L1 skills and their L2 aptitude and L2 proficiency and that individual differences in students' L1 skills in elementary…

This article considers the attitudes of pupils aged 9-11 years in Scotland towards their learning of a foreign language in primary school. It also considers their perception of difficulty, what they tell us causes them difficulty, their language preferences and the reasons for these. The article identifies any significant differences between boys…

This paper describes a subset of results from a large-scale two-year independent evaluation study conducted with the "Scientists in School" (SiS) outreach program and two large school boards in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, it explores the responses of elementary students (n= 811) from typically underrepresented groups in science…

This report reviews achievement gaps in both reading and math between ELL and non-ELL students in Arizona over the post-Proposition 203 period 2005-2009 and during the first year of implementation of the 4 hour ELD block, 2008-09. The study finds that Arizona has made little to no progress in closing the achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL…

The present study piloted a survey-based measure of Opportunity to Learn (OTL) and Academic Language Exposure (ALE) in fourth grade science classrooms that sought to distinguish teacher practices with ELL (English language learner) and non-ELL students. In the survey, participant teachers reported on their instructional practices and the context…

This study focused on the English language teaching methodologies used by a small number of the ELD teachers in Fullerton school district in the United States and EFL teachers in ABC school in Taiwan. The instruments, interview, observation and field notes, were used to gather the evidences of useful oral language teaching methodologies. Results…

What happens to English academic achievement when valued class time is devoted to a foreign language in the elementary schools (FLES) program? Is there a reduction in achievement as suggested by a time-on-task hypothesis, or is there some form of compensation, as suggested by additive bilingualism? The school district in this study started a FLES…

Analyzes curriculum-related papers in primary education published by the education departments of New South Wales, Australia, and Hong Kong. Examines and contrasts the ideological positions adopted by the two communities in their approaches to first language education. Shows that the Australian school discourse system exhibits characteristics of…

Definitions by elementary students were scored for conformity with Aristotelian form and information quality. School exposure to English was correlated with quality and quantity of formal definitions given. Results of this and a similar French-as-a-Foreign-Language exercise indicate that definitional ability depends on opportunity to practice…

Examines the efficacy of foreign language programs at the elementary school level by looking at three programs--immersion, partial immersion, and foreign language in the elementary school--currently found in 15 schools in the United States. Comparisons are made by measuring achievement in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. (SED)

Two methods for presenting cultural information to elementary school students in a French language program are compared, using 56 fifth graders as subjects. The findings support the use of video to enhance the teaching of culture to the child foreign language learner. (28 references) (Author/LB)