The field of English as an additional language (EAL) advocates using authentic materials and meeting the needs of students. Yet often language in the EAL classroom appears to not reflect the linguistic variation (e.g., ethnic, regional, gender, sexual orientation, generational) of English typically encountered outside of the classroom. Therefore,…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise description of the European minority languages, Romani and Beash, in education. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects such as the number of schools,…

Linguist Rosina Lippi-Green concludes in her book, "English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States," "Accent discrimination can be found everywhere in our daily lives. In fact, such behavior is so commonly accepted, so widely perceived as appropriate, that it must be seen as the last back door to…

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing population in the US schools (National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2011); these students are consistently outperformed by their White counterparts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress data (NCES, 2011). While traditional English as a second language (ESL) classes…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise, description and basic statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects, such as the…

This regional dossier aims to provide concise, descriptive information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe--"Arberishtja" of Italy. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements, and support…

This article offers special educators suggestions for using the natural occurrence of multiple dialects in the school and community as a means to teach children about the nature of language in society, increase their language awareness, learn about dialects, and learn standard English as a second dialect if necessary. (DB)

This case study deals with language awareness (LA) oriented instruction in the Irish language classroom, based on qualitative-type research conducted in a class of 21 English-medium secondary students studying Irish as a subject. Having outlined the general background to the teaching of Irish in secondary schools, the first section of the paper…

The paper discusses some issues that language variation creates for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction, identifies research strands relevant to program development, and describes two dialect program exemplars. It also suggests considerations for educational policy formation with respect to dialects. The introductory section gives…

Current practices and materials for teaching English as a second language (ESL) contain oversimplifications about English based on the assumption of a uniform language type and standard of usage, presented to foreign learners for pedagogical clarity. ESL teachers may be aware of the language's diversity but are not prepared to provide…

Teachers can and should use the insights of ethnographic research responsibly in their teaching. Ethnography is an attempt to understand cultures or parts of cultures from the point of view of those who participate in them. It is in the discontinuity between home and school uses of literacy that most ethnographers who study literacy locate the…

Previous research on Spanish vocabulary for second language instruction has focused primarily on word frequency in a variety of print sources, and has the added disadvantages of being outdated and having too complex a format. A new, computer-based analysis of spoken Spanish from different dialect regions of the world was undertaken to provide more…

A guide for teachers of English as a second language (ESL) to native speakers of Hmong focuses on structural aspects of Hmong as contrasted with English and on ways in which the teacher can make the classroom a more natural environment for language learning by this group. The first chapter gives background information on the Hmong people, customs,…

This book addresses the growing need to familiarize classroom teachers with the structure and use of language. Written with future teachers in mind, it addresses the core areas they will find most relevant, introducing them to various types of linguistic analysis while covering the basics of phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax. Seven…

Three dictionaries are compared for their usefulness to teachers of English as a foreign language, teachers in training, students, and other users of English as a foreign language. The issue of monolingual versus bilingual dictionary format is discussed, and a previous analysis of the two bilingual dictionaries is summarized. Pronunciation…