This study investigates the policy sensemaking of urban educators on the "Read by Grade Three" (RBG3) Law and their sensemaking impacts on English Learners' (ELs') learning experiences. Applying a critical cultural policy sensemaking framework, I conducted an urban district case study to highlight educators' perceptions and behaviors in…

According to the Michigan Department of Education, between 2011 and 2017, the number of multilingual learners (MLs) enrolled in K-12 schools in the state increased by more than 50%. In 2017, the average teacher to ML ratio in the state was an alarmingly low 1:168. To increase the number of teachers prepared to effectively serve MLs, we developed…

This quantitative study sought to learn if instructional mode (online, blended, traditional) had an impact on evidence-based reading and writing SAT scores for English Language Learners, as well as if WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment) is a predictor of the evidence-based reading and writing SAT scores for ELL students. This…

This article contributes to the literature on the value of Virtual Exchanges (VEs) in the field of technology-mediated language learning. Specifically, we report on a pilot program for high school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Slovakia and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners in Michigan, USA who engaged in a 10-week,…

This program profile describes how teachers and administrators have collaborated in the design and implementation of a number of linguistic, cultural, and transmodal pedagogical and curricular initiatives. Strategies that writing teachers can implement to best meet the needs of multilingual students across a range of institutional contexts are…

Scholars such as Diane Kelly-Riley and Patricia Bizzell have argued that the student writing feature most likely to place a student into a basic writing course is the presence of dialect other than standard academic English. This essay examines how assessment practices can foster students' diverse languages rather than inhibit them. I conducted a…

Finding an effective instruction mode for ESL students in the US educational system has not been an easy task. The country's secondary and tertiary institutions continue to struggle to meet the needs of their large non-native student populations. The article revisits the debate whether sheltered instruction is an effective model to follow. In our…

In this "First Person Singular" essay, the author describes her education, teaching experience, and interest in understanding the learning of language. Anyone reading this essay will not be surprised to learn that the author's questions about language learning and optimal teaching methods were only met with further questions, and no…

A key element in vocabulary instruction is to get the students to "feel" the vocabulary and make it a part of their new language identity; that is, helping the students to "own" the terms is a top priority of language instructors. Using verbpathy as a tool meets this goal. The idea of using verbpathy in vocabulary instruction…

This piece, a preface to a reprinted 1971 article on communication practice, focuses on the need for real communication in the language classroom. In this article, the author drifts back to inspiring times in the 1960s and reflects on some events that prompted him to write the article in the first place.

This article presents the narratives centered on intergenerational linguistic and cultural transmission for three farmworker families. It does so through the analysis of personal narratives provided by three families in rural Michigan, which were collected over a five-year span. The participants discuss the sociocultural significance of…

This article describes three service-learning projects implemented in three different ESL programs in the United States. Each description includes typical course goals, service-learning assignments, reflection activities, student learning outcomes, and pedagogical challenges. The first project was developing digital literacy through…

This article provides an overview of research conducted with Somali Bantu refugee students in two contexts: Michigan and South Texas. We provide recommendations for outreach to refugee families and their families, for instruction in the classroom, for advising and support for these children, and for implementing school and district policy as it…

In this study, we present the analyses stemming from a survey administered to 2149 foreign language learners at Michigan State University. We had three goals. First, we aimed to compile a profile of language learners' technological acumen, access to and ownership of technology, and the current uses of technology across a wide range of languages…

In this article, the author reports on what he found impressive in the evaluation results of the program Reading First (RF) in four states: Utah, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The author states that responding to these four exemplary state-level studies of Reading First evoked mixed feelings. He noticed three things: (1) the RF effect…