The purpose of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of a language-focused professional development programme on the knowledge and behaviour of preschool practitioners (sometimes called early years practitioners) in the UK. In Study 1 we determined whether the training received by practitioners is effective in improving their knowledge…

This work reports, from a qualitative research perspective, the development of an English Corner project for a preschool Children's House classroom in central Mexico over the course of a 3-year period. It shows the transition of a language specialist over six consecutive periods of work, from a traditional understanding and practice of teaching…

Immersion programs have long been considered the gold standard for school-based language revitalization, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to the quantity and quality of the input that they provide to young language learners. Drawing on new data from three such programs (Kaqchikel, Western Subanon, and Maori), each with its own…

In some areas of rural Africa, long-standing cultural traditions and beliefs may discourage parents from verbally engaging with their young children. This study assessed the effectiveness of a parenting program designed to encourage verbal engagement between caregivers and infants in Wolof-speaking villages in rural Senegal. Caregivers (n = 443)…

The first module of the online Master of Arts (MA) in Translation at the Open University, Introduction to Translation Theory and Practice, includes a language development strand which encourages students to diagnose their own language development needs and introduces them to tools, resources, strategies, and learning communities that will enable…

"How to give brain and body to the multiple pack that we already are or are becoming: how, in other words, are we to make sensible (auditory, visually and affectively) the time before 'I think' and 'We think' that we cannot plan, control or know, but simply experiment with, which is the 'time of the city' and nothing else?" (Rajchman,…

This article discusses the importance of family practices to children's acquisition of literacy and describes attempts to influence such practices through the institution of family literacy programmes. One of these is the Family Literacy Project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which both served as a model and provided material for a similar…

We review the development of the Jamaican home visiting intervention for children under 4 years and its evidence base. The intervention has focused on supporting mothers to promote the development of their children through interacting in a responsive way, labelling the environment and activities. The curriculum is structured and cognitively…

As English increasingly becomes the international language, many ministerial and educational organisations have identified the need to improve the competence of Thai students in speaking English. While there is significant research devoted to developing software tools to support the teaching of English as a second language, they are mostly…

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is currently implementing a program to improve the language proficiency of pilots and air traffic controllers worldwide. In justifying the program, ICAO has cited a number of airline accidents that were at least partly caused by language factors. Two accidents cited by ICAO are analysed in this…

This report contains a summary of ideas presented at a series of meetings in 1990 on children's literacy sponsored by the Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Education as well as a listing of specific proposal for future action. Named "Partnerships for Children's Literacy," the project focused on community partnerships that currently exist, or…

The use of closed circuit television to teach language and speech to congenitally deaf secondary school children in England is discussed. The equipment enables the staff to record material and add subtitles before showing it to the students. (PHR)

Describes Project Desert Shield, a curriculum that preschool children and teachers at a U.S. military base in Germany developed to embrace and constructively deal with the interests and concerns of the children about Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm through dramatic play. (Author/BB)

This monograph describes the development of a language program for four-year-old disadvantaged boys in Northern Ireland. Various sections of the work describe the steps in devising the program; its objectives, organization, evaluations, and subsequent modifications; the problems affecting implementation, and the efforts made to overcome them; the…

Presented is the report of a travel seminar to the Soviet Union in late 1972 by 12 American special educators as part of a reciprocal agreement for an exchange of educators. The eight chapters were written by seminar participants with expertise in the area being considered. The text opens with a general discussion of the administration of…