Teachers of English language learners in 21st-century classrooms face a daunting task. The nature of language is complex, learners' needs are diverse, academic content challenges students, and the demand for accountability is an educational reality. "Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL English Language Proficiency Standards in PreK-12 Classrooms"…

It is crucial that foreign language teachers know well what kinds of grammar teaching strategies best aid learning in the classroom in order to adjust their teaching toward a practical and successful approach. Much of the debate about how to help EFL learners achieve grammatical proficiency centers on the implicit versus explicit, or deductive…

This study examines the language learning strategies employed by successful learners of English as a foreign and second language. Two successful English learners whose first languages are Mandarin were interviewed, and asked to complete a questionnaire and a self-evaluation measure to indicate their perceived level of language proficiency as well…

Learning strategy research has been very prolific and much has been written about the field and its importance to language learning. This paper traces the history and development of learning strategy research by anchoring it in the field of cognitive psychology in the early years from 1970 to 1990 before reviewing the varied and descriptive nature…

English Language Learners (ELLs)--students whose second language is English and who are not fully proficient in English--constitute the fastest growing portion of the K-12 student population. Because many of these students tend to do poorly in school, teachers are encouraged to regularly use research-based practices to improve these students'…

As a result of investigations showing that communication problems can be a significant contributing factor to major aviation accidents, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has established a set of Language Proficiency Requirements. All pilots and air traffic controllers engaged in international aviation must be certified by their…

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…

During an investigation into the L2 proficiency and L3 acquisition skills of 10- to 12-year-olds in Irish primary schools, questions of metalinguistic awareness and cross-linguistic influence were raised. Do children who are more balanced bilinguals develop a higher sense of metalinguistic awareness than less balanced bilinguals? What evidence of…

The ideology of monolingualism prevails throughout society, including within minority ethnic communities who are bilingual and multilingual. Some minority ethnic communities in Britain believe that the response to the dominance of English language is to replace it with other languages. Complementary schools--language and culture classes organised…

Video is commonly employed as curriculum enhancement in the foreign language classroom. The use of video as a mediation tool for language production tasks is relatively less cognizant by researchers and practitioners, which points to an area worthy of investigation. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the potential of learner video production…

This article examines the question of whether university-based high-level foreign language and linguistic training can influence brain activation and whether different L2 proficiency groups have different brain activation in terms of lateralization and hemispheric involvement. The traditional and prevailing theory of hemispheric involvement in…

Secondary science teachers are faced with an increasing number of students whose first language is not English and charged with preparing them for federal- and state-mandated end-of-course exams. In many states, these high-stakes tests play a crucial role in making decisions about promotion, graduation, and placement. Current policies generally…

"Decoding"--converting the written symbols (or graphemes) of an alphabetical writing system into the sounds (or phonemes) they represent, using knowledge of the language's symbol/sound correspondences--has been argued to be an important but neglected skill in the teaching of second language (L2) French in English secondary schools.…

The authors conducted an analysis of 1,049 graduates from post-graduate business programs at an Australian university primarily to determine whether students from nonbusiness backgrounds, after completing a business preparation program, perform at the same academic level as students with prior studies in business. The authors found that students…

This study draws on sociocultural theory to explore how adult ESL learners interact with either a higher- or a lower-proficiency peer during pair problem solving, and how they each perceive the interactions with their partners. Three ESL learners engaged in a three-stage task: pair writing; pair noticing; and individual writing with two learners,…