Science learning is important for the well-being of individuals and society. Acquiring the knowledge necessary for success in science is not easy because science involves relational thinking, or the ability to abstract and generalize from similarities between concepts. Using relational words, or shared linguistic labels that identify commonalities…

This study examines student-teachers' opinions about the spread of the English in general, and the ramifications of its spread as to its co-existence with other languages, speaker profiles, and probable extensions in form and function in two geographically different but English language policy-wise identical Expanding circle countries, i.e.,…

This study investigates Swedish students' ability to produce the discourse of the subject history, in a situation where they had to demonstrate historical knowledge in written explanations, and where both English and Swedish are involved. The students attend a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programme at the upper secondary school…

This article shows how students confront offensive language head-on by researching its history and reconsidering its use in contemporary conversation. It describes an assignment in which students study the histories and social reception of words (in some cases considered obscenities) used to insult people of various social categories. Students…

In studies of minority language education, researchers tend to base their arguments on the assumption that knowledge empowers and ignorance disempowers. In this article, however, I show two alternative dynamics of knowledge and relations of dominance by drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork at a secondary school in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1997-8.…

Presents a series of 10 true-false statements pertaining to dialect, then discusses the correct answers. (FL)

Data on foreign language learning and conversational usage from 12 European Union member states (n=13,029) indicate language learning has increased considerably in 40 years. Of the most commonly learned languages (English, French, German), English has gained most, suggesting emergence as a lingua franca. One analysis gauged the probability that a…

The report explores the situation of francophone minorities in Canada and outside Quebec, focusing on the concepts of assimilation and community vitality in language-minority communities. Chapter 1 looks at the concepts of assimilation and community vitality both in Canada and internationally. Chapter 2 gives a broad description of the policy…

A survey of teacher trainees at the University of Southampton (England) investigated trainee knowledge level of English grammar and of language use around the world. Responses of English and modern language teacher trainees (n=19), non-language teacher trainees (n=35), and in some cases, undergraduates from the general student population (n=238)…

Analysis of French used in teleconferences between American and French university students, relative to technical and discursive dimensions and learners' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), found much of the language used was beyond these learners' capability, due to heightened classroom anxiety and differences in language varieties used by…

A Hong Kong program to train secondary school teachers in the use of English as the medium of classroom instruction is reported and discussed. The program provides assistance to teachers accustomed to using mixed code in the classroom and who must use English consistently, and helps English teachers understand how they can support teachers of…

This book focuses on communication as the central feature in teaching and learning within second language classrooms. It examines the classroom as a unique communication context with highly regulated patterns of communicative behavior that are actively negotiated between teacher and students, and explores how and why these patterns of…