This study uses data from the child and adult components of the 2001 Canadian Aboriginal Peoples Survey to examine what factors are related to speaking an Aboriginal language and how speaking an Aboriginal language is related to school outcomes. Even after controlling for child and family factors (age, sex, health status, household income, number…

This article examines the role of language policies in mediating access and equity in education. By examining a range of research and case studies on language policies, the authors explore how educational language policies serve as a central gatekeeper to education itself, as well as to quality education that may fundamentally depend on language…

This article reports analysis of data collected from a quasi-experimental study in 2 Canadian late French immersion science classes. We examine if, how, and when the first language (L1) is used when students in the first years of their second language learning talk about complex science concepts. We compare differences in groups following a…

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify differences in the neural processes underlying direct and semidirect interviews. We examined brain activation patterns while 20 native speakers of Japanese participated in direct and semidirect interviews in both Japanese (first language [L1]) and English (second language…

In light of the increasing student diversity in U.S. university composition classrooms, there is a strong need for collaboration between L1 and L2 writing specialists. Differences in the lexicons of our two fields, however, as well as the philosophical differences embedded in our word choices, can hinder productive L1-L2 communication. The purpose…

This article documents the heritage-language (HL) literacy practices of three Japanese American families residing in a predominantly Anglo and Latino community. Through interviews and observations, this study investigates Japanese children's HL-literacy practices, parental attitudes toward HL literacy, and challenges in HL-literacy development in…

While there is growing evidence that pronunciation teaching can work, there is a need to establish what it is that makes it work. The study reported here tested for the effect of two particular factors: socially constructed metalanguage (SCM) and critical listening (CL). SCM is a term proposed for metalanguage developed by students working…

Numerous researchers have studied bilingual students' performance on word problems given that reading and writing these requires that they draw on linguistic and mathematical knowledge (Barwell, 2009a, 2009b). Some researchers have studied how bilinguals write word problems in the second language, but few have considered how bilinguals use their…

This study is about the information-seeking behavior that bilingual users -- specifically, native Chinese speakers whose second language is English -- exhibit when performing an online search. Bilingual online searching occurs when bilingual users submit queries to search for information in two languages. This study seeks to explore the…

Global research has shown the persistence of inequality with regard to accessing curriculum with a view to obtaining suitable work and making useful contributions to society. The intersection of race, gender, language and low socio-economic levels creates situations which often marginalize ethnic minorities in school settings (Freire, 1968; Nieto…

This article examines marital patterns and use of mother tongue at home among native-born Asian Americans using the 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Public Use Microdata Sample. There are variations in mother-tongue use across Asian ethnic groups, but variations among different types of marriage are even greater. Those who marry within…

One common way of assessing learners' proficiency in second language (L2) listening comprehension is by comprehension-restitution (C-R), whereby learners write down what they have heard. The various forms of C-R differ according to characteristics of the input (e.g., length, speech rate) and of the output (e.g., amount of detail requested). The…

Despite the increasing recognition of the need for critical perspectives in teaching English to speakers of other languages, critical literacy remains very much a marginalised practice. The implementation of critical literacy is still limited in English-as-a-second-language classrooms and is almost non-existent in English-as-a-foreign-language…

Predictors of age 10 spelling and reading comprehension skills in both Chinese and English from vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and word reading at age 8 were tested in this longitudinal study of 141 Hong Kong Chinese children learning to read English as a second language. The correlation between…

Variability in achievement across learners is a hallmark of second language (L2) learning, especially in academic-based learning. The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), based on a large, population-representative sample in the United Kingdom, provides the first opportunity to examine individual differences in second language achievement in a…