Background: The Progress in International Reading and Literacy 2021 results draw stark attention to an ongoing crisis in primary education in South Africa. Research attempting to understand and address continued underperformance has focused on literacy learning and teaching in schools where the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) is the same…

This article describes a case study on a reading programme, named Reading Strategies Training Scheme (RSTS), for second language learning in a Hong Kong primary (elementary) school. The scheme, serving learners of English as a second language from Primary One to Six (ages 6--12), was developed by the school's English teaching team. As it was being…

This research concentrates on Malaysian language policy and its impacts on the development of English language (regarded as a second language in Malaysia) specifically on reading culture. The main objectives of this research are to investigate the weaknesses and strengths of the policy and also to come out with recommendations to improve the…

Students whose first language is not English are the fastest-growing group in public schools in all regions of the United States. Almost 10 million children between the ages of five and 17 live in the homes and communities in which a language other than English in spoken and presently most schools in the U.S. are under-educating many English…

Describes a two-year research project in Portugal for the purpose of helping teachers cope with the problem of teaching Cape Verdian children (nonnative speakers of Portuguese) to read Portuguese successfully. (SR)

Examines the benefits of choral reading as they relate to language acquisition in general. Focuses on second-language learners as the authors explore factors that promote second language acquisition and the role that choral reading plays in enhancing children's progress. (MG)

Describes the reading development of two Hispanic children during their first-grade year. Uses a qualitative, "confessional" narrative genre. Portrays their literacy emergence in relation to the teacher's expectations and the classroom balanced reading program. Interprets the children's reading development in light of current controversies in…

This Spanish reader for children in kindergarten and first grade is about a drop of water that comes to life in a trip through the water cycle of evaporation, condensation, and subsequent return to a drier part of the earth's surface environment. The story is suitable for reading aloud or independent reading. The text is entirely in Spanish.…

This Greek reader for children in kindergarten and first grade is about a drop of water that comes to life in a trip through the water cycle of evaporation, condensation, and subsequent return to a drier part of the earth's surface environment. The story is suitable for reading aloud or independent reading. The text is entirely in Greek.…

These two books, designed for use in bilingual education programs, are parallel versions in English and in Spanish of the story of a young Puerto Rican boy who lives in New York. The story, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, is designed for oral activities with first graders and for reading and comprehension with second and third…

Discusses a model of the reading process drawn from ideas used in foreign language instruction and resting on the distinction between reading acquisition and reading learning. Explains how the model can be applied in the classroom. (FL)

Reviews the problems of bilingual education in the primary grades in the Philippines and concludes that most of them arise from graphic interference between the first language of the country, Pilipino, and English, the second language. (FL)

Describes the rationale and methods used in Mexico for developing and using bilingual materials for both primary school students and adults. Presents a modification of the system that is designed to improve native-language skills while teaching English as a second language. (FL)

A study of the French immersion program in Quebec, in which English reading is introduced in some schools at Grade 2 and in some at Grade 3. The stage at which English reading was first taught was found not to affect reading grade level. (Author/RM)

A first-grade teacher used comic books as read-alouds during her implementation of a reading/writing workshop. The students, primarily English-language learners, were able to make use of this medium in order to learn new reading practices. The teacher used the comics to teach multiple aspects of various reading processes such as reading with an…