This paper reports the outcomes of an experimental evaluation of "Direct Instruction Spoken English" ("DISE"), an English language curriculum that focuses on developing English speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in English Learners (ELs). Twenty-nine middle schools in three states were randomly assigned to teach…

This paper reports the outcomes of an experimental evaluation of "Direct Instruction Spoken English (DISE)," an English language curriculum that focuses on developing English speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in English Learners (ELs). Twenty-nine middle schools in three states were randomly assigned to teach "DISE"…

We describe the design and development of a technology-based inference-making intervention system that includes a set of interactive learning modules, each of which engages students to (a) view age-appropriate children's videos, (b) learn vocabulary words that are central to main ideas in each video, (c) respond to inferential questions, (d)…

This quasi-experimental study examined expressive vocabulary outcomes for Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP) toddlers, after one year of home-visiting services. First, this study applied Rasch modelling to establish the construct validity and reliability of a widely used expressive vocabulary measure, as modified for a sample of ethnic and…

This article reports on the outcomes of a longitudinal case study to gauge the impact of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) on two of the least researched language skills: oral comprehension and production. It worked with 24 students in the fourth grade of Compulsory Secondary Education in a public school in Andalusia (southern Spain)…

This paper investigates the differences in academic achievement trajectories from elementary through middle school among English Learner students in four different instructional programs: English Immersion, Transitional Bilingual, Developmental Bilingual, and Dual Immersion programs. Comparing students with the same parental preferences but who…

Automated scoring by means of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) has been introduced lately to improve the traditional human scoring system. The purposes of the present study were to develop a LSA-based assessment system to evaluate children's Chinese sentence construction skills and to examine the effectiveness of LSA-based automated scoring function…

Cognitive load theory has been utilized by second language acquisition (SLA) researchers to account for differences in learner performance with regards to different learning tasks. Certain instructional designs were shown to have an impact on cognitive load and working memory, and this impact was found to be accentuated in a multimedia environment…

In 1983, in the Netherlands' highly differentiated school system, two types of curriculum representing different ability levels were combined as a first step towards a more heterogeneous grouping of student abilities. A study of one aspect of the results of this change compared over 1000 samples of English and German second language listening…

The statement presents a consensus of what South Carolina educators expect children to know and be able to do in foreign languages, and the changes needed in the educational system to support what teachers and students do in the classroom. It is not a curriculum guide, but is intended for use by policymakers, instructional leaders, teachers, and…

Study abroad professionals have attempted in recent years to bring a statistical objectivity to the evaluation of the American study abroad experience. The complexity of international education is such that it is far from easy to move towards significant, objectively measurable, and comparable outcomes. This article presents a preliminary…

A study evaluated the relative pedagogical and cost effectiveness of training programs for international teaching assistants (ITAs) that are conducted before and within the academic year. Both program types were established at the University of Illinois during the academic year 1989-90, with similar content, the same number of contact hours, the…

This document is the result of a national Mainstream English Language Training workgroup. Guidelines and suggestions are presented, in five chapters, for English Language Training (ELT) programs. Chapter one deals with the scope and design of particular ELT programs, taking into account the clients to be served, the needs of the service locale,…

The annotated bibliography of research on Canadian core French programs, in which French is taught as a regular subject in English-language schools, provides a comprehensive summary of empirical research since 1970. It includes research reports from school boards, reports of government-funded research, unpublished theses, published books, and…