Derivational suffixes are known to play a crucial role in assigning stress to multi-syllabic words among native English speakers. However, it is unclear whether second language (L2) learners of English can effectively use derivational suffixes as stress cues in written words. To address this gap, we studied if native Chinese-speaking adults…

Writing, as a highly complex strategic literacy skill alongside reading, is an essential prerequisite for learning and determines a student's educational success. In diverse contexts, a student's linguistic repertoire may involve multiple languages, which may serve as mutual resources in his or her multilingual writing skill development. Drawing…

The aims of the current project were to: (1) describe average change in the use of academic words across the school year in writing and (2) examine potential predictors of growth in academic word use in response to morphology-focused supplemental instruction. Investigators utilized written expository responses of 824 students in 5th grade before…

The purpose of this study was to compare the motivational incentives for writing of middle school emergent bilingual students with their peers whose first language was English. The study included 285 emergent bilingual students (146 girls, 139 boys) who were matched with 285 native English speakers (NE) on race, gender, and grade. The emergent…

We examined the contributions of English proficiency, genre, and the use of textual sources to adolescent writing. The sample included 1819 native English speakers and language minority students from 127 seventh- and eighth-grade classes in an urban school district. Students were randomly assigned one of three source-based essay prompts…

This study examined how students of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different first language (L1) backgrounds use interactional metadiscourse markers in argumentative writing. Specifically, to explore unique patterns of metadiscourse features that reflect context and development, the essays written by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean EFL…

The linguistic interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 1979, 2000) states that children's second-language (L2) proficiency is, to some extent, a function of their first-language (L1) competence. Previous studies have examined this hypothesis with focus on a unidirectional relation from L1 to L2. In the present study, we examined…

This study explores the possibility of adapting specific progress-monitoring tools developed in the US for use in English-medium private schools in Bangalore. In the US, many teachers adopt progress-monitoring tools like the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and Curriculum Based Measurement (easyCBM) to keep track of their…

In the Netherlands, Turkish-Dutch children constitute a substantial group of children who learn to speak Dutch at the age of four after they learned to speak Turkish. These children are generally academically less successful. Academic success appears to be affected by both language proficiency and working memory skill. The goal of this study was…

International studies, such as the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA), have shown that, in most participating countries, students who do not typically speak the test language at home reach lower levels of reading comprehension than students using the test language at home (Stanat & Christensen, "2006").…

The goal of this experimental intervention study was to determine if evidence-based instructional strategies for general vocabulary words are effective with middle school English learner (EL) students and academic vocabulary words. Participants showed significantly more growth in their knowledge of academic vocabulary during the treatment…