Van Lier's [2004. "The Ecology and Semiotics of Language Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective." Boston: Kluwer Academy] concept of ecology of language learning is applicable to our focus on children's active engagement in bilingual preschool classroom activities, which are conducive to language learning. The aim of this study was to…

The 2023 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages was held in Columbus, Ohio on March 9-11. This year's theme, Empathy, Equity, and Empowerment is reflective of the vital work educators do in classrooms every day across the country. The Wikipedia definition of empathy is "the capacity to understand or feel what another…

This study was designed to investigate the nature of activities in an immersion English class and a non-immersion English class in the mainland of China, and to find out the differences between these two types of class through data gained from observation and interviews. Spoken discourse analysis was used to analyze the data, where Engestrom's…

What is the role of the teacher in developing learner autonomy? The limited research in this area is seldom situated in theory and often based on self-reported data. This study is situated in sociocultural theory and draws on two constructs, the zone of proximal development and imitation, to explain the teacher's role in developing autonomy. The…

This paper explores L2 novices' ways of soliciting teacher attention, more specifically, their summonses. The data are based on detailed analyses of video recordings in a Swedish language immersion classroom. The analyses illuminate the lexical shape of summonses in conjunction with prosody, body posture, gestures, and classroom artefacts. As…

The present study focuses on young EFL learners' use of the L2 to convey various linguistic functions (ask for information, talk about personal things, etc.). Based on the functional categories identified by Halliday (1975) and Painter (1999) in the development of the L1, and after having observed the use of these functions in a full-immersion EFL…

Grounded in sociocultural theory, this study uses an ecological approach to examine how student interactions within a dual-language school context may offer affordances for increased linguistic and conceptual understanding. Using qualitative analysis of student discourse, this paper focuses on data from recorded interactions between pairs of…

In this paper, we explore the intersection of practice, identity, resources and literacy central to the New Literacy Studies and recent second language research informed by sociocultural theories of learning and language. Drawing on the construct figured worlds of literacy that describe how representations of literacy practices invoked in relation…

This curriculum unit is for use in an elementary school foreign language immersion program in Montgomery County, Maryland. The unit is geared toward the second grade science classroom. It includes instructional and performance objectives, vocabulary lists, optional language structure sections, illustrations, activities, evaluation suggestions, and…

This curriculum unit, developed by the Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland, was designed for use in the elementary level foreign language immersion program. It is geared toward the first grade science classroom. The unit includes instructional and performance objectives, necessary vocabulary lists, optional language structure sections,…

This curriculum unit, developed by the Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland, was designed for use in an elementary level foreign language immersion program. It is geared toward the sixth grade social studies classroom. The unit includes instructional and performance objectives, necessary vocabulary lists, optional language structure…

Focuses on research addressing how to integrate content and language teaching, with specific reference to studies conducted in French immersion classrooms. Findings indicate that teachers should structure activities to incorporate a focus on form into content teaching through teacher-led instruction and collaborative tasks with peers. (21…

This annotated bibliography of children's literature presents 74 books and stories that can be used in the classroom to introduce literature in French to children in fourth through sixth grades. The selected texts (51 titles in fiction and 23 titles in non-fiction) were chosen for their age-appropriate language and themes, as well as their…

This document, comprising volume 5, issues 1-3 of Learning Languages: The Journal of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), includes the following articles: "Poverty, Race, and Foreign Language Immersion: Predictors of Math and English Language Arts Performance" (Stephen J. Caldas, Nicole Boudreaux); "Meet a…

Drawing on data from a yearlong qualitative study of a primary-grade English immersion class of Spanish-dominant Latina and Latino students, the author analyzes bilingual children's acts of translation during classroom activities. After pointing out the numerous positive benefits that resulted from these acts, the author suggests that encouraging…