Validation of a classroom observation measure for use with English Learners (ELs) in Grade 1 is the focus of this study. Fourteen teachers were observed during reading and language arts instruction with an instrument used to generate overall ratings of instructional quality on a number of dimensions. In these classrooms, the reading performance of…

In this essay the author attempts to put forward an innovative teaching mode in the course of "English Conversation" for sophomore English majors in China. In this mode an authentic conversation is used as the teaching material and the theoretic aspects of Conversation Analysis (CA) are applied for the teaching of the course. This mode…

Improving the way to teach writing requires deepening one's understanding of the process of writing. Each chapter in this collection brings together the perspectives of a university researcher and a classroom teacher to show explicitly the connection between writing theory, and practice. The book covers writing development in grades K?12 and…

The purpose of this paper was to compare attitudes and behaviors of respondents toward members of other cultural groups. This paper presents the results of a Multicultural Attitude Survey conducted with a random sample of 122 respondents ranging in education level from grade 9 to university graduate students. The survey was adapted from a similar…

This issue deals with verb-object complementation, a complex and controversial but important topic, in particular in connection with the teaching and learning of a second language. The articles are a response to a long debate about the harmonization of grammatical terminology used in schools and the simplification of grammar for students. The…

This study investigated the relationship between what people looked up about new words when different kinds of information were available and how well they remembered those words. Dictionary information was incorporated into a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) program comprised of text, highlighted low-frequency words, and access to…

This document contains the May and November 2000 issues of "New Horizons in Education," with articles in English and Chinese. The May issue includes the following articles: "A Key to Successful Environmental Education: Teacher Trainees' Attitude, Behaviour, and Knowledge" (Kevin Chung Wai Lui, Eric Po Keung Tsang, Sing Lai…

This document consists of the four issues of this periodic bibliography published during 1997. All items listed are related to second language instruction and include recently-published resource materials, instructional materials, and literature on instructional methods and techniques, including research. Each citation contains basic bibliographic…

This paper contributes to the growing debate in Japan about how to teach Japanese students to speak English effectively. It is argued that there must be a shift from learning about the English language to using English to learn and communicate about topics that are interesting and relevant to students' lives in Japan. Role playing is an effective…

This paper is in large part a critique of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences presented in his 1983 book "Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences," and asserts that the multiple intelligences (MI) concept has been widely misinterpreted. The paper outlines some of the misconceptions of Gardner's theory as identified by…

After many years of attention to input that supplies classroom second language (L2) learners with positive evidence on L2 forms and features, recent studies have begun to identify and describe the negative evidence in "reactive" input, provided through interlocutor responses to forms and features that are used by learners, but are not…

One of the problems that continues to plague teachers of foreign languages at the secondary and university levels is the students' use of a "pony," or literal translation, to assist them in completing their translation assignments. Due to the wide availability of such translations and the tendency for students to choose the path of least…

This dictionary of collocations was compiled by an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher in Saudi Arabia who teaches adult, native speakers of Arabic. The dictionary is practical in teaching English because it helps to focus on everyday events and situations. The dictionary works as follows: the teacher looks up a word, such as…

This article proposes several cooperative learning (CL) techniques as a way of increasing the effectiveness of group work in university-level English-as-a Second-Language (ESL) courses. Group work, at its most basic level, can be defined as students working together in a group small enough so that everyone has the opportunity to participate in a…

This collection of papers provides an overview of previous studies on the acquisition of Spanish as a second or foreign language, theoretical approaches used in these studies, and effects of various pedagogical approaches on the development of Spanish interlanguage systems. The 10 chapters include the following: (1) "Phonology: Staking Out…