To examine the relationship between phonological awareness (PA) and English word-level reading among a multilingual sample, a random sample of 297 Singaporean kindergartners, stratified by ethnicity (169 Chinese, 65 Malay, and 63 Indian), were tested on their PA, receptive vocabulary, and word-level reading skills. Singaporean kindergartners are…

One central question in the formal linguistic study of adult multilingual morphosyntax (i.e., L3/Ln acquisition) involves determining the role(s) the L1 and/or the L2 play(s) at the L3 initial state (e.g., Bardel & Falk, Second Language Research 23: 459-484, 2007; Falk & Bardel, Second Language Research: forthcoming; Flynn et al., The…

Participation in school-based extracurricular activities influences educational success. Thus, it is important to depict a profile of school-based extracurricular activity involvement for a Latino student population that is marginalized in schools. This research uses the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 and logistic regression analyses to…

While language aptitude has been investigated actively within second language research, there is a current dearth of research on the effects of aptitude in cases of attrition. The aim of the present investigation was to explore the role of language aptitude for L1 proficiency in speakers who experienced a break with their L1 setting prior to…

Cambodian Americans are a fairly recent language minority group in the United States; most families arrived in the United States as refugees during the 1980s. Over the past 30 years, there has been great concern in the community regarding the maintenance loss of their native Khmer language. This article provides an historical and contemporary…

This study examined the impact of writing anxiety and computer anxiety on language learning for 45 ESL adult learners enrolled in an English grammar and writing course. Two sections of the course were offered in a traditional classroom setting whereas two others were given in a hybrid form that involved distance learning. Contrary to previous…

Language proficiency is a crucial factor for immigrants to integrate successfully in the new society in all aspects of life, especially in the labor market. As a result, there is great importance in acquiring the new language as quickly and effectively as possible. Several factors affect second language acquisition, including motivation, age,…

In this study the author tries to assess the effects of Theme-based Oral Approach (TOA) on the oral English proficiency of non-English majors as well as students' leaning motives and interests resulted from the approach in EFL class of China. The study follows the quantitative and qualitative method in light of questionnaire, interview, class…

Based on a series of studies from universities around the world, this book suggests that internationalization does not equate with across-the-board use of English, and instead represents a new cultural and linguistic hybridity with the potential to develop new identities unfettered by traditional "us-and-them" binary thinking, and which…

English language learners (ELLs), their teachers, and the schools and programs where they are enrolled face a triple challenge: (1) students must be taught and learn English at a level of proficiency high enough to allow them access to academic content; (2) students must be taught and learn academic content at a level comparable to that of English…

Ninth-grade predictors of dropout risk among Austin Independent School District's English language learner students included the following: having an attendance rate below 90%, being 16 years or older, earning less than 5 course credits, attending a Title I campus and scoring beginning or intermediate on the state's English proficiency assessment…

Success in reading comprehension is usually seen as fundamental to the academic success of foreign language learners. Many language factors affect second language learners' reading comprehension, such as vocabulary, and syntactic or grammatical knowledge. In practice, vocabulary breadth and depth knowledge can not be discussed separately with…

The purpose of this article is to provide middle level educators with an orientation to an intervention designed to facilitate reluctant middle school English language learners (ELLs) engagement in quality schoolwork. The article introduces a new investigation of English language learning through the lens of Glasser's Quality School and Choice…

Recent research on monolingual (L1) and bilingual (2L1) language acquisition is exploring the idea that children's early deviant structures involving omission of obligatory subjects and objects might be due not so much to performance limitations or purely syntactic deficits, but rather to an immature interface between syntax and discourse. For…

This paper summarizes the major conclusions of a four-year study designed to measure the intercultural and second language learning of more than 1300 US undergraduates enrolled at 61 programs abroad. Focusing on the central research question--whether US students learn effectively when left to their own devices while abroad, or whether students…