Writing instruction in Israeli high schools is discussed based on classroom observation and practices. Meetings between English teachers and teacher trainers specializing in foreign language writing focused on techniques such as prewriting, dialogue journals, revision, and peer correction. (16 references) (LB)

This article discusses educational reform and personnel preparation in relation to dramatic changes in student demography. Professional development needs of teachers serving exceptional language minorities are delineated, including competencies such as understanding first- and second-language acquisition, using appropriate instructional…

Describes the second-language and native language maintenance programs of Brunswick North Primary School (Australia), a school that offers its students opportunities to learn Turkish, Italian, Greek, or Arabic. An integrated curriculum ensures that students acquire or maintain a language other than English. (SLD)

An ethnographic case study of Somali children in Canadian schools examines the relationship between literacies, school, and community cultures by exploring literacy events as they unfold for Somali children in an elementary school. Field notes and interviews involving Somali and school-community members are analyzed based on the view that…

Documents and evaluates Israel's language policy shift from its traditional Hebrew-enforcement policy to the fostering of an immigrant language as a channel of information and culture in the face of a sudden 10% addition to its population due to one-half million Soviet migrants attached to Russian culture. (33 references) (Author/CK)

Examines classroom activities engaged in by more and less experienced Punjabi-Sikh Grade 1 speakers of English and discusses how relationship between those speakers are implicated in their speech activities. Three occasions in this classroom are examined: A common, teacher-directed interaction; an excerpt of children at play; and a playful…

Describes an instructional collaboration designed to create and deliver a distance learning module for helping students improve their skills in writing and reading Spanish. Results identified a technology gap, where students without their own computers and the latest versions of Web browsers finished assignments with greater difficulty. (AEF)

Discusses the influence of Dan Davidson on the Russian language teaching profession, concentrating on the NEH-CORLAC Institutes in Russian Language and Culture and materials development projects and on Davidson's role in programs involving high schools that teach Russian, the high school exchange program, and two national contests to stimulate…

This paper examines philosophical frame factors for English Language Teaching in the Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) classroom. Drawing on the experience of a Native English Teacher in a government-aided Hong Kong High School it pays attention to two related difficulties: the "reality" of English in the classroom and the perceived…

Efforts at improving fieldwork supervision during internship have largely focused on the role of university supervisors and intern teachers. Thus students' perceptions of the instructional practices are not systematically collected, analyzed and discussed in such a way that insights from students' perceptions can inform fieldwork supervision. This…

Numerous reports and articles have decried the mediocrity of U.S. students' foreign language skills and have called for improved language education. One study that looked at foreign language education in 19 countries suggests several characteristics of successful foreign language programs: starting early, providing an articulated framework,…

This study explored language shift and accommodation among bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi (also called Hokkien, Holo, Tai-gu, Taiwan Min, Taiwanese) families in Taiwan. From the 1940s until the 1980s the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Taiwan promoted Mandarin Chinese. Recent years have witnessed a shift in policy: since 2001 elementary schools…

This paper describes an English language listening test intended as computer-based testing material for secondary school students in Hong Kong, where considerable attention is being invested in online and computer-based testing. As well as providing a school-based testing facility, the study aims to contribute to the knowledge base regarding the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate ESL instructors' feedback techniques and the rationales behind these techniques, to explore ESL students' beliefs about the relative effectiveness of various types of feedback, and to compare students' beliefs with those of their instructors. A university-level ESL instructor and two of her students…

This narrative of the experience of a native English speaking (NES) cooperating teacher working with a nonnative English speaking (NNES) student teacher in an MA Teaching English as a Second Language practicum begins with a discussion of teacher identity, then outlines the significance of caring in teacher-student relations Noddings (Caring: A…