Many ESL instructors are generally in agreement with the belief that it is essential that students should be assisted in developing critical thinking skills while being engaged in their language learning process, especially those learning the target language at a higher level (Stern, 1985; Dickinson, 1991; McKay, 2001; Terry, 2007; Van, 2009;…

Mathematical Argumentation skills have historically been overlooked in assessment, but the inclusion of Mathematical Argumentation in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as one of the Standards of Mathematical Practice challenges assessment developers to assess this mathematical practice. Explanation and justification of one's own thinking to a…

In this article the authors report on the use of a scaffolding pedagogy (Gibbons, 2009), informed by systemic functional linguistics, to support the writing of English language learners in middle years curriculum learning. They focus on the work of one teacher and her English class across the first 18 months of a longitudinal design-based literacy…

Idioms occur frequently in classroom language. Students with literacy or language weaknesses are often challenged by idioms; therefore, the failure to comprehend idioms can impact academic performance. Four 7th-grade female students (mean age: 12 years, 6 months) participated in a multiple baseline single subject study during their general…

The purpose of this study is to investigate patterns of linguistic communication in learning and teaching science and to find out how the formation of each pattern was related with the classroom, particularly in Korean middle school context. For this, we observed science classes in three middle schools in Seoul and collected data during lessons…

For this article we aimed to understand the emergence of English as a second language for a newly immigrated Mexican student, a native speaker of Spanish, enrolled in a mainstream kindergarten classroom, who was undergoing the "silent period" (Krashen, 1981). Applying ecological approaches that emphasize learners in relationship with their…

Analysis of videotapes of five trained teachers of deaf children found that the teachers did not fingerspell often, but when they did they sought to express a specific English word. Clarity of fingerspelled utterances varied greatly, ranging from whole-word gestalts to words wherein individual letters could be discerned. (Author/CB)

To improve oral communication skills of their students, teachers should provide opportunities for students to talk in class. Teachers are advised to: begin early, be sensitive to the individuality of students' speech patterns, and stress that there are different kinds of speech patterns for different situations. (JDD)

This paper argues for a reorganization of the educational procedures in the ESL classroom, in the interest of developing communicative competence. Special emphasis is placed on the use in the classroom of only structural and phonological patterns which are easily transferrable to real-life situations. In the interest of abolishing mechanical…

The study analyzed teacher-pupil interaction in the classes of nine experimental (E) and eight control (C) teachers and their 167 mentally retarded pupils (mean age = 10.2, mean IQ = 68.76) The E-teachers were given 32 training sessions in an experimental curriculum and the inductive teaching method. Classes were tape recorded for 1 day. Analysis…

A major implication in the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages concerns classroom interaction in which students should participate. Ideally, this interaction should be identical to interaction in real-life communication situations that students will encounter. A prerequisite for determining whether these situations are in…

The product of a study documenting the classroom writing behavior of three kindergarten and three second grade students, this research report focuses on the kindergarten data. Following an introductory chapter describing the theoretical assumptions underlying the project, the research questions posed, and the provisions made to insure reliable and…

This study sought to address concerns that high levels of literacy in both English and local languages are not being attained by children in U.S.-affiliated Pacific entities served by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). The study was designed to answer the following question: Do classroom language use and instructional practices…