In Spring 2006 California released its first ever school-level Academic Performance Index (API) scores for English Learners (ELs). These EL-API scores were based on California Standards Tests in English language arts and math taken in the spring of 2005. The new EL-API data make it clear that elementary schools vary widely in their ability to get…

High-stakes tests have been employed widely to engineer curriculum innovation, or achieve intended washback in education. But our understanding of the role of high-stakes tests as an agent for change is limited due to the small number of empirical studies available on this issue. This paper reports on a washback study which focuses on the writing…

We previously defined the "by-products" of academic writing instruction as "affective and social changes perceived by students, "along with" changes in their writing, reflected in interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviors carried over into other spheres of their lives" [Katznelson, Perpignan, & Rubin, 2001. What…

The student population in United States early childhood education programs is becoming more diverse every year. As schools and communities become more diverse, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to be well prepared for teaching and learning in cross-racial, cross-ethnic, and cross-cultural situations. Based on the premise that teachers…

Acquisition of academic literacy is often a difficult process for students, and in South Africa this is compounded by the fact that education for most secondary school pupils takes place in a second language at under-resourced schools. This article describes the scaffolding of an academic literacy course designed for South African students from…

Business communication courses often include a mix of students who are native speakers of the language of instruction and those who are not. When native speakers form a majority, it is hard to meet the special needs of the nonnative speakers. If a course's purpose is to cover strategic aspects of communication, it seems inappropriate to spend…

The authors investigated the impact of professional development programs for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers on their classroom practice and on the way that teacher efficacy and organizational support at the school level relate by interacting with years of teaching experience. The authors collected data by using questionnaires…

Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) aimed to improve teacher practice and improve student outcomes at Lanier and International High Schools in AISD. Overall, QTEL was moderately effective based on the myriad of mixed program results.

This paper provides a new teaching design that addresses difficulties in listening and speaking aspects experienced by Taiwanese adults when learning English and addresses the special needs of this learning group. The design was developed to solve these learning difficulties through integration of certain aspects of three existing teaching…

This paper outlines a comprehensive approach to uncovering the process of second language acquisition, entitled Interlanguage Analysis (IA), and defines the features and aims of this analysis. IA regards the transitional linguistic system from the learner's first language (L1) to the target language (TL) as interlanguage (IL). Language acquisition…

The proceedings presented consist of summaries and reports of the presentations given during a summer institute on teaching linguistically and culturally diverse learners. Summaries of the following papers are provided: "Education 2000 and Beyond: The Challenge of Our Culturally Diverse Students" (Eugene Garcia); "Second Language…

Two articles highlight different issues on foreign language learning and instruction in Denmark. The first article describes a research project at Roskilde University Center that focuses on group organized and self managed foreign language acquisition. The idea for the project came about as a result of concern over problems related to foreign…

Computer software and multimedia applications for Russian are scarce and most of the available software still falls into a traditional grammar/drill category. It is necessary to actively pursue Russian language software development of a more communicative, interactive nature. A review of commercially available software for Russian using Brown's…

Given recent research that encourages more frequent use of the discussion method in teaching, this digest reviews the role of instructional conversations (ICs) in second language learning. ICs, instructional in content and conversational in quality, offer natural and spontaneous language interactions that are free from the didactic characteristics…

Traditional methods of both first and second language teaching have commonly relied on simplification, restricting the range of language forms and functions to be learned and then practicing those forms to achieve mastery. These methods, however, fail to consider seriously the questions of how language develops in natural contexts, what language…