In this interview, African Language expert Pam Maseko speaks of her own background and her first encounter with culture outside of her mother tongue, isiXhosa. A statistical breakdown of South African languages is provided as background. She discusses Western (originally missionary) codification of African languages and suggests that this approach…

The skill of reading is regarded as the cornerstone of literacy learning in the foundation phase. Although it is the most complex skill to master, it forms part of literacy teaching. Most learners begin schooling without having any kind of exposure to reading. This lack of exposure introduces a number of challenges, which are consequently…

Drawing on linguistic anthropological notions of language ideologies and sociolinguistic approaches to stance, this study examines the meaning-making resources through which Spanish heritage language (HL) learners orient toward ideological perspectives on language value and linguistic expertise in classroom interaction. Part of a larger…

In 2006, the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Recommendations on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The framework sets out eight competences, which citizens need for 'personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment'. Language competences play a prominent role in the framework, with two…

Texts have a crucial place in language education and probably they are the most important means of education. Students at the primary and secondary education ages mostly read narrative texts like short stories, poems and fictional books. This study attempts to assess value transfer in narrative texts at the secondary education textbooks. Our study…

This article focuses on two main issues. On the one hand, it deals with early prevention of literacy difficulties. On the other hand, it deals with the same issue once pupils already present serious difficulties in reading and writing. Consequently, this paper has two main aims. Firstly, it aims to show teachers that, in order to carry out…

This paper is based on the experiences of the author as a student, educator, and Filipina/o. The author explores the multiple traumas in the community that he grew up in that impacted his experiences as well as those of his family and the connection of those traumas to colonialism. The author also examines the possibilities for healing from those…

The study was conducted in two Colleges of Education in the Western and Central Regions of Ghana to find out how Colleges of Education students and tutors perceive the study of Ghanaian Languages. The target population comprised all staff and students of the Colleges of Education but the accessible population comprised students and tutors of the…

Addressing a critical need for effective vocabulary practices in early childhood classrooms, we conducted a design experiment to achieve three goals: (1) developing a comprehensive model for early childhood vocabulary instruction, (2) examining the effectiveness of this model, and (3) discerning the contextual conditions that hinder or facilitate…

To promote attainment and inclusion, Sweden offers tuition in migrant pupils' mother tongues as a regular school subject. However, the formulation of learning aims is problematic, and resources allocated to the subject do not correspond to ambitions expressed in steering documents. This case study presents an analysis of the organization of Mother…

This article focuses on the learning affordances of different language and communication curricula in the world. For reasons of space, only two national education systems (Finland and Singapore) and their language and communication curricula are referred to. The accounts of national education systems consist of the identification of mechanisms…

In 2016, Dr. Martin Reinhardt and Dr. Jioanna Carjuzaa produced a series of three webinars concerning Indigenous language immersion programs. The first webinar focused on broad curriculum development ideas including core relationships, guidelines and principles for effective pedagogy, and models. The second webinar focused on the elements of…

This study aims at investigating the effect of Blended Learning approach compared to the traditional learning approach on fifth grade students' achievement in My Beautiful Language Textbook and the development of their verbal creative thinking. The study consisted of 49 students among which 25 are males in the Experimental Group and 24 females in…

In the 2011 census almost one in three Irish teenagers claimed to be unable to speak Irish (Central Statistics Office, Ireland, 2012), despite the language being taught daily in school. The challenges facing the Irish language in schools are complex and multifaceted. The research reported here attempts to address some of these challenges by…

Language-in-education policies are developed and implemented within contexts of great complexity. Where policies appear less than perfect on paper, this presents a valuable opportunity to examine the contextual factors that have led to their development, helping policymakers to understand the conditions under which policy change must take place.…