The purpose of this study was to examine how classroom conversations about diverse dialects of English can provide a useful foundation for critical language and literacy instruction for students who speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and other stigmatized dialects. This article describes a weeklong unit on language variety that…

In this article, I explore language practices in Nigerian primary school classrooms against the backdrop of the policy of mother tongue education. Findings from the study show that there is a classroom bilingual practice that is rather unstructured in terms of curricular application and levels. The study shows that rather than implementing the…

This paper presents the results of a small-scale study of codeswitching (CS) between Chinese and English in primary English classrooms with a view to informing classroom interaction with young learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It analyzes CS of two teachers participating in the Primary English Curriculum Innovation (PECI) project in…

Contemporary best practices in the profession encourage teaching as much as possible in the target language, but when university faculty were observed teaching Spanish, the majority spoke English during instruction and many engaged in frequent code switching (alternations) between English and Spanish. Findings indicate that instructors used…

Linguistic structures and cultural conflicts are the reasons why African-American students fare poorly in literacy instructions in classrooms. Some ideas for creating an accessible, research-based approach to language arts in dialectally diverse classrooms are presented.

As English progressively becomes the global language, many native English speakers move to foreign countries to work as English teachers. However a review of the literature reveals that there is little research on their actual performance compared to the non-native local English teachers. This comparative case study examines pedagogic practices of…

This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a project to support the learning of the mother tongue by children aged 4-8 years. The aim of the project was to: actively involve and engage children with learning their mother tongue for functional use; involve parents in the learning process and support them in doing so; and increase…

Code switching is a widely observed phenomenon especially seen in multilingual and multicultural communities. In ELT classrooms, code switching comes into use either in the teachers' or the students' discourse. Although it is not favoured by many educators, one should have at least an understanding of the functions of switching between the native…

This study aims to investigate the role of mediation in the learning process from a sociocultural perspective, activity theory in particular. This study was carried out in a primary English immersion school within the CCUEI Programs in Mainland China. Data were collected mainly through observations and interviews, which were then supplemented by…

This article explores some roles for conversation analysis (CA) as an approach to second and foreign language learning by examining the initial segment of a Gesprachsrunde, a dyadic conversation-for-learning conducted between a beginning learner of German as a foreign language and a native speaker of German. The analysis focuses on the situated…

Investigates the different ways in which a multilingual senior primary mathematics teacher uses code-switching when teaching mathematics to second-language learners who share the first language of the instructor. Contains 20 references. (ASK)

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a term widely used in Europe to refer to different forms of content based education, often conducted in English. Earlier research on CLIL has tended to focus on matters of language learning or content mastery rather than on details of classroom interaction. This paper investigates how English is…

To support student learning in biochemistry and related courses, a simulation program, the Protein Purification Program, offers an alternative multimedia-based tool. This program has now been translated to produce a Thai version. However, translation from the original into the Thai language is limited by the differences between the language…

Examined code-mixing, a little-known technique used in teaching vocabulary. Found that using code-mixing to introduce new vocabulary can be an efficient and effective method. Discusses procedures and cognitive processes involved in vocabulary learning and explains the use of code mixing to introduce vocabulary. (Author/VWL)

Provides an overview of current research on grammatical, phonological, semantic, and pragmatic development in African American English child language, as opposed to adult or adolescent language, and discusses the implications of these findings for professionals involved in second-dialect instruction, speech-language assessment, or intervention…