The study reported on in this article set out to replicate and extend Bardovi-Harlig and Dornyei's (1998) investigation of pragmatic awareness by addressing two research questions: (a) Do learners in English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) contexts display differences in their recognition and rating of pragmatic…

The main hypotheses addressed in the research were (1) whether imprecision in the phonological representations of lexical items underlies the impaired expressive naming abilities of disabled readers, and (2) whether weak verbal memory might mediate the relationship between naming and reading skills. From samples of 93 first graders and 67 fourth…

Recent developments in learning technology such as hypermedia is becoming widespread and offer significant contribution to improve the delivery of learning and teaching materials. A key factor in the development of hypermedia learning system is cognitive style (CS) as it relates to users' information processing habits, representing individual…

Although widely implemented, the effectiveness of the Even Start program and other programs involving home-visiting and bilingual education in improving preschool literacy outcomes, particularly among Latino students, is uncertain. This study used a non-equivalent groups design to compare preschool literacy outcomes (measured by the PALS-PreK…

Public, religious and private schools have been coexisting in continental Europe since the 19th century. Scientific interest in differences between the educational outcomes of public and religious schools has grown recently, as a result of international debates on parental choice and school autonomy especially in the USA. Clear differences have…

In order to develop an in-depth understanding and meaning of the preconceptions of teaching and learning that pre-service teachers hold, it is important that one should also focus on how these views were constructed and played out in different socio-cultural contexts prior to teacher education. This is particularly significant in the education of…

Instructors have long used short descriptive stories such as vignettes as a tool to model, teach, and research behavior and understanding as well as to stimulate discussion and problem solving in learning situations. This article summarizes the results of a study comparing the effectiveness of two types of vignettes (evaluation and synthesis) as…

After conducting a thorough review of the state of inclusion of students with disabilities in Haiti, the authors present a study that investigates the attitudes of urban and rural teachers in Haiti toward inclusion. Participants were administered the Opinions Relative to Integration (ORI) of Students with Disabilities instrument. Reliability of…

In this paper we explore language attitudes and use in the Greek Cypriot community in London, England. Our study is based on an earlier survey carried out in Nicosia, Cyprus and we compare attitudes to language and reported language use in the two communities. We thereby highlight the significance of sociolinguistic variables on similar groups of…

This research compares the study-abroad perceptions and preferences of business and non-business majors. The results suggest that the two groups have somewhat different motivations for studying abroad. On balance, business students appear more pragmatic than their non-business counterparts, expressing greater concern for financial issues, and the…

We review the main findings of the Jyvaskyla of Dyslexia (JLD) which follows the development of children at familial risk for dyslexia (N = 107) and their controls (N = 93). We will illustrate the development of these two groups of children at ages from birth to school entry in the skill domains that have been connected to reading and reading…

This article reports on a study that investigated the dual characteristics of willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2): trait-like WTC and situational WTC. By adopting methods of classroom observation, participant interviews and questionnaires, consistency between L2 learners' self-report WTC and their actual WTC behavior in an…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a comparative analysis of the main objectives of international institutional partnerships in four UK leading universities. Based on the presented case studies, the paper outlines a model for objectives and implementation of international partnership. Design/methodology/approach: Using a multiple…

Purpose: The aim of this article is to compare images of ideal leadership between independent elementary and secondary schools and research universities using a standardized set of values, and to compare these ratings with an empirically-derived model of effective group leadership. Design/methodology/approach: Ratings by individuals within…

In the first of two National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshops, 30 professors of biology and computer science from 18 institutions met at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, on June 6-7, 2002, to share ideas on how to incorporate genomics research into undergraduate curricula. The participants included nine pairs or trios of…