Alternative assessment procedures have made consistent inroads into second and foreign language assessment practices over the last decade. The original impetus for alternative assessment methods has been predicated more on the ideological appeal this approach offers than on firm empirical evidence that alternative assessment approaches actually…

This study investigates how different encoding strategies affect retention of Chinese characters (words) as measured by recall of the sound and meaning of the characters. Three types of encoding strategies were investigated during character learning: rote memorisation (shallow processing), student self-generated elaboration, and instructor-guided…

This paper explores the effectiveness of initial vernacular education for successful transfer to English. The data is drawn from the personal, innovative experiences of a local vernacular elementary school teacher in Papua New Guinea, who helped individual children to gain literacy skills in the local vernacular. As a result, the children were…

In Spanish-monolingual Colombia, social pressures push for access to early 50 = 50% Spanish-English medium instruction from the age of five. Parents and school administrators consider this the best way to achieve bilingualism. This article takes a first general look at the effects of this type of bilingual education on the Spanish and English…

In this essay, ESL students in their first year of college discuss their feelings about the use of literature in composition courses and offer qualified support for its inclusion. In particular, the lit-comp issue is especially complex where ESL students are involved, as literary texts in English can prove daunting to read and write about for…

Thirty-three preschool children who were learning English as a second language participated in 16 weeks of either comprehension-oriented or letter/rhyme-focused small group instruction. Pretests and posttests of book vocabulary, story comprehension, print concepts, letter naming, writing, rhyming, and English oral proficiency were given. Children…

Strong claims are made for ICT-based lifelong learning as an effective way of reducing the exclusion of various groups in society, yet, there is very little research to support these claims. Empirical research is needed, including qualitative studies of the experiences of socially excluded learners using ICT. This article reports the findings of…

Around the world there are many schools where native speakers of other languages study English as a foreign language (EFL). In this article, I introduce a school-based reflective management model (SBRM) for such EFL schools. The model centers on creating a learning community where all changes involve reflective learning and growth for students,…

It has now become commonplace to state that foreign language learning should be viewed in an intercultural perspective. The main objective of foreign language education is no longer defined strictly in terms of the acquisition of communicative competence. Teachers are now required to teach intercultural communicative competence. The aim of the…

For most middle school-level students, summarizing main ideas can prove to be difficult, especially for those with low vocabulary and language acquisition skills. Working specifically with students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and in a special education program, we discovered that teaching summarization as a reading strategy increased…

This article challenges the pervasive notion that linguistic and ethnic diversity are causes of the perceived gap in achievement in schools highly affected by Spanish-speaking students participating in programs of bilingual education. The study examines existing data from the state of Colorado with regard to student achievement and compares these…

There is a curious disjuncture in the current discourse(s) on the schooling of immigrant and minority students. The official discourse, as has been communicated through the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 rhetoric and the concomitant focus on standards and assessment, says that minority children, especially English language learners…

This article reports on an introspective study that examined the relationship between first language L1; Farsi lexicalization of the concepts represented by the second language L2; English target words and learners' inferencing behavior while reading English texts. Participants were 20 Farsi-speaking university students of English as a foreign…

This article is a collaborative initiative of the TESL profession in Manitoba. It reflects the authors' attempts to articulate the role of the ESL teaching profession and practice in Canadian multiculturalism. Recognizing ESL teachers' historical roles as agents of assimilation, the authors consider how the field can reorient itself to serve…

Significant progress has been made toward greater professional recognition for adult ESL instructors in Canada over the past decade. At the same time, an ever-increasing demand for English-language teachers, particularly abroad, has resulted in a substantial growth in the number of private companies offering short-term ESL/EFL teacher training.…