Approaches that were used to teach English to fifth grade children of Mexican-American migrant farm laborers are described. The students were categorized as limited in English language proficiency. The children's academic self-concept was so low that they perceived learning as involving impossible tasks, and they believed that they were the source…

Written for adults learning basic reading, this workbook provides culturally relevant instruction and practice organized under the broad headings of word analysis, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and study skills. Each unit contains a post-test and several lessons devoted to specific skills. Lessons include instructions and examples for the…

A study examined whether reading aloud to kindergarten children on a regular basis would have an effect on their attention span. Subjects, 28 kindergarten students from a New Jersey school, were pretested and then assigned either to an experimental group or to a control group (14 in each group). The experimental sample received the treatment of…

The 1985 volume of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) newsletter includes articles on the role of grammar in language teaching; teaching English in Spanish schools; software for English as a second language (ESL); ESL teacher employment overseas; reading in English for special purposes; ESL techniques for…

At a public hearing on language and literacy, held in Houston, Texas, April 16, 1982, testimony was presented on: (1) need for emphasis on language arts in elementary secondary schools and for students with bilingual capabilities; (2) benefits accruing to students and educational institutions through developmental education programs; (3) guiding…

The middle school and junior high school years are extremely important ones in the language, cognitive, and personal development of students. During this time, students should begin using longer sentences with more sophisticated embeddings and showing greater awareness of audience and organization in writing, speaking, listening, and reading. At…

Intended to provide an outlet for systematic and substantive reviews, both empirical and theoretical, and for extended integrative reports of programatic research, this volume focuses on the nature of reading and reading disabilities, with implications for both theory and practice. The first chapter of the book reports on a long-term study of the…

Intended as a teacher reference tool, this handbook is designed to support and enhance a variety of fourth grade communication arts-reading programs. The first part of the handbook contains sections that define and describe each of the components required in preparing a comprehensive communication arts reading program. Specific sections provide…

Intended for use by teachers of seventh and eighth grade students assigned to a special summer program because they have not met the criteria for promotion, this handbook focuses on strategies by which real reading and its attendant language forms can be maximized within the context of summer and its built-in expectations. The first part of the…

Petra Rodriguez, a middle-aged Spanish-speaking migrant woman without reading skills, made it clear when interviewed about reading, that she felt it to be the responsibility of literate people to teach illiterate people how to read. The researcher, as part of another project, arranged for tutoring in the woman's home and discovered that the…

Research problems and issues of concern to educators in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are discussed in 21 papers. Papers fall into the general categories of educational history and current practices. Papers in the first category cover the following topics: a history of the Education Inquiry of 1824-1826, the "hedge" or…

In this appendix to the Content Area Reading Project report, five instruments administered to teacher participants are examined: two attitude surveys, a skill test, a questionnaire to obtain demographic information, and the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire, which is a measure of teacher morale. This work first presents the attitude surveys, skill test,…

A thirty-hour skills-based reading program was designed for beginning-level ESL (English as a second language) students in the intensive English language program at Boston University. Reading was included as an essential component in the low-level college-preparatory ESL class for several reasons: (1) reading instruction and practice begin to…

English as a Second Language (ESL) PLATO lessons, the students for whom the materials were designed, and the effectiveness of the program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, are examined. Two groups of ESL students on the campus have been involved in computer assisted instruction--international students whose native language is not…

The purpose of bilingual education is to increase the academic ability and success of the student through the use of the native language as the principal instrument of instruction. The aim is for the student to develop appropriate academic attitudes towards, practical aptitudes in, and a knowledge of the target language. The pamphlet explores…