This paper reports on a 2-year research study at the University of Southampton (England) regarding teachers' and students' beliefs, understandings, and classroom practices with respect to explicit language awareness in three secondary schools. Specifically, the study sought to document the understandings of secondary English and foreign language…

The planning, design, development, and implementation of a conference of Canadian German teachers to promote a collaborative, decentralized approach to professional development are described. The report begins with an overview of the professional development situation among German teachers in Canada. Particular focus is on efforts to make…

This workshop is intended to provide teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the Columbus (Ohio) Public School District an opportunity to examine their own teaching, and the strategies and materials they use in the classroom, in the light of recent research in reading. It provides participants…

The report details results of the 1995 National Household Education Survey concerning home language use, English language proficiency, and participation in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes. The survey found that about 12 million adults reported speaking a language other than English at home. Of these, almost 11 percent had participated…

An elementary science program was taught in Spanish for English-speaking children to give them the opportunity to acquire second language skills through hands-on science instruction. The program included 4 classes of approximately 22 students at kindergarten and first-grade levels in the gifted and talented program at the Gary Herod Elementary…

Compartiendo Culturas/Sharing Cultures, a Title VII Two-Way Developmental Bilingual Education Program at the Gary L. Herod Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District (Texas) was designed to end the isolation typically experienced by language minority students in traditional bilingual education and to provide language majority…

This report summarizes 2 years of activity within the Edutex network. Launched in 1990, the Edutex initiative aimed to explore the educational possibilities and limitations of a telematic network for schools. Teachers and pupils in 20 primary and secondary classrooms in the French, Italian, and German speaking parts of Switzerland and in France…

The Guam State Plan for Adult Education, as implemented by Guam Community College, had five goals: provide a comprehensive adult education instructional program that is flexible and responsive to employment needs; increase enrollment and expand services for special groups; establish continuous needs assessment of targeted educationally…

In English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), there is renewed interest in use of literature in the communicative classroom. Literature may be part of a communicative pedagogy in three ways: (1) by providing a context in which to develop students' reading strategies and knowledge of non-fiction and literary texts; (2) by being the basis of an…

Many young students are not finishing high school and even fewer are entering college. This book demonstrates how some teachers have created classrooms that work for children at risk. They use an integrated, inquiry-driven curriculum to create holistic, language- and literature-based classrooms. Chapter 1 describes the nature of being at risk for…

A discussion of the communicative approach in the second language classroom reasserts its value while highlighting some of the difficulties in implementing the approach: time constraints; difficulty in providing motivation for communication in the more formal language registers; potential imbalance in emphasis on oral and written communication…

This guide is designed for Ilonggo (Hiligaynon) language training of Peace Corps workers in the Philippines, and reflects daily communication needs in that context. It consists of: phrase lists for a wide range of daily activities and needs; a list of targeted core language competencies, at three proficiency levels, for those daily activities; an…

Issues in the design of research to describe educational practice are examined, and arguments for and against particular methodologies are summarized. A single study is used for illustrative purposes; it explores the relationship between English taught as a second language in school and English language needs in the workplace. The study uses both…

The set of instructional materials is designed as a training module for volunteer tutors in English as a Second Language (ESL) for adults. It presents the content of a workshop, about 2.5 hours long, with three main objectives: to (1) help tutors understand the distinction between basic skills and life skills in ESL; (2) develop skills in two…

As a result of the increased demand for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction and the concomitant growth of ESL programs, interest has increased in the issue of credit for courses designed to promote English language proficiency sufficient to engage in postsecondary education. Recent national and regional studies have found that a…