This article reports on a classroom-based study on the use of a Mandarin Chinese WebCT discussion board to support essay writing in a second-year Chinese language class consisting of mostly heritage learners at a midwestern U.S. university. The researcher describes the design and the implementation of essay writing and evaluates its effectiveness.…

Present study investigated relationships between classroom overcrowding and the Turkish education curriculum (2006) in terms of the applicability of activity-based lower secondary Turkish education curriculum in overcrowded classes. In addition, the problems that occur in the teaching process and the sufficiency of time for the program were…

Past studies in language teaching have addressed the issue of whether the benefits of formal instruction outweigh those of naturalistic instruction, or vice versa. This study examined 1 aspect of naturalistic instruction closely: the conversation partnership. There were 3 conversation partnerships (English/Mandarin, English/Arabic, and…

The authors in this edited volume reflect on their experiences with culturally relevant pedagogy--as students, as teachers, as researchers--and how these experiences were often at odds with their backgrounds and/or expectations. Each of the authors speaks to the complexity and difficulty in attempting to address students' cultures, create learning…

Unknown is the extent to which restrictions imposed on Latino students' first language undermines their ability to learn and how these limitations impact their attrition rate. The purpose of this study was to describe Latino students' lived experiences of acquiring English as a second language in the academic context. Five Latino students…

The problem. The purpose of this study is to investigate positive and negative cross-linguistic transfer on EFL learners' phraseological competence in collocations and its relationship to learners' linguistic proficiency. Method. A quantitative study was conducted. Two instruments, multiple choice test and grammaticality judgment test, were…

In the 21st century, learning is at the heart of the modern world's endeavours to become a knowledge economy. It is the key to empowering individuals to be today's world producers and consumers of knowledge. It is essential in enabling people to become critical citizens and to attain self-fulfilment. It is a driver of economic competitiveness as…

This paper examines the connection between heritage language and culture and the construction and maintenance of social and personal identities of the Cora, an indigenous people of the Mexican Sierra del Nayar, in Northwestern Mexico. Using the frameworks of the socially and linguistically mediated mind (Dennet, 1991; Harre & Gillet, 1994;…

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project set to investigate the piloting process of an innovative language program for university students. It challenges traditional English language teaching courses celebrating a view centered on learning; classes become spaces for students to understand the language they are learning…

Students calling themselves the Las Vegas Activist Crew shut down the city's famed Strip on May 1, 2006, with an immigrant rights protest that was one of the largest demonstrations in Nevada's history. This research analyzes the ways that students engage in activism to improve their own social conditions and those of their communities. The…

Most current idiom processing models acknowledge, after Gernsbacher and Robertson (1999) that deriving an idiomatic meaning entails suppression of contextually inappropriate, literal meanings of idiom constituent words. While embedding idioms in the rich disambiguating context can promote earlier suppression of incompatible literal meanings,…

Localization of digital content (LDC) in Bangladesh is aimed at the production of graphical and video content adapted for the local curriculum and suitable for use in secondary schools. Teachers learnt how to make PowerPoint presentations into which they can incorporate video, audio and graphical content downloaded from the Internet. Empowering…

The social nature of language learning and development has been widely acknowledged, as has the importance of family relationships in language learning processes. The role that the first language plays in the literacy development of English language learners (ELLs) and their families is irrefutable. Advocates of family literacy programs have…

This study is based on data from teachers' research reports in the context of an in-service workshop for professional development for teachers of the bilingual-integrated Palestinian-Jewish Schools in Israel. We used conventional qualitative methods, looking for patterns and thematic issues of relevance, which were then coded to allow for further…

Programs representing various instructional strategies have been designed and implemented in public schools to teach non-English speaking students. This study addressed the relative effectiveness of two strategies designed to enhance non-English speaking students' chances of academic success. The research problem was: Do language-based…