A major challenge for the increasing multicultural and multilingual community college student population has been the difficulty in accessing the register features which define academic writing. In this study, an analysis of clause structures using writing samples collected from 45 community-college students, 15 from African-American, Haitian and…

Research suggests that characteristics of EFL input cause morphosyntactic features to be acquired in an order dissimilar to that found in ESL contexts. To determine whether acquisition order for Korean learners could be explained by characteristics of their EFL input, a Korean elementary school curriculum was analyzed. Morphosyntactic features…

Papahana Kaiapuni is a K-12 public school program in which the Hawaiian language is the medium of instruction. In 1987, parents and language activists started the program in response to the dwindling number of speakers that resulted from a nearly century-long ban on the indigenous language. This study examined how participation in this indigenous…

This article investigated four Chinese American students' biliteracy development in two contexts: their heritage language school and public school. Data were collected through participant observations, audio-recorded classroom interactions, student work samples, and semistructured interviews. Findings demonstrated how literacy instruction across…

The main focus of this paper is on the triangulated work of the 1996 South African Constitution, the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), and one of the latter's eleven language subsidiaries: the English National Language Body (ENLB), with special reference to the ENLB's likewise triadic projects on literature; on variation and…

Mother Tongue Instruction has been a debatable issue since long. There may be two options in the medium of instruction: either to teach especially primary and preprimary schoolchildren in their own mother tongue or continue using second or foreign language as the medium of instruction. Both of the approaches bear some pros and cons. This article…

Despite critical literacy being identified as a desired outcome of South Africa's new curriculum statement, in reality this does not seem to be occurring (DoE 2002, pp. 5, 11). Critical literacy is one way in which spaces of contestation and resistance can be opened up. In order to do so it is necessary to provide students with basic literacy…

Premising that place of instruction as the primary site of reproduction of world views are crucial for study of meaning change in the science and that the roles of authorship, production, distribution and reception of works within particular sciences and particular periods are important to understand the history of science education, this study…

Despite the fact that American Sign Language (ASL) courses at the college-level have been increasing in frequency, little is understood about the capabilities of hearing individuals learning a sign language as a second language. This study aims to begin assessing the language skills of advanced L2 learners of ASL by comparing L2 signer productions…

This article discusses English-only policies as they relate to second language teaching for children and adults; explores popular perceptions and misconceptions about learning English; and discusses types of programs best suited for different students, depending on educational background. Examples from research and practice highlight the value of…

This paper describes the confirmatory factor analysis, validity, and reliability data collection stage of the development of a scale to measure mainstream teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for teaching ELL (English Language Learner) students. Data were collected from 708 K through 12 teachers and pre-service teachers with varying degrees of…

When analyzed according to race and ethnicity, poverty level, parental education level, as well as other related factors in schools in America, academic achievement disparities negatively impact educational outcomes for poor children and children of color on a consistent basis. At all educational levels, academic achievement and attainments of…

In a globalised world, literacy in local languages is affected by at least three significant trends: globalisation, regionalisation and nationalism. Literacy in local languages plays a major role in language maintenance and the management of identity. Local literacies in local languages can also be a source of resistance to the rapid sociocultural…

Why would anyone want to spend thousands of hours away from home and pay hundreds of dollars in tuition to acquire one of the world's most difficult languages? For Anishinaabe people, that is an easy question to answer. The Ojibwe language is the thread that ties communities together and unites all Anishinaabe as one people sharing a common…

Literacy has been a crucial aspect of education as a human right for over 50 years, but this basic right remains unassured for at least 700 million adults worldwide. In 1999, UNESCO acknowledged that schools are not making the expected contribution to increasing national literacy rates or providing individuals with the literacy skills they need.…