Interaction in English as an International Language (EIL) setting provides myriad opportunities for negotiation of meaning, arguably beneficial for language acquisition. The present study aims at finding out how meaning is negotiated in EIL interaction among two groups of postgraduate TESOL international students from two Asian countries,…

The dissertation project is a study of how childrens' increasingly skillful use of certain language forms ("stance forms") help them to more effectively perform culturally salient social identities in discourse. Although scholars have long claimed that language use helps to position speakers in terms of socially recognizable identities,…

This dissertation presents results from a series of experiments investigating adult learning of an artificial language and the effects that input frequency (high vs. low token frequency), frequency distribution (skewed vs. balanced), presentation mode (structured vs. scrambled), and first language (English vs. Japanese) have on such learning.…

Much research has been written to support the use of target-language reading in second language learning. This study examines increased target-language reading in high school French classes to determine its effectiveness on language acquisition. Teachers were asked to incorporate target-language reading in their lessons at least twice per week.…

This study examined the lived experience of students participating in foreign language houses to improve their skills in Russian, French, or Japanese. American students residing in apartments with other language learners and a native-speaking resident facilitator were required to speak with one another exclusively in the target language and…

In this paper an updated overview of the main errors that Spanish students make when writing the English exam in the University Entrance Examination is provided. To do so, a Computer-aided Error Analysis (CEA) (Dagneaux, Denness & Granger, 1998) was conducted on a representative sample of the students who took the exam in June 2008 in Jaen,…

This article describes the effects of an interventionist form-focused course on the written English of first-year second language university learners. For two semester courses the form (or grammar) of the language was concentrated upon. During the first semester the use of correct grammar was focussed on intensively, while during the second…

Two studies were conducted to investigate a revised and extended version of the Lesbian and Gay Identity Scale (Mohr & Fassinger, 2000): the 27-item Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Scale (LGBIS). This revision features more inclusive and less stigmatizing language than the previous version and includes 2 new subscales assessing identity…

This study examines the Spanish use of students and teachers at a US two-way immersion school. Students and teachers from Grades 1, 3, and 8 (5-6-year-olds, 7-8-years-olds, and 12-13-year-olds, respectively) were observed and interviewed, and students completed questionnaires to determine what factors influenced their language of choice and their…

Research suggests that language-based activities should be an integral part of science teaching and learning and that these are even more important in minority-language contexts. The present cross-case study investigates how literacy is enacted in francophone science classrooms. Three francophone teachers were observed while they taught Grade 9…

This article presents cases of three young people who represent the "New Mainstream" of the 21st-century classroom as they engaged in a year-long research and writing project. Focal students were classmates who represented the linguistic and cultural diversity of today's New Mainstream: a transnational Mexican-origin bilingual female, an…

In this paper I focus on sequences of interaction among youth where the participants engage in classroom related activities (such as spelling, discussion of essays, etc.). My paper is based on interactional and ethnographic data collected among youth in two different leisure contexts. I discuss how the participants by employment of various…

This study investigates the oral academic language used by English as a second language prepared teachers during content area instruction in five upper elementary classrooms in the United States. Using ethnographic and sociolinguistic perspectives the authors examine the oral, academic language exposure students received from their teachers during…

The effects of economic hardship and language isolation in children's neighborhood communities were examined to determine their influence on young children's developmental outcomes on measures of academic and social skills above and beyond child and family characteristics that included home language, disability, gender, and mother's education…

For over a decade, the Department of Education in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has adopted vernacular education as a way of ensuring that the educational experiences of children in schools draw on the cultural and linguistic knowledge they bring to the classroom. In PNG, there are many potential vernaculars--apart from the local languages, there are Tok…