Meeting the standards. Differentiating. Intriguing, involving, and inspiring students. Teachers meet standards; differentiate instruction; and intrigue, involve, and inspire students with these innovative lessons ripped from the headlines--and from the comics, the weather map, and the classified ads. The author offers step-by-step directions for…

Down syndrome (DS) is associated with abnormalities in multiple organ systems and a characteristic phenotype that includes numerous behavioral features. Language, however, is among the most impaired domains of functioning in DS and, perhaps, also the greatest barrier to independent meaningful inclusion in the community. In this article, we review…

In this study of the placement of sentence negation in third language acquisition (L3), we argue that there is a qualitative difference between the acquisition of a true second language (L2) and the subsequent acquisition of an L3. Although there is considerable evidence for L2 influence on vocabulary acquisition in L3, not all researchers believe…

Language development is often slower in preterm children compared with their term peers. We investigated factors associated with vocabulary acquisition at 2 years in a cohort of children born at 28 weeks' gestation or less. For children entered into the United Kingdom Oscillation Study, language development was evaluated by using the…

Reading in a second language (L2) is important for a variety of reasons. Reading authentic materials, in particular, allows L2 learners to engage with native speaker content, and ultimately the target culture. One body of authentic materials is that of literary texts, including those of more traditional prose fiction, poetry, and drama, but also…

This study was conducted in the FL English class of a typical Spanish secondary school. The students translated a short L1 Spanish text into FL English orally as a class, with accompanying dictionary glosses, before writing it down individually. This collaborative translation was supported by the teacher, and any lexical items that were not known…

Across the U.S., teachers are encountering students who are in the process of learning English as a second language. In the past two decades, this student population, known as English-language learners (ELLs), has more than doubled. Because of the linguistic demands of social studies content, ELLs may have particular difficulty understanding this…

This article describes pertinent information regarding national and state standards and tests; instructional techniques for teaching word recognition, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension skills; the selection of appropriate texts and materials; reader response; the diverse student learner; and a variety of authentic assessments that…

The Curriculum and Instructional Projects Team at the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) developed "Guidelines for Reviewing a Reading Program" ("Guidelines") to assist reviewers in determining if a program is consistent with the scientific research on reading. Based on that work, the Center on Instruction Reading Strand developed this…

Foreign language learners typically experience considerable anxiety about taking listening tests. This study investigated how four forms of listening support (pre-teaching of content and vocabulary, question preview, and repeated input) affect the anxiety levels of college students in Taiwan taking a multiple-choice achievement test, which counts…

This workbook, written in simple English with pictographs, helps adult learners of English in British Columbia (Canada) deal with biological and medical needs and hospital patient visits. Lessons include parts of the body, nurses' and doctors' examination and instructions, general health problems, hospital items, hospital admissions, and pre- and…

A study investigated children's understanding (3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-year-olds) of the different levels of meaning of the cognitive verb "know" as defined by the abstractness and conceptual difficulty hierarchy of W. S. Hall, E. K. Scholnick, and A. T. Hughes. Results indicated that cognitive verb knowledge increased with development and…

This booklet presents tutoring strategies for use in the Read-Write-Now! Partners Tutoring Program, which assists school-age children, grades 1-6, in reading and writing. The booklet discusses general strategies, guidelines for effective tutoring, what to do during tutoring sessions, paired reading (including the basics and some "finer…

This paper discusses two reading comprehension strategies for teachers to incorporate into their teaching methods. The paper reviews research and suggests techniques to support these strategies, vocabulary packs and cued spelling. Vocabulary packs, an effective strategy to increase reading comprehension, allow students to work independently on…

This pilot study examined, from a dynamic systems perspective, changes in maternal/child discourse behaviors across repeated readings of a storybook. Four Caucasian children (2 boys, 2 girls), ranging in age from 2 years 7 months to 2 years 10 months, were videotaped reading unfamiliar storybooks with their mothers. The videotapes were…