This booklet describes key principles of and research on teaching additional languages. The 10 chapters focus on the following: (1) "Comprehensible Input" (learners need exposure to meaningful, understandable language); (2) "Language Opportunities" (classroom activities should let students use natural and meaningful language with their…

The materials in this document present the results of a study of French second language immersion testing in Alberta (Canada) public schools for grades 1-3 based on the curriculum instituted in 1998. As a result of the study, this collection was developed for grades 1-3 students who need to be taught French as a second language. A separate section…

This packet provides generic versions of curriculum developed for the Michelin Tire Corporation workplace literacy program, specifically the mathematics portion. Altered material included in the packet protects proprietary information; some lessons include lines that take the place of deleted information. Other companies are recommended to use…

Essays on second-language (L2) listening comprehension include: "On Second Language Comprehension and Acquisition: Interactional and Psycholinguistic Perspectives" (Teresa Cadierno), a general theoretical overview of these processes; "Listening to Lectures" (Anne Jensen), a discussion of some characteristics of lectures and description of a study…

A teacher of English in China describes his experiences teaching the listening component of a summer course designed to help 37 doctoral students improve their English skills before beginning an agricultural economics program. In the listening component, students were to gain experience in notetaking while listening to extended academic lectures.…

The materials included in this manual are organized according to the Indiana's Kindergarten Academic Standards for English/Language Arts. In each section teachers will find: (1) Indiana's Kindergarten Academic Standards for English/Language Arts Assessments: Black Line Masters of diagnostic/practice pages for skill areas, checklists, and rubrics;…

Provides a detailed analysis of techniques used for second language vocabulary assessment and the implied assumptions about the underlying construct of vocabulary knowledge. The article notes that existing measures of vocabulary size are uninformative as to the depth of knowledge that learners have about particular words. (56 references)…

Presents the results of two studies where children were taught to identify textual cues, syntactic and semantic, in order to locate main ideas. The children also built graphic representations of these structures and were taught relevant questions to ask regarding comprehension. Results showed significant improvement, especially with older…

Examines the relationship between story-telling and children's construction of meaning. Includes transcripts of children's discussions of a story involving Vietnamese refugee children. Maintains that children, especially when given encouraging contexts, can construct and discover meaningful insights. Discusses the role of the teacher in this…

Analysis of reading comprehension errors made by 22 Spanish-speaking fourth-graders in decoding English text found that comprehension "errors" began at the word level and advanced to larger misinterpretations at the sentence level. The cognitive processes of English language learners when comprehending English texts showed individual differences,…

Describes a computer program that takes multiple-choice cloze passages and compiles them into proofreading exercises. Results reveal that such a computerized test type can be used to accurately measure the proficiency of students of English as a Second Language in Hong Kong. (14 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates the effects of science students' domain-specific knowledge and language proficiency on local lexical and syntactic processing and on semantic and higher conceptual processing of biology texts written in the students' first and second languages. Results indicate that language proficiency affects lower-level processing and…

Presents seven reading activities involving the preschool classroom writing environment, using big books and predictable books, using cereal boxes to foster emergent literacy, using editorials, visual-auditory links, reading outside the classroom, and ownership of writing. (MG)

Studies the relationship of attitudes and cultural background to reading comprehension in a second language (L2) of students in three different social contexts: Israeli-Arab students learning Hebrew as their L2, Israeli-Jewish students learning English as their L2, and Canadian-Arab students learning English as their L2. Results showed that the…

Describes reforms at a Bronx intermediate school which registered large gains in students' comprehension performance. The success depended on active, engaged learning, intensive assistance for low achievers, personal development of students, coordination of instruction, availability of instructional support personnel, outstanding leadership, and…