Because children who are deaf or hard of hearing are being identified at birth, fitted with advanced hearing technology, and enrolled in early intervention programs, families increasingly seek professionals who can provide services that support their choice of listening and spoken language. The increased demand for these services and shortages of…

The John Tracy Clinic (JTC) has a long history in the development and implementation of distance education courses for parents. It began with the founder of JTC, Louise Tracy, who personally corresponded with parents of young children with hearing loss around the globe to provide them hope, guidance, and encouragement. Mrs. Tracy's correspondence…

This study examined how providing either primary- or English-language storybooks for home reading followed by classroom storybook reading and vocabulary instruction in English influenced English vocabulary acquisition. Participants in the study were preschool children (N = 33), from low socioeconomic status families, whose primary language was…

Purpose: The sharp increase in the number of international adoptions in the United States has prompted a heightened interest in the language development of internationally adopted children. Although recent studies have investigated the early language development of adoptees, little is known about the school-age language and literacy skills of…

This study explores factors influencing the degree to which language minority (LM) children from Spanish-dominant homes understand how connectives, such as "in contrast" and "because", signal relationships between text propositions. Standardized tasks of vocabulary, listening comprehension, word reading, and a researcher-designed text cohesion…

Students enter higher education with multiple identities that reflect their social, ethnic and cultural origins. Students from minority ethnic groups (as opposed to "new immigrant" or international students) straddle more than one cultural and language setting. This paper reports a Scottish study which suggests that, as university…

This article reports on a case study of negotiation that occurred in peer group oral interactions under assessment conditions. Discourse analysis was used to illustrate how participants negotiated and co-constructed the assessment format itself as well as meaning exchange sequences. Analyses of the data point to the advantage of using peer group…

This study was designed to investigate the development of a 5-year-old child's language and literacy development in English and Chinese within a 10-week tutoring context where the primary materials were wordless picture books. Storytelling in English and Chinese were the primary activities in each session. Extended activities included labeling,…

This book contains a collection of current research in the development of speech perception and perceptual learning. The collection integrates research involving infants, young children, and adults, and explores systematically how adult perceptual abilities develop from early infant capabilities, focusing particularly on the nature of transitional…

It is argued that vocabulary development is too often ignored in the communicative approach to second language teaching, while a good command of language and pleasure in speaking it require access to the appropriate words. Traditionally, vocabulary development has been accomplished by two complementary techniques: reading and classroom exercises.…

Many second-language learners in their early stages of development are known to make an extensive use of prefabricated formulae. These formulae are extracted holistically from the input and memorized by rote. Learners can learn to use expressions that are far beyond their current knowledge of syntax and vocabulary, by guessing their meaning from…

A discussion of classroom second language learning focuses on whether or not the concept of natural development in a target language is an appropriate research perspective. It is argued that the current psycholinguistic framework for such research should be replaced by the perspective that language learning is a social and contextual, not…

This paper, based on the analysis of forty oral and forty written personal experience narratives elicited from the same subjects for two different audiences, explores the shaping of participant reference with respect to considerations of audience and the effect of modality. The discussion first focuses on the impact of cognitive constraints on the…

This digest focuses on the American Council on the Speaking of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines. The history and development of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (originally, the ACTFL Provisional Proficiency Guidelines) are reviewed, the generic characteristics of each level of the speaking guidelines are presented in…

This Digest focuses on using the language experience approach for teaching adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. The language experience approach (LEA) ia a whole language approach that promotes reading and writing through the use of personal experiences and oral language. It can be used in tutorial or classroom settings with…