Interview guides and a questionnaire were developed in order to find what factors demotivated students in Japanese high school English classrooms. Five college students who were attending two private universities and one public university shared their views about demotivation in the interviews. Forty-two students at a public university responded…

Latinos represent the fastest growing population in U.S. schools, and teachers face an increasingly demanding educational context in which to teach. The goal of this article is to present vignettes drawn from classroom observations conducted by preservice teachers in urban areas. Preservice teachers capture the dilemma faced by many teachers who…

This article focuses on the development of vocabulary among English language learners. The author first defines what a "word" means, then discusses five aspects of vocabulary knowledge. Drawing on Swain (1993), the author identifies three main goals of vocabulary learning. The rest of the article is devoted to the description of six…

The present study investigated the relationship between L2 incidental lexical gain during reading and the variables of clause type and word saliency. Lexical gain was defined as gain of grammatical class and word meaning and was compared for target items in dependent and independent clauses. Word saliency was a measurement of the learners'…

Understanding how words are created is potentially a key component to being able to learn and understand new vocabulary words. However, research on morphological awareness is relatively rare. In this study, over 660 preschool-aged children from three language groups (Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean speakers) in which compounding morphology is…

Over the past 2 decades, research has demonstrated that learner collaboration facilitates second language (L2) acquisition (Lapkin, Swain, & Smith, 2002; McDonough, 2004; Storch, 1998, 2004; Swain & Lapkin, 1998). Adopting a sociocultural perspective (e.g., Swain & Lapkin, 1998), the current study compared the effectiveness of collaborative and…

Since learning English is very popular in non-English speaking countries, developing modern assisted-learning tools that support effective English learning is a critical issue in the English-language education field. Learning English involves memorization and practice of a large number of vocabulary words and numerous grammatical structures.…

While the use of mobile devices for language learning has sparked the interest of an increasing number of researchers in recent years (e.g., Aizawa & Kiernan, 2003; Thornton & Houser, 2005), our knowledge of learners' preferences for the mobile platform and their usage patterns remains limited. Are learners prepared to use mobile phones…

This article integrates findings from earlier research (Roessingh & Kover, 2003; Roessingh, Kover, & Watt, 2005) linking distinct patterns of achievement for diverse age-on-arrival (AOA) cohorts of ESL learners on the grade 12 Alberta English language arts (ELA) examination to their vocabulary and reading comprehension scores on a standardized…

This article is based on a PhD thesis that investigates how electronic glossing can support active vocabulary learning in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Electronic glossing is generally acknowledged as contributing to vocabulary learning. Electronic glosses have been investigated in recent years in the areas of incidental vocabulary…

Book reading has been demonstrated to promote vocabulary. The current study was conducted to examine the added value of an interactive shared book reading format that emphasizes active as opposed to noninteractive participation by the child. Studies that included a dialogic reading intervention group and a reading-as-usual control group, and that…

This study was conducted to determine which method for vocabulary instruction was most beneficial: learning words through the context of literature and reading or through isolated word lists. Subjects, 45 high school students taking Freshman English, were divided into 2 groups. All students were studying Charles Dickens' novel "Great…

This annotated bibliography lists research published between 1960 and 1980 in the field of vocabulary acquisition and word handling in a second language. The bibliography is divided into two sections. The first contains 280 entries listed alphabetically. A short abstract is provided for each entry. The second section is a supplementary…

This bibliography is a follow-up to the "Specialised Bibliography 3," published by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, in 1983. This volume covers work in the field of second language vocabulary acquisition that has appeared between 1980 and 1985. There are approximately 300 entries in this bibliography, and for each…

The guide presents enrichment activity information for a language arts unit focusing on vocabulary for gifted and talented students in grades 5 and 6. The information is presented in terms of objectives, entry skills, teacher's approaches, student activities, and resources. Activities deal with such aspects of vocabulary development as synonyms…