This paper details the use of a free and access-controlled wiki as the learning management system for a four-week teaching module designed to improve the oral communication skills of Japanese university EFL students. Students engaged in repeated experiential learning cycles of planning, doing, observing, and evaluating their performance of a role…

The primary purpose of the current research was to determine whether low-income, high-risk young children's emergent literacy skills, including measures of oral language and letter knowledge, were related to their social competence. Other goals included determining the reliability of a social competence rating scale, the Social Competence…

When approaches to critical inquiry and critical literacy are used by students to interrogate the dynamic between both fiction and nonfiction texts simultaneously, they shape a classroom culture of questioning that empowers students to take an informed and more activist stance about larger issues in the world. This article explores how nonfiction…

This longitudinal study modeled growth rates, from ages 4.5 to 11, in English and Spanish oral language and word reading skills among 173 Spanish-speaking children from low-income households. Individual growth modeling was employed using scores from standardized measures of word reading, expressive vocabulary, and verbal short-term language…

This study analysed how auto repairmen working in micro-enterprises undertake continuing vocational training in relation to cultural context. The study was conducted in Kirikkale, a city in central Anatolia in Turkey. To this end, the descriptive research technique of structured interview was used. Interviews with 33 auto repairmen were recorded…

Children with weak oral language skills are at risk of experiencing difficulty with early literacy acquisition. Intensive small group intervention during the pre-primary year has the potential to improve children's success in developing emergent literacy skills. Education assistants are a potentially powerful resource for supporting students at…

In this article, the authors investigated the relations of students' perceptions of teachers' oral feedback with teacher expectancies and student self-concept. A sample of 1,598 Taiwanese children in Grades 3 to 6 completed measures of student perceptions of teacher oral feedback and school self-concept. Homeroom teachers identified students for…

The communication pattern of Initiation/Response/Follow-Up (IRF) has long been an important instructional sequence in language classrooms. When language teachers combine IRF with the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach, they create a powerful model to evaluate student oral practice and self-assess effectiveness in creating language communities…

The question going into this action research was, "How can a language teacher encourage more positive attitudes toward language learning while building a learning community?" After incorporating "I Can" statements into the curriculum, more than 100 third grade students were surveyed. The survey asked what they thought they could do in Spanish.…

This study aimed at describing how the implementation of Task-Based Learning (TBL) would shape or change students' use of oral communication strategies. Students' problems and strategies to solve the problems during the implementation of TBL were also explored. The study was a mixed method, employing both quantitative and qualitative analysis…

The current government in Korea, in order to encourage more fluent use of English, has shifted the focus of the English curriculum from language accuracy to language fluency by encouraging English teachers to use English as a classroom language. However, many English teachers in Korea feel burdened by this policy, mainly because they themselves…

The present study was to respond to the students' low implicit grammar knowledge and, therefore, was concerned with its improvement. The subjects of the study were twenty-six students of the first semester accounting students of State Polytechnic of Malang. The strategy used was semantico-syntactic translation practice, which proceeded through…

This ethnographic study of linguistic landscape (LL) (Landry & Bourhis, 1997), describes the urban multilingual practices of Tunisia as evidenced by its policy statements, street signage, and local perceptions. Data for this investigation were collected primarily from publicly visible signage in both the capital city (Tunis), and in the suburb…

This article discusses the AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language--an organization designed to build capacity of certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialists (LSLS) by defining and maintaining a set of professional standards for LSLS professionals and thereby addressing the global deficit of qualified LSLS. Definitions and…

Language development has long been associated with motor development, particularly manual gesture. We examined a variety of motor abilities--manual gesture including symbolic, meaningless and sequential memory, oral motor control, gross and fine motor control--in 129 children aged 21 months. Language abilities were assessed and cognitive and…