The needs survey shows that English communication skill of the students in nursing school speaking classes is not well developed. Consequently, the speaking instructional materials used in the classes need to be advanced. Yalden's (1987) Language Program Development covering Needs Analysis, Syllabus and Materials Development, Expert Validation,…

Sharing high-quality storybooks and nonfiction books not only is enjoyable for young children and teachers--it is also a powerful way to build crucial literacy skills. This engaging guide provides effective strategies for selecting books and using read-alouds to develop children's oral language, vocabulary, concepts of print, alphabet knowledge,…

As computer assisted instruction (CAI) becomes increasingly sophisticated, its appeal as a viable method of literacy intervention with young children continues despite limited evidence of effectiveness. The present study sought to assess the impact of one such CAI program, "Imagine Learning English" (ILE), on both the receptive…

The focus of this dissertation is a web-based, second language (L2) instructional resource called VVT (Virtual Vocabulary Trainer) designed to teach integrated vocabulary depth of knowledge and dictionary referencing skills to tertiary-level learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). In addition to evaluating the potential of online resources…

This study examined factors related to reading comprehension in adolescents who spoke English as a first language (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Measures of decoding, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were administered to 31 L1 and 44 L2 speakers. English L2 adolescents scored significantly lower than their L1 peers on…

What are the longitudinal cognitive profiles of Hong Kong Chinese children with specific reading difficulties in Chinese only, in English only, or both? A total of 16 poor readers each of Chinese (PC) and English (PE) and 8 poor readers of both orthographies (PB) were compared to a control sample (C) of 16 children; all were drawn from a…

The role of student attention for predicting kindergarten word reading was investigated among 432 students. Using "Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior Rating Scale" behavior rating scores, the authors conducted an exploratory factor analysis, which yielded three distinct factors that reflected selective…

This study investigated the hypothesis that the contributions of oral language comprehension ("C") and word recognition ("D") to reading comprehension ("R") in the simple view of reading (SVR) are not independent because a component of "C" (vocabulary knowledge) directly contributes to the variance in…

Vocabulary is an essential component of language. It is central to reading ability, writing ability and listening ability, and the most important aspect of second-language (L2) knowledge for academic achievement. The aim of this paper is to investigate quantitatively some of the factors that make some L2 words more difficult to learn and retain…

The possible advantage of bilingual children over monolinguals in analyzing word meanings from verbal context was examined. The subjects were 40 third-grade children (20 bilingual and 20 monolingual) recruited from independent schools in the USA. The two groups of participants were compared on their performance on a standardized test of receptive…

It is predicted that Hispanic school-aged children will outnumber non-Hispanic white students in public schools by 2050 (Wolf, Herman, & Dietel, 2010). While the number of Latino English language learners (ELLs) continues to grow, their educational achievement remains problematic. Data reveal that ELL dropout, mobility, and poverty rates are…

This short report draws attention to an interesting kind of configuration in the lexicon that seems to have escaped theoretical or systematic descriptive attention. These configurations, which we dub SEMPLATES, consist of an abstract structure or template, which is recurrently instantiated in a number of lexical sets, typically of different form…

Given the importance of the early childhood period as a time when the foundation is laid for later language and literacy, it is important to determine what activities and experiences lead to positive language and literacy outcomes in early childhood. This Fact Sheet reviews fifteen experimentally-evaluated programs and intervention strategies that…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact on Taiwanese students' English vocabulary retention, task difficulty ratings, and task utility ratings under varied task load conditions (reading only, fill-in-the-blanks, writing) when controlling for level of trait anxiety. The task loads were based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis. The…

Creative movement is an ideal way to help young children develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Most young children are, by nature, extremely physical. They delight in exploring the world with their bodies and expressing their ideas and feelings through movement. During creative movement experiences, children learn to think before…