The purpose of this article is to briefly describe the design and piloting of a branched, online placement and credit examination that measures receptive as well as productive and creative language abilities in the heritage language of college students entering the Spanish for Heritage Learners Program at the University of Houston, a major…

This paper examines educational practices in Spain and in particular Madrid. With this contextual frame as the starting point the following issues are discussed: the "official" conceptualization of cultural diversity, educational policies and resolutions related to cultural diversity, and school programs and resources facilitated by…

SMS language is English language slang, used as a means of mobile phone text messaging. This practice may impact on the written language skills of learners at school. The main aim of this study was to determine the perspectives of Grade 8 and 9 English (as Home Language) educators in Gauteng regarding the possible influence of SMS language on…

Having orally proficient Spanish speaking heritage learners in a class alongside monolingual English speakers who are learning Spanish as a second language is quite the challenge: the heritage learners' ability to converse can be intimidating to the non heritage learner, but at the same time, the non heritage learner's ability to grasp the grammar…

How do teachers define literacy, and how do their perceptions influence their approach to the teaching and learning of literacy? These and other questions relating to literacy generally formed the focus of this ethnographic case study in two urban public primary schools in Ghana. The paper also considers teachers' views on mother tongue literacy.…

Children of foreign origin are increasingly failing in mathematics in Swedish compulsory schools. This article analyses the didactics at a school proven very successful in teaching mathematics to all children including the 70% of children of foreign origin. The situation at the studied school is compared to research of the Swedish school system…

In a multiracial and multilingual society where bilingualism is adopted as the cornerstone of education policy, mother tongue maintenance is a significant issue. An innovative initiative termed as "modular curriculum" was introduced in Singapore primary schools to cater to Chinese students, the major ethnic group, with varying Chinese…

This dissertation explores complex positionings of Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners amid several intersecting discourses, including those around globalization, identity development and language policies. Using critical, qualitative methods, the study combines textual and site-based analyses, linking the language development experiences of…

The aim of this study is to evaluate the new Turkish education program that has been being implemented since 2005 gradually in light of teacher suggestions. The study has been done in scanning model. In this study which has been conducted with the purpose of evaluating the newly prepared Turkish education programs, the program has been tried to be…

This paper explores how critical teacher action research (CTAR) supported the process of developing and implementing a Spanish for Heritage Speakers (SHS) course in a high school, notwithstanding a low percentage of heritage language learners. The purpose of the paper was to explore how a teacher was able to navigate the secondary school…

The aim of the present contribution is to evaluate and discuss the impacts of language learning interventions in pre-school children with German as a first or a second language. The sample consisted of 864 children in intervention groups and 294 children as a comparison group within two successive cohorts. The instruments used were the SSV (Grimm…

The study examines emergent literacy skills in a group of young English Language Learners who are dominant in their native language, Spanish. We investigate the relative contribution of syntactic comprehension in the L1 and L2 to the development of emergent reading skills in English. Participants were bilingual kindergarteners from two public…

This study investigated self-assessed anxious learners who enrolled in online Spanish courses to determine if their anxiety was mediated by the lack of face-to-face (F2F) and other synchronous learning interactions. Participants were enrolled in courses at two postsecondary institutions located in south-central Texas. Narrative analysis was used…

Issues affecting pre-school education in a rural area of Kenya are highlighted in a study of a mother tongue education (MTE) programme in one indigenous language group, the Pokomo. Factors supporting the introduction of MTE include official support for MTE, the welcoming of non-government stakeholder involvement in education, the presence of…

This study uses a language socialization approach to explore the role of Ukrainian language instruction in the revitalization of Ukrainian as the national language. Based on 10 months ethnographic observation and videotaping of classroom interaction in two fifth-grade Ukrainian language and literature classrooms, it focuses on corrective feedback…