This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the effects on self concept and reading achievement of an art program and an activity-based reading program; children's selection of trade books; two approaches…

These three reports describe courses in oral or written skills in English as a second language organized by the Centre de Recherches et d'Applications Pedagogiques en Langues for groups of highly specialized learners (medical and forestry researchers and computer operators). Evidence is supplied for supporting the contention that a…

Vocational English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in San Francisco serve at one time a variety of students with differing language levels. Programs fall into three types, based on their trainees' current employment situation: unemployed and without a job site; unemployed but with a job site and verbal commitment to hire if performance during…

This document reviews the experiences of College Bound, a joint four-year Boston Public Schools/Boston College enrichment and support program for multicultural, urban, public high school students. The program was designed to supplement the regular high school curriculum and was intended to refine basic skills, stimulate critical thinking and…

"Adventures in Assessment" is an annual journal of the system for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES), a comprehensive training and technical assistance initiative for adult literacy educators and programs. SABES accomplishes this goal through staff and program development workshops, consultation, mini-courses, mentoring, peer…

This thematic unit is designed for adult literacy students with at least a third grade reading level. Objectives are tied closely to skills needed for the General Educational Development tests and include computer and workplace skills. Equipped for the Future (EFF) roles and skills are also integrated into the plans. Best practice teaching…

This book covers essential problems and basic concepts of English language testing. There are 20 chapters in four sections. Section 1, "Background," includes: (1) "Why Teachers Test"; (2) "Some Definitions"; (3) "Validity and Reliability"; and (4) "What You Should Learn about Standardized Tests." Section 2, "Preparing To Write Tests," includes:…

This collection of papers provides a theoretical foundation on current practice in cooperative thinking. The papers offer many practical methods that can be applied to a full range of classroom settings. After an introduction, "HOTSICLE: Higher Order Thinking Skills in Cooperative Learning Environments" (Neil Davidson and Toni Worsham),…

The College Board formed a research consortium with four-year colleges and universities to build a national higher education database with the primary goal of validating the SAT®, which is used in college admission and consists of three sections: critical reading (SAT-CR), mathematics (SAT-M) and writing (SAT-W). This report builds on a body of…

The research that has been conducted on single-sex schools and classes, has for the most part, been done in the private school and college realm, primarily because very few public schools established single-sex programs. One of the consistent findings has been that with so much emphasis having been placed on the development of girls, that boys are…

This chapter argues that a detailed, grounded understanding of classroom literacy practices as well as of learners' writing is crucial to begin to change the ongoing and patently unequal educational outcomes that schools often produce. It is impossible to intervene realistically and effectively in an evidential vacuum. The 1955 "Brown v.…

The 2007 meeting of the English Think Tank published here represents a sample of the English Think Tank V presentations. In reading these papers one is struck by the imagination and expertise possessed by so many members in the field. The paper topics fall roughly into four categories--assessment, diversity, literacy, and technology. This…

The lessons are designed to give newly-arrived, limited-English-proficient Vietnamese immigrants to the United States linguistic and practical skills for gaining employment. An introductory section, in both English and Vietnamese, outlines the origins and design of the materials. Ten lessons follow, each accompanied by a teacher's guide giving an…

The Threshold Project, a 3-year project that followed a 1985 pilot study, examined the nature of the language and learning difficulties that black Standard Three (Std 3, or grade 5) children in South Africa experience when they change from their mother tongue of Sepedi to English as a medium of instruction and learning, a policy known as…

This curriculum module contains lesson plans and application activities that were developed for the first of two companion courses to help adult students build writing skills by emphasizing writing as a process involving generating ideas through revising, editing, and self-critiquing and by teaching basic grammar, punctuation, and spelling…