Teachers who are facing multiple languages and cultures in their classrooms for the first time may be fooled by the English Language Learner who has become proficient in English. That competence in social communication may disguise difficulty with understanding and generating academic language. Through two profiles of middle school students who…

Medicare, as a publicly funded insurance program, has produced significant improvement in the overall health of America's elderly populations. However, health disparities still persist between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White populations in terms of overall access to health services. This study utilized data from the Hispanic Established Population…

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, the authors focused on the relation between pre-school classroom experiences and the development of later comprehension skills in ethnic minority children whose first language is different from the language they learn in (pre-)school. In Study 1, the relation between pre-school playgroup…

The use of dictionaries in second language proficiency examinations has been the subject of controversy and debate for a good many years. Debate often focuses on how dictionary availability impacts on examination performance as measured, for example, by test scores or by the quality of test-taker responses. This article presents findings of an…

This paper presents a study that attributes verb serialization in the interlanguage of Vietnamese-speaking ESL learners to language transfer and, furthermore, puts forward the view that such transfer bears a resemblance to substrate influence in creoles with serial verb constructions (SVCs). In a task that elicited English causatives through…

This paper reports a study on anxiety in Chinese undergraduate non-English majors at three different proficiency levels. By way of survey, observations, reflective journals and interviews, the study revealed that (1) a considerable number of students at each level felt anxious when speaking English in class, (2) the more proficient students tended…

This study explores the role of culturally familiar background knowledge in inferential and literal comprehension in L2 reading. Ninety-eight Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) university students were divided into two groups of equivalent English proficiency. They read either the original of an American short story or a "nativized"…

Team teaching between native English speaking teachers and local L2 English teachers has become an increasingly common phenomenon in schooling in the East Asia region. The relevant literature reports some positive impacts of team teaching and also highlights some of the challenges or conflicts which arise. The aim of this paper is to focus on…

In postgraduate study, students including L2 students are often required to write a thesis and, as a growing literature reveals, L2 students often experience difficulties in the writing of this genre. While most of this research has involved surveys (questionnaires and interviews) and case studies of supervisor perceptions, only a few studies have…

This paper describes a study in which we investigated the effects of corrective feedback on learner uptake in CALL. Learner uptake is here defined as learner responses to corrective feedback in which, in case of an error, students attempt to correct their mistake(s). 177 students from three Canadian universities participated in the study during…

The most central aims of language teaching are the development of language proficiency, the development of cultural knowledge and intercultural understanding, and the fostering of positive cross-cultural attitudes. The authors have examined the relationships between language learning and cross-cultural attitudes in projects in Australia (reported…

One of the challenges in content-based instruction in second language classrooms is how to focus on form in a way that is both effective and appropriate. The use of collaborative tasks that push learners to consciously reflect on their own language use (i.e., produce "language-related episodes") while conveying meaning has been proposed as one way…

Identification of a language minority learner for placement in a program for English Language Learners (ELLs), and the length of the support program, may have a significant effect on the student's academic achievement. Widespread anecdotal evidence suggests that criteria used to make placement decisions vary widely across the U.S. This study…

This paper provides an overview of the development of English in Myanmar. It begins by tracing the changing role and status of English and Myanmar from the colonial period, which has had an impact on the current education structure. The paper outlines the structure of the education system and the recent reforms that reflect the rising importance…

This article examines various issues related to the development of advanced proficiency by foreign language teacher candidates with the goal of providing information and strategies for teacher educators and administrators at the university level. Recent changes in the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requirements…