Academic English has drawn criticism for its hegemonic status, and its dominance and legitimization as an "appropriate" language variety within academic and mainstream discourse communities have been problematized for stigmatizing home languages and dialects of multilingual and multidialectal students. However, students' proficiency in…

This article describes a curricular program for use in middle school social studies classrooms that supports the development of emergent bilinguals' language, literacy skills, and acquisition of content knowledge. The program leverages four supports found to be impactful for emergent bilinguals: 1) foregrounding content to increase students'…

Singapore is an ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse nation-state that has always practiced deliberate language policy and planning. The bilingual education policy, introduced shortly after the young nation's independence has led to the emergence of English-knowing bilinguals who are proficient in both English and their ethnically…

English as a second language teachers often find themselves teaching classes of heterogeneous students who have very divergent English language skills, abilities, and learning needs. One effective approach to address some of the challenges teachers face when teaching heterogeneous, mixed-level classes is task-based language teaching (TBLT). TBLT…

Twenty-first-century students are adept at using technology, which means that incorporating appropriate technology into the classroom can excite and engage students and improve oral production and fluency, which Rossiter, Derwing, Manimtim, and Thomson (2010) have identified as missing from many language classrooms. Therefore, academic…

The authors describe a multimodal concept drawing activity designed to facilitate students' understanding of terms used within an assignment in a first-year college writing course. In this activity, students write ideas, read definitions, study images, and create multimodal representations of a term in groups of classroom peers. The activity…

Word cloud generating applications were originally designed to add visual attractiveness to posters, websites, slide show presentations, and the like. They can also be an effective tool in reading and writing classes in English as a second language (ESL) for all levels of English proficiency. They can reduce reading time and help to improve…

Even though English was the author's favorite subject, she was not good at speaking in English, and always tried to avoid it. However, it did not matter because she did not have to speak to demonstrate her English ability. After entering university, her lack of confidence in speaking English became a major issue, and other students face the same…

The author went to the United States to study applied linguistics. Although he was there for nine months, his English proficiency did not improve as much as he had hoped, considering that he was using English almost exclusively every day. After his time in the United States, he spent 10 months in Australia working and traveling on a working…

Teachers of English as a second language (ESL) are often on the frontline of working with adult ESL learners who are facing a difficult developmental pathway to academic and/or economic success. These learners come to the task of learning English with widely varying schooling experiences, degrees of first language literacy, and English language…

This report continues the work of Krashen and Brown (2007), developing and evaluating a set of hypotheses for the development of academic proficiency. That article defined academic proficiency as having two components: academic language proficiency and knowledge of academic content.

Using songs in a language class takes advantage of the natural connection between students and music. This article describes a project that develops writing and speaking through song, using technology to help build students' knowledge of U.S. culture as well as their ability to communicate using descriptive, narrative, and expository rhetorical…

Critical thinking skills remain at the forefront of educational discussions. These higher order thinking processes, including but not limited to reflection, inference, and synthesizing information, enable individuals to make reasoned judgments not only in the classroom but in everyday life. School systems demand that critical thinking be…

This article documents our efforts to design and implement a transformational opportunity for teacher credential candidates prior to their student teaching. Through the Case Study Project, candidates participated in an intensive one-on-one teaching and learning experience with a K-12 English language learner (ELL) in classroom settings. In…

Describes a university English for academic purposes program that takes a focused approach to preparing nonnative-speaking students for academic writing and research across the university curriculum by developing proficiency with computers, library resources, and research methods. (Author/VWL)