Developing advanced proficiency in a second language benefits both learners and the societies to which they belong. Educators, employers, and learners can define advanced level proficiency in a language as being able to use language for academic and professional purposes beyond daily life. But being able to use the language at work is not the only…

This article discusses the author's belief that the notion of a foreign language (FL) "disability" started with the a priori assumption that there is a unique disability for FL learning and an intimate connection between FL learning and learning disabilities (LD). Educators, clinicians, and researchers were largely uninterested in…

Although major advances have been made in research on language learning strategies (LLS), there are some areas that have been somewhat surprisingly neglected by specialists. This applies without doubt to the strategies that learners draw on to better understand and learn grammar rules but also to employ grammar structures in real-time processing,…

Standardized norm-referenced language assessments are used to identify developmental language disorder (DLD) in bicultural Navajo children. However, these assessments do not include normative data for Navajo children, the majority of whom are exposed to both Navajo and English, and consequently the assessments may not reflect their true language…

Despite the unquestionable academic interest on corpus-based approaches to language education, the use of corpora by teachers in their everyday practice is still not very widespread. One way to promote usage of corpora in language teaching is by making pedagogically appropriate corpora, labelled with different types of problems (for instance,…

Second language (L2) motivation research has been thriving for the past decades by emphasizing L2 motivation theories and describing the motivated learner, while relatively few studies have dealt with how to motivate students in a systematic way. Approaches in these studies either included investigations into the role of different motivational…

Despite the COVID-19-related school closures, school districts are handling enrollment of newly arriving students or students who will be starting Kindergarten in school year 2020-21. The school closure and health-related requirements of social distancing impede staff from conducting in-person screening for English proficiency as required by state…

Much progress has been made in the areas of diminishing, avoiding, and resisting plagiarism, due to the recent development of plagiarism tools. Many scholars/authors across the globe have been struggling with plagiarism, giving a number of lectures and writing articles pinpointing strategies that take into account on-line plagiarism services such…

As humans, we all experience the fundamental need to belong. Often, this sense of belonging is inherited and nurtured by our families and their histories, the languages we speak and the cultures we adhere to; and it is in our experiences and engagement with these aspects of ourselves that our identities are formed, contested, negotiated and…

Determining whether an English learner with significant cognitive disabilities should participate in an alternate English language proficiency (alt-ELP) assessment is a challenge for Individualized Education Program teams. Although some states provide guidelines for making the decision, many do not. The purpose of this resource is to provide…

Over half of the children between the ages of 1 and 5 in California are classified as dual language learners (DLLs), with most identified as Latinx and from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. Latinx students are consistently under-identified and undertreated for mental health services, necessitating a change in service delivery that begins with…

As more companies and families expand to the global market an increasing number of students are entering international schools outside of their home countries. Each international school is governed and run according to their own policies, but one overarching element remains: the language of instruction is usually English. When English Language…

Learners with reading and/or spelling difficulties (RSD) generally also show severe problems in learning EFL. Taking into consideration several observational and interventional studies, this article illustrates some practical and pragmatic means of identifying RSD, and provides possible solutions when addressing these difficulties in ELT…

More than 7.4 million U.S. children ages 5 and under live in a household where a language other than English is spoken by a parent or caregiver. But despite the size and growth of this Dual Language Learner (DLL) population, and these children's distinct linguistic assets and learning needs, standardized policies for identifying them and…

The United States is becoming a more culturally and linguistically diverse nation. This is especially true when we look at the youngest generation of learners. This growing diversity increases the need to accurately identify young children as dual language learners (DLLs) prior to kindergarten. Ensuring educators have a strong understanding of…