The California Department of Education (CDE) identifies more than 970 public alternative schools across the state. Most of these are high schools designed to meet the needs of credit-deficient and other youth, over age 16 who are vulnerable to dropping out of school before completing minimum requirements for a diploma or completion certificate.…

Although many teachers recognize that they must adapt their instruction for the diverse and growing student population of multilingual learners across public schools in the United States, many report that they are unprepared to do this appropriately and productively (Banilower et al. 2013). This article aims to shed light on this issue.…

The "2021-2022 WIDA Assessment Guidance" provides information on the following 14 topics: (1) English Language Proficiency Requirements; (2) Participation Requirements; (3) WIDA Assessments in Grades K-12; (4) WIDA ACCESS Annual Assessments Test Window; (5) Indiana English Learner Entrance and Exit Criteria; (6) Scheduling and Timing…

Cultural awareness is essential in foreign language education. This paper explores two projects that exemplify the integration of cultural elements into foreign language learning involving both first language (L1) and second language (L2) cultures. The first project was initiated in the course "German Cinema". It focuses on the legendary…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires state education agencies to establish and implement standardized, statewide entrance and exit procedures for English learners (ELs). WIDA provides the English language proficiency placement and annual assessments administered in…

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the professional development of teacher-trainers worldwide, with practical applications for instructors and curriculum developers who work to improve English proficiency in the professional/vocational training realm. The goal is to address situational language use during professional training so that…

The "TOEFL® Essentials"™ test is a new English language proficiency test in the "TOEFL"® family of assessments. It measures foundational language skills and communication abilities in academic and general (daily life) contexts. The test covers the four language skills of reading, listening, writing, and speaking and is intended…

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is a digital communication method that transforms spoken discourse into written text. This rapidly evolving technology is used in email, text messaging, or live video captioning. Current ASR systems operate in conjunction with Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to transform speech into text that people…

This commentary highlights major validation challenges raised, explicitly or implicitly, from the four articles in the special issue on "Validity Considerations for Assessing Language Proficiency in Young Language Minority Students." They are concerned with: (1) the construct definition in consideration of young language-minority (LM)…

This paper presents Academic Language Proficiency and how to use general and content-specific vocabulary, specialized or complex grammatical structures-all for the purpose of acquiring new knowledge and skills. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has emerged out of the broader field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). EAP teachers often…

The test view is on the Duolingo English Test (DET), an alternative online English proficiency test with a machine-driven characteristic. The review covers essential information of the DET such as test purpose, usage, score-mapping with CEFR scale, price, and publisher. Meanwhile, the test usefulness is discussed with focuses on reliability,…

Many scholars and teachers in EFL education should agree that compared with reading and writing, listening has received much less attention. This brief article discusses important gaps existing in EFL listening and overall proficiency development. It presents the case for a greater focus on sounds and actual listening in the classroom and spoken…

Nearly 1 in 10 students in the United States--approximately 4.9 million--are considered English learners,1 also referred to as "multilingual learners." Schools have long been a cornerstone for families of English learners, who come to this country with the hope of providing their children with a brighter future. This belief in the…

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'…

Recent empirical research in sociolinguistics and social psychology has established the existence of the socio-psychological phenomena known as linguistic stereotyping (LS) and reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS), which have an implicit or unconscious effect on listeners' perception of speech and speakers. Despite such findings, little research…