Purpose: In this clinical focus article, the authors argue for robust vocabulary instruction with emergent bilingual learners both in inclusive classroom settings and in clinical settings for emergent bilinguals with language and literacy disorders. Robust vocabulary instruction focuses on high-utility academic words that carry abstract meanings…

Across stages of acquisition, second language (L2) competencies are contingent on the variation among individuals learning the language, in both informal and formal learning contexts. This study investigates a group of outliers whose extreme test scores serve as a foundation to examine them as individuals. The study addresses the outliers'…

For linguistically diverse communities, researchers have long questioned assessment approaches that disregard learners' multilingualism. Our study offers potential approaches that center contextualized, multilingual knowledges and skills within classroom-based language assessments with one teacher and his English foreign language courses for…

An Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) may be evaluated either during the interview procedure (direct-method) or from a tape-made oral interaction (semi-direct method). Such variety in methods of assessment can influence test takers' scores extensively. However, it is not conclusive whether such differences are due to test format or something else.…

This study explored the potential effect of college students' self-generated computerized mind maps on their reading comprehension. It also investigated the subjects' attitudes toward generating computerized mind maps for reading comprehension. The study was conducted in response to the inability of the foundation-level students, who were learning…

Many ELT examinations have gone online in the last few years and a large number of educational institutions have also started considering the possibility of implementing their own tests. This paper deals with the training of a group of 24 ELT teachers in the Region of Valencia (Spain). In 2007, the Ministry of Education provided funds to determine…

Cued American English (CAE) is a visual variety of English derived from a mode of communication called Cued Speech (CS). CS, or cueing, is a system of communication for use with the deaf, which consists of hand shapes, hand placements, and mouth shapes that signify the phonemic information conventionally conveyed through speech in spoken…

A comparison of the error profiles of monolingual (child L1) learners of Dutch, Moroccan children (child L2) and Moroccan adults (adult L2) learning Dutch as their L2 shows that participants in all groups massively overgeneralize [-neuter] articles to [+neuter] contexts. In all groups, the reverse gender mistake infrequently occurs. Gender…

Confronted with a world that is strikingly different from what it was just a decade ago, the United States faces rapidly shifting economic, political, and national security realities and challenges. To respond to these changes it is essential that our institutions of higher education graduate globally competent students. This article addresses…

North Frisian is an endangered language spoken in northwest Germany near Denmark, with 8,000 speakers representing nine dialects. The paper examines factors that are impelling the language toward attrition and shift, characterizing the current state of the language, discussing the effect of language contact, and presenting dialectalization or…

Reviews principles for hardware selection, and forecasts the state of technology in terms of fidelity, feedback, and open architecture in language training. (six references) (GLR)

This article seeks to link the dynamics of oil with the spread of English in the Arabian Gulf region. It argues that "oil" sustains certain social, economic, and political conditions that (a) provide a fertile environment for the expansion of English and that (b) disproportionately serve the economic interests of the English-speaking nations of…

Referring to a recent British publication, discusses linguistic problems in technical language and their relevance to foreign language teaching. Mentions specifically "cognitive structures" common to the foreign and the native languages, which can facilitate understanding technical texts. Discusses also "modes of discourse" which are relevant to…

Discusses two types of adjectival phrase: (1) the premodifying phrases derived from postmodifying equivalents, and (2) obligatory coordination with and between semantically similar pairs of premodifying adjectives. (Author/CFM)

Discusses the ethnographic investigation of a multilingual adolescent peer group in which various forms of second/other-language learner status had considerable social significance. The study illustrates the ways a repertoire of languages and language learner statuses serve as differentiated resources adolescents draw on to define community and…