This book revolves around educating recently arrived immigrant youth in the United States who are emergent bilinguals. Drawing on a seven-year research collaboration with three ESL teachers in an urban secondary school in the United States, it addresses questions around taking a critical approach to language and literacy education, including what…

Focuses on foreign language research on learner strategies. Outlines the different types of strategies used by foreign language learners, and discusses ways to assess students' strategy use. (SR)

In a study of "topic-types" as a common academic text structure for second-language students, 80 texts used in humanities classes (history, geography, economics, business studies) at upper secondary levels were analyzed. Results support the existence of topic-types in the humanities and the use of the framework as a feasible pedagogical tool. (33…

Discusses an aural discrimination test given to British students of French and examines the relationship between good aural discrimination ability and high achievement in a second language. (EKN)

Reports on an experiment designed to test French secondary students' intuitive understanding of the nuances among six semantic categories of the structure "'etre' plus past participle," and their ability to translate these nuances into a second language (English or Spanish). (AM)

The practice of playing taped spoken French just before the beginning of a regular foreign language class rests on the premise that regular exposure to unedited foreign speech sensitizes one to its unique intonation, rhythm, and sounds. It is hypothesized that the ability to identify a language may be the first step in listening. A review of…

Recent studies have shown that the behavioristic theory of learning is not adequate as a model for language acquisition. Far from being the linear accumulation of a series of automatic reflexes, language acquisition is a cognitive process in which individuals construct and test hypotheses and where there is considerable variation from learner to…

Reports on a study which sought to identify and examine the effects of certain learning strategies--practice, monitoring, and inferencing--on second language learning. (AM)

A study investigated the effect of relevant background knowledge on the reading comprehension of students of Spanish. Students with limited knowledge of baseball took a comprehension test on a Spanish-language report of a baseball game. Results indicate that background knowledge is possibly more important than language level for comprehension.…

This study investigates the application of Krashen's Input Hypothesis, studying the relationship between exposure to the target language and language acquisition within the context of the English-as-a-foreign-language secondary classroom in Spain. The project studied the effect of additional reading instruction with emphasis on reading for…

This paper describes the complex issues that block the language teacher's progress towards better teaching and learning. The issues are problematic, for they involve political, financial, organizational, and sociological concerns. All teachers need encouragement in the form of central support, improved career prospects, and value attributed to…

A report on an experiment testing the hypothesis that reading comprehension in a foreign language is learned more quickly and improved if reading instruction follows instruction and practice in listening comprehension. Results indicate that there is a high degree of transfer from listening to reading comprehension. A bibliography is provided. (AMH)

Reports a study of learning strategies with students of English as a second language (ESL). In Phase 1, students were interviewed to identify the range of learning strategies they were already using for specific activities. In Phase 2, students were trained to use learning strategies for vocabulary, listening, and speaking. (SED)

Examines the differential use of formal explicit knowledge and intuitive implicit knowledge in a second language grammaticality judgement tasks. (Author/AM)

Examines some problems involved in compulsory second language instruction on the secondary level, and suggests some approaches to second language instruction that stress cognitive development and awareness of language. (AM)