Narrative is the art of conveying a sequence of causally and temporally linked events through monologic telling. Various functions can be served through narratives including sharing experiences, expressing ideas, providing entertainment, and imparting cultural or social values. Narrative language represents an authentic type of language that is…

We report on our analysis of talk during an assessment task where we asked children living in northern Canadian communities to draw and write about activities they share with family and friends in their daily lives. We introduce a language as context approach to assessing young children's (ages 4-6 years) literacy and sociocultural knowledge,…

"Communication Interventions with Deaf People" concerns the application of spoken, signed, and written language interventions with deaf and hard of hearing children, young people, and adults. Exploring the work that speech and language therapists, pathologists, deaf language specialists, and other professionals carry out with deaf…

A "heritage language" is defined as a minority language that differs from the dominant language used in a particular community. Codas (children of Deaf adults) who sign but may be dominant in the spoken language of their community present an interesting case due to the added difference of a spoken/signed modality in their linguistic…

Students need opportunities to be creative and express themselves while learning a new language, during both classroom activities and tests at the end of a term or unit. The focus of the author's practice when assessing students' knowledge is to use creative dialogue techniques as a way to prevent students from simply repeating a given dialogue…

This article proposes a model for teaching interpreting for tourism purposes. It shows the aims of the model, interpreting materials, training strategies, training environment and assessment techniques. The model aims to train students to interpret in English with or without prior preparation or knowledge of the topic and without taking or reading…

English as an additional language (EAL) learners are increasing in Manitoba. They currently comprise 14% of the grade 1 population (A. Matczuk, personal communication, August 4, 2016), which translates to about three students per classroom. These young learners are "trying to master academic skills, including initial literacy, in a language…

This action research study examines the effect of self-evaluation on grammatical range and grammar accuracy on the English speaking performance of 27 foreign language university and pre-university students enrolled in three different language centers, in three different cities in Colombia. Participants were asked to record themselves answering…

This case study discusses the development and use of an oral performance assessment instrument intended to evaluate Filipino agents' customer service transactions with callers from the United States (US). The design and applications of the instrument were based on a longitudinal, qualitative observation of language training and customer service…

Educating dual language learners (DLLs) and English learners (ELs) effectively is a national challenge with consequences both for individuals and for American society. Despite their linguistic, cognitive, and social potential, many ELs--who account for more than 9 percent of enrollment in grades K-12 in U.S. schools--are struggling to meet the…

Purpose: Language sample analysis is considered by many to be the gold standard for documenting children's oral language skills. One limitation, however, is the time required for collection and transcription of language samples. The goal of this study was to determine if stable language sample measures could be generated using relatively short…

We describe an exploratory study carried out within the University of Milan, Department of English the aim of which was to analyse features of the spoken English of first-year Modern Languages undergraduates. We compiled a learner corpus, the "Role Play" corpus, which consisted of 69 role-play interactions in English carried out by…

This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL),as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing…

This journal focuses on the teaching and learning of French. Selected titles in this volume include the following: "Practical Ideas for Teaching Reluctant Learners in Key Stage 4"; "Learning to Count in French"; "Oh No! The Target Language . . . !""French and the English 'Invasion'"; "The Sounds of…

This journal focuses on the learning and teaching of Italian as a foreign language. Selected articles include the following: "Immigrant Women in Bologna: Themes and Problems"; "But Those Cursed Accents: Where Did They Go?"; "Modern Languages in the Primary School: The Scottish Experience"; "Suggested Strategies…