A year-long study followed two bilingual (English/Spanish) middle school teachers as training helped them to develop a new way of interacting with students during content teaching. To enhance student comprehension, the teachers moved away from concurrent translation and made efforts to distribute language usage so that they spent equal amounts of…

This paper applies the findings of doctoral research undertaken in the Northern Territory. It draws on extended interviews with nine Indigenous students studying at university to produce four findings for classroom learning and teaching, one of which highlights the need to recognise Aboriginal English as a focal point of the curriculum for both…

This paper considers speakers' differing degrees of self-confidence in their bilingual abilities and their effects on reported language use and observed patterns of language choice. One hundred and twenty individuals from New Zealand's four largest Pasifika communities--Samoan, Cook Islands, Tongan and Niuean--reported on their self-confidence in…

This paper investigates the impact that a teacher's virtual presence--or lack thereof--has on students' chat behavior with regard to error correction, uptake, target language use, and on-task behavior. The data come from beginning German students engaged in pair and small-group chatting activities at a major American university. Transcripts from…

This paper proposes a process model of reflective practice for second language teachers, designed to facilitate a closer understanding of language use and interactive decision-making. The L2 classroom is portrayed as a dynamic and complex series of inter-related contexts, in which interaction is central to teaching and learning. An understanding…

This study explored language shift and accommodation among bilingual Mandarin and Tai-gi (also called Hokkien, Holo, Tai-gu, Taiwan Min, Taiwanese) families in Taiwan. From the 1940s until the 1980s the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Taiwan promoted Mandarin Chinese. Recent years have witnessed a shift in policy: since 2001 elementary schools…

Studies from information-processing and language comprehension research have reported that background knowledge facilitates reading and writing. By comparing Chinese language development of heritage students who had home background in Chinese language and culture with those who did not, this study found that heritage learners did significantly…

Seven papers on topics of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction, language research, and applied linguistics are presented: "ESL Students and Common L2 Conversation-Making Expressions" (Eli Hinkel); "Thematic Options in Reporting Previous Research" (Sarah Thomas, Thomas Hawes); "Connected Speech Modifications in…

This teaching manual is designed for the Spanish language training of Peace Corps volunteers serving in Chile, and focuses on daily communication skills needed in that context. It contains 12 topical lessons outlining targeted language and communication competencies, suggested classroom activities, phrase and vocabulary lists, grammar and usage…

A study investigated the language use of six native Mandarin Chinese-speaking children, recent immigrants to the United States placed in an English-language kindergarten class. Taking the perspective of an immigrant child, the research focuses on the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learner's language behaviors when engaging in four classroom…

Using the nationally representative National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS88) database, the relationships of first language (L1) proficiency to subsequent use of that language (home language maintenance), English proficiency and achievement and English self-concept were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis results showed that L1…

A followup study looked at the language development of three children (aged 5-6 years during the present study) three years after initial observation. Initially, the children were Spanish-dominant; all had one native English-speaking parent; all were learning English easily. The followup study involved parent interviews and observations of the…

The Natural Approach to second language instruction has theoretical flaws and tends to reverse teaching methods that have been used successfully for many years. The approach exaggerates the presumed failure of previous language programs and ignores some important characteristics of children's language learning processes. It assumes that explicit…

A study of some features of the language usage of nonnative English speakers focused on global communicative competence and the use of text-building devices. Subjects were the primary-school-age children of eight native Italian-, Greek-, and Macedonian-speaking migrant parents and a matched set of native-English-speaking classmates. The language…

This document describes a procedure designed to enhance the effectiveness of teaching in intermediate and advanced English as a second language (ESL) classes. The procedure consists of letting students express themselves in writing in their native language (whether French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, or Italian) and having the same students the…