This investigation examined the impact of maternal language and children's gender on bilingual children's vocabulary and emergent literacy development during 2 years in Head Start and kindergarten. Seventy-two mothers and their children who attended English immersion programs participated. Questionnaires administered annually over a 3-year period…

This paper reports findings from a study that assesses metacognitive awareness and reading-strategy use of Chinese senior high school students who are learning English as a foreign language (EFL). A total of 270 students responded to a 28-item survey of reading strategies (SORS). The strategies were classified into 3 categories: global,…

The present article reports on the findings of a study that explored the effect of explicit language learning strategy instruction on the development of English as a foreign language within a higher education setting in mixed language ability groups. The research results indicate that explicit language learning strategy instruction that aimed at…

This article describes an action research project in which the members of a basic English class for adults over 50 at a Colombian public university undertook the mission of discovering their potentialities as autonomous learners. By means of the reflective use of the language portfolio, the members of this course guided the planning and execution…

THE PROBLEM: This study investigated students' perceptions of the English Village Program at the Fong Shan Elementary School in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan. The main objectives of this research were to discover the fifth graders' motivation and attitudes toward (a) the simulated theme classrooms, (b) the native English-speaking teacher's instruction,…

Along with the global spread of English and the wide recognition of World Englishes, a whole breadth of studies have been conducted to explore the attitudes of learners toward different varieties of English. In China, however, only two pioneering studies have examined this issue. To address this gap, this study investigated the attitudes of…

This study addressed the following research questions: (1) Will there be a statistically significant difference between the reading achievement scores of eleventh-grade students who received instruction implementing popular culture as an advance organizer for literature and the scores of the students who did not? (2) What are the perceptions of…

We examined ethnicity and cultural orientation as predictors of parents' views of and involvement in children's education, using data gathered from the Latino (n = 74) and non-Latino (17 White and 13 ethnic minority) parents of children in an elementary school's dual-language program. Parents completed a questionnaire that assessed Latino and…

This paper reports on a study designed to investigate (a) whether peer review is an effective pedagogical activity with adult Chinese students in the teaching of second language (L2) academic writing and (b) how factors such as perceptions of the influence of peer reviewers' L2 proficiency, previous experience with peer review, feedback…

With the rapidly changing demographics of the public school student population in the United States, teacher preparation programs have been driven to prepare teachers for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Considering these issues, the current research was conducted to benefit current teacher education research regarding English…

This study examines the language learning strategies employed by successful learners of English as a foreign and second language. Two successful English learners whose first languages are Mandarin were interviewed, and asked to complete a questionnaire and a self-evaluation measure to indicate their perceived level of language proficiency as well…

Issues of assessment design and implementation in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have attracted some attention over recent years, but teachers' philosophies about assessment remain underexplored. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study into the assessment roles and philosophies of a group of teachers of English as a…

Developments in broadcast and multimedia technology have generated a readily available and vast supply of videotexts for use in second and foreign language learning contexts. However, without pedagogical direction learners are unlikely to be able to deal with the complexities of this authentic listening resource, and strategy instruction may be…

With recent statistical advances in cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA), the CDA approach has been increasingly applied to non-diagnostic tests partly to meet accountability demands for student achievement. The study aimed to evaluate critically the validity of the CDA application to an existing non-diagnostic L2 reading comprehension test and…

Thai school age students as young as eight years old are increasingly being immersed in the Internet world, and as a result, they are accelerating their learning and communication skills in English even without noticing. For educators, the ICT (information communication technology) revolution that has occurred in the last few decades needs to be…