Despite extensive changes in early childhood inclusive education policy and practice, various barriers continue to inhibit access and participation of children with special needs in inclusive schools. Often mentioned barriers include negative beliefs, lack of understanding of inclusive pedagogy and the effectiveness of professional development to…

The Texas Education Code (§ 29.051) requires school districts to provide every language minority student with the opportunity to participate in either a bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) program. This evaluation report summarizes the performance of students who participated in the district's Dual Language Bilingual Program. Included…

Crossing the Bridge to Swaziland presents the story of five pre-service teachers and their faculty mentors who traveled to St. Philip's Mission, Swaziland in January 2014. There they worked collaboratively with Swazi teachers and staff running a week long camp with a business basics and motivational theme, for teenaged orphans and vulnerable…

The connection between teachers' identities and their influence on creative teaching can be found in literature on identity negotiation theory (Norton) and relationship between teachers' understanding of themselves, knowledge, and teaching practice (Johnson and Golombek). Informed by the relevant literature, this qualitative inquiry explores two…

This study is situated in the fields of language education, study abroad (SA) and intercultural communication. The interest in SA is increasing on the part of students, administrators, educators, and business companies for the learning opportunities that it offers. However, SA students are not always prepared to maximize their learning…

In this article we focus on the conditions for effective development of foreign language competence that is technologically oriented methods of teaching a foreign language. The use of computers provides ample opportunities for implementation of activity and student-centered approaches, reorganization of the usual lesson structure, as well as…

This study examined the within-language and cross-language relationships between orthographic processing and word reading in French and English across Grades 1 and 2. Seventy-three children in French Immersion completed measures of orthographic processing and word reading in French and English in Grade 1 and Grade 2, as well as a series of control…

In several studies it is highlighted that the early acquisition of a language in the home results in phonetic and phonological benefits, and that it is not uncommon for early learners to achieve native-like pronunciation in their heritage language. However, most of these studies have been carried out with bilinguals. The present contribution aims…

We focus on cross-cultural team effectiveness for MBA students involved in an immersion program, examining the development of knowledge about cultural traits, the challenges associated with teamwork, and factors that promote or hinder team performance, based on qualitative results of a survey of 20 students who participated in the program. Key…

This paper provides a descriptive account of the growing landscape of school choice in Canada through a comparative analysis of funding and student enrolment in the public, independent and home-based education sectors in each province. Given that the provinces have responsibility for K-12 education, the mixture of public, independent and home…

Previous studies have shown that immersion students tend to speak the majority language during peer interactions, regardless of the language of instruction or their dominant language. Researchers have argued that the societal status of the majority language presents an obstacle to providing equitable support for both languages of instruction. To…

Culturally Responsive Education has been widely proposed as a mechanism to improve the academic achievement of minority and Indigenous populations. Instruction in heritage languages has been shown to produce desirable outcomes both on linguistic and academic measures. However, culturally responsive and immersion instruction faces a number of…

Both for the first language (L1) and for all additional languages (L2 or L3), grammatical knowledge plays a vital role in understanding texts (e.g., Grabe, 2005). However, little is known about the development and interaction of grammar and reading comprehension in beginning foreign language learning, especially with respect to children with a…

Scholars have consistently theorised that language ideologies can influence the ways in which bilingual speakers in minority language settings identify and engage with the linguistic varieties available to them. Research conducted by the author examined the interplay of language use and ideologies among a purposive sample of adults who started in…

In this investigation, the relationship between bilingual education program type (i.e., dual language programs or exit programs) and English Language Learner reading and mathematics test scores was examined. Data were obtained on English Language Learners who were enrolled in Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 in Texas public schools for the 2008-2009,…