This journal includes five papers: "The Co-Occurrence of Quotatives with Mimetic Performances" (Isabelle Buchstaller); "'Who Does She Think She Is?' Constraints on Autonomy in Language Teacher Education" (Anne Heller-Murphy and Joy Northcott); "Effects of Feedback on Performance: A Study of Advanced Learners on an ESP Course" (Tony Lynch and Joan…

Most research conducted on the amount of time English language learners (ELLs) require for the acquisition of academic English suggests that 4-10 years are required to be near or on par with fully proficient English (FEP) peers. In this study, data from three administrations (1999, 2000, and 2001) of the FCAT writing test of the Florida Writing…

The issue of whether or not to correct errors in students' writing is controversial. Some scholars argue that error correction is helpful, while others argue that it is ineffective, perhaps even harmful. What is missing from the literature are studies about how error correction might affect the performance of specific types of students. This…

This book includes the following chapters: "Literacy and Advanced Foreign Language Learning: Rethinking he Curriculum" (Richard G. Kern); "A Template for Advanced Learner Tasks: Staging Genre Reading and Cultural Literacy Through the Precis" (Janet Swaffar); "Fostering Advanced L2 Literacy: A Genre-Based, Cognitive…

The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act requires states to report learners' educational gains in terms of level descriptors defined by the National Reporting System (NRS). States may choose their assessment methods. Most use standardized testing. NRS level descriptors for English as a Second Language (ESL) define English language proficiency…

The proportion of California's limited English speaking students is increasing rapidly. Language minority students represent more than one-third of all students in California public schools. The most central educational outcome for these students is English proficiency. Research varies on how long it takes for students to become English…

This review of the current literature on second language learning was to inform the following four questions: (1) what are the effects of learning a second language on the first language? (2) What is the role of content instruction in offering a second language? (3) What are the effects of learning a second language on students with special needs?…

A study explored communication patterns between Chinese international teaching assistants (ITAs) and faculty in a university mathematics department. Nine experienced faculty, selected because they had expressed opinions about ITAs' needs, and seven ITAs participated. The ITAs had all met the mathematics department's language proficiency test…

The Preschool IDEA Oral Language Proficiency Test: Spanish (Pre-IPT:Spanish) developed by W. Williams and E. Dalton (1989) purports to determine the level of oral language proficiency for preschool children, aged 3 to 5 years. The instrument is designed to identify the dominant language of bilingual or primarily Spanish-speaking children, and the…

The purpose of this study was to compare how learning outcomes are influenced by a number of key student composition (language background, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and gender) and school context variables on a direct writing performance assessment. The sample was randomly selected from a population of 13,604 third graders in 175 public…

This paper investigates the effectiveness of students' real communication capabilities by investigating the target language use in monologue, dialogue, and conversational "multilogue" situations. It explores Japanese college students' oral English proficiency by focusing on the linguistic and pragmatic aspects in six types of teaching…

This paper examines the rating scale data of oral proficiency tests analyzed by a Rasch Analysis focusing on an item map and factor analysis. In discussing the item map, the difficulty order of six items and students' answering patterns are analyzed using descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency of test scores. The data ranks the…

High stakes assessments cannot reliably provide an accurate assessment of English language learners' (ELLs)' abilities in content areas. Cultural differences and limitations concerning opportunity to learn can lead to unfair interpretations of low test scores and assessment discrimination. ELLs cannot demonstrate content mastery without having…

The majority of indigenous U.S. languages are no longer learned at home, and the last generation of native speakers are aging. There are increasingly strong efforts by communities to keep their languages alive by developing teaching programs in their schools and communities, although finding teachers is problematic. This paper focuses on how…

The report describes a grammar program designed to reduce structural errors in written tests on non-native students of English. Subjects were 20 college English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students of different language backgrounds. The program's objectives were to (1) reduce grammatical errors in the students' writing by 20 percent, (2) improve…