This report presents the findings of the 1998 survey of providers of training in English or French as a second or foreign language in Canada. The purpose of the survey was to gather information at the national level and, where possible, at the regional level, on the size of the industry, its characteristics, and the role played by foreign…

Developments in information technology have made online teacher training and development a practical proposition, but raise questions about the relationship between trainer and novice teacher at a distance. This case study of a pilot 10-week online course explores aspects of that relationship and considers future implications of this form of…

The unique characteristics of migrant and seasonal families are important concerns for the Office of Head Start, yet the research and evaluation efforts that address this segment of the Head Start program have been limited. This study was designed to ascertain the state of research knowledge about Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs;…

The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the development of provision for Gaelic education in Scottish schools, 11 years on from the Inspectorate's last major review of the area. The report sets out to provide an update showing what progress has been achieved since that time, with a specific focus on pre-school, primary and secondary…

Explains how bilingual education programs and monolingual institutions with remedial English as a Second Language programs share the goal of acculturation. Describes resistance and opposition to bilingual education, as well as its goals, advantages, approaches, teachers, and problems. (SB)

Investigates the use of computer conferencing in a second-language context with five English-for-Academic-Purposes students for the purposes of conducting discussions and introducing the students to writing as a process. Students dominated during discussions and received increased commentary on their writing; although the technology did not cause…

English-as-a-Second-Language university students in a multiple-draft composition setting were found to pay more attention to teachers' comments on preliminary drafts than on final drafts; pay most attention to comments on grammar; and consider teachers' comments helpful overall. Problems with teacher comments and implications of the study are…

A study of mother tongue (MT) use in second-language classrooms was conducted in United Kingdom primary schools in two bilingual settings: North Wales (Welsh/English) and Lancashire (Mirpur Punjabi/English). Prewriting activities were carried out with comparable pairs of classes (MT or English, second language). Although attitudes in the MT groups…

Presents Catalan as a substantial culture and looks at the present social situation of the Catalan language. Topics addressed include legal provisions; the educational system; the influence of mass media and information technology, including computer technology and applied linguistics; the audiovisual field; second-language learning; and future…

This study examined whether the effects on cognitive and language outcomes of a recently developed home-based educational intervention program, Opstap Opnieuw, for 4-6-years-old disadvantaged children could be explained by improved mother-child interaction. The present sample (n = 30) was drawn from a larger sample of Turkish-Dutch families (n =…

We study the benefits of junior kindergarten for linguistic-minority 4-year-olds compared to their linguistic-majority classmates from the same low-income neighborhoods. At the end of the school year, linguistic-minority children made significantly greater improvements in language skills than their host society classmates. At the mid-year point,…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This June 11, 2004 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "Parlez-Vous Anything?" (Germano, William); (2) "The Colors They…

This study examined the impact of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) on Korean TAFE (Technical and Further Education) college students in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading classroom in terms of their perceptions of learning environment and their reading performance. The study compared CALL and traditional reading classes over…

The "Les Chansons de la francophonie" web site is based on French songs and was developed using HTML and JavaScript for the advanced French Comprehension Course at the Second Language Institute of the University of Ottawa. These interactive listening activities include true-false and multiple-choice questions, fill in the blanks,…

There are now many CALL authoring packages that can create interactive websites and a large number of language teachers are writing materials for the whole range of such packages. Currently, each product stores its data in different formats thus hindering interoperability, pooling of digital resources and moving between software packages based in…