Despite a well established body of international literature describing the effect of test anxiety on student performance in a range of assessments, there has been little work conducted on samples of students from the UK. The purpose of this exploratory study is two-fold. First, to establish the relationship between test anxiety and assessment…

In 2005, the achievement gap between African-American and Caucasian students doubled in the state of Louisiana. Sixty-three percent of the public schools in an urban school district in southeastern Louisiana received an Academically Unacceptable Status (AUS) rating according to Louisiana accountability standards. In 2006, the Louisiana Board of…

Weick's theory of sensemaking is used to analyze findings from a qualitative study of the implementation of a district-initiated adolescent intervention literacy course in two urban secondary schools. The authors concluded that implementation of the literacy course was hampered because district administrators, building leaders, teachers, and…

What features of the physical environment in video game arcades lead kids to be so engaged? How can analysis of arcade space inform language arts teachers' decisions about designing classroom environments? This article presents an analysis of physical space in video game arcades and participants' positions therein to suggest how language arts…

The effects of relaxation exercises on orthography performance in language arts education of fifth to seventh graders were experimentally tested. Participants were 399 basic secondary school students and their language arts teachers from the Hauptschule, a German type of secondary education covering grades five to nine that leads to a basic…

We conducted generalizability studies to examine the extent to which ratings of language arts performance assignments, administered in a large, diverse, urban district to students in second through ninth grades, result in reliable and precise estimates of true student performance. The results highlight three important points when considering the…

For the last several years, composition scholarship has unfortunately neglected the paragraph. Theories about it, however, have a rich history. Eventually, it involved conflicts between prescriptivists and descriptivists, as well as between members of the latter group and the branch of descriptivism called functionalism. In this article, the…

The use of drama with the children in your classroom can catch the attention of even the most reluctant of students and bring literature to life in a way that other methods cannot. Furthermore, "playing" with plays can teach more than language arts; depending on the texts chosen, drama can teach children such important life lessons as tolerance…

Describes a method for teaching creative dramatics. (RB)

Studies of media systems should be part of English education so students could understand how language functions in social contexts. (JH)

This article emphasizes the cultural importance of activities furthering good translation. The value of a translated work rests as much on the skill of the translator as on the original author. Translation is important to Spain in order for the country to raise its cultural and economic level. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

Assigning enrichment articles that are of an appropriate readability level will discourage plagiarism.

Presents descriptions of several lessons based on the goals of achievingself understanding, understanding of others, and being understood by others. (TO)

This textbook provides the foundation for an elementary English course that combines grammar and composition. It is especially useful for ungraded schools. This book is an attempt to bring the subject of language home to children at the age when knowledge is acquired in an objective way, by practice and habit, rather than by the study of rules and…