In 2008, the Ministry of Education of South Korea planned to develop a domestic, standardized language test called the National English Ability Test (NEAT) as part of sweeping reforms designed to democratize and improve the Korean education system. On many levels, NEAT was an innovative initiative. From a financial perspective, NEAT was designed…

The present paper focuses on the acquisition of hedging techniques by first-year undergraduate students at the University of Tokyo in Japan. One of the major difficulties faced by aspiring science writers lies in positioning their arguments in relation to the preexisting literature. This originates from the fact that writing in the field of…

The revised hierarchical model seems different from the distributed conceptual feature model in predicting how unbalanced bilinguals would be aware of semantic relations between words for taxonomic categories of basic level (exemplar words) and words for those of superordinate level (category names) in L2. We did a series of four experiments to…

This study provides a basis for understanding how long it typically takes English language learners (ELLs) in seven Washington school districts to achieve reclassification as former ELLs. Researchers looked at ELLs' grade level and English proficiency at school entry, as well as their gender, home language, race/ethnicity, special education…

When is the right moment to transition an English learner student from part-time participation in English language development classes into full-time participation in mainstream English-only classes? English learner students should be moved into full-time mainstream English-only classes when they are sufficiently fluent in English to be able to…

Many adolescents struggle to comprehend text, a fact which has led educational researchers to speculate that these reading struggles might be linked with students' levels of familiarity with the vocabulary and language found in these texts. However, few studies have identified the school-relevant language skills beyond vocabulary that contribute…

In foreign language classrooms we often find that, in addition to their mother tongue (L1), learners already speak--or are learning--at least one other language. As a result, they already have an array of linguistic and cognitive skills that may prove very useful if they are adequately exploited during the language learning process. However, in…

Within these years, there has been a significant increase in the number of Chinese Mainland sojourners studying in Hong Kong. Due to the huge differences in various aspects like language, culture, cultural value, it would be considerably difficult for the Chinese Mainland students to adapt to the Hong Kong environment. This article investigates…

This study considers, both transversally and longitudinally, advanced second language (L2) learners' profile portraits, how these correlate with their sociolinguistic and linguistic performance, and how changes in these portraits over time connect to changes in sociolinguistic performance. The results show a strong correlation between high degrees…

In any society, the role of language has always been a very vital and incontrovertible one. The bible made us to understand that at the beginning, there was word and the word was with God and God was the word. The world and all that we have therein were created through word. This makes one to wonder about the power in language today. At all levels…

The present study explored the developmental trend of orthographic awareness in Chinese-speaking preschoolers. A total of 184 children between 3 and 5 years of age participated in the study. Two developmental patterns of orthographic awareness were obtained. One pattern was dependent on a traditional Chinese orthographic hierarchy, with a sequence…

The population of English language learners (ELLs) in general education classrooms has been increasing over the last few decades. However, ELLs are still underrepresented in gifted programs, and teachers struggle to provide these students with adequate educational experiences. What do teachers need to know about high-potential ELLs? What…

Multilingual education (MLE) is increasingly recognized as a means to ensure equitable access to education for children with a nondominant first language and to retain endangered languages. UNESCO has championed MLE and identified 10 essential components in planning implementation of MLE implementation. This article examines these 10 components in…

This study measures the extent to which Arabic-speaking EFL learners are aware of polysemy in English. It also investigates whether the English proficiency level of Arabic-speaking EFL learners plays a role in their ability to distinguish between the various meanings of English polysemous words, and whether they face problems when they encounter…

Most of the world's English language teachers speak English as a second or third language rather than as their first language. For many, their level of proficiency in English may not reach benchmarks established by their employers, raising the issue that is the focus of this article, namely, what kind of proficiency in English is necessary to be…