A study of bilingual third-graders beginning formal English literacy in a whole-language classroom found that students improved in reading abilities and comprehension, as assessed through miscue and retelling analysis; writing results were mixed; and holistic assessment of overall writing abilities did not show improvement. Students' uneven…

A study (n=181 college students) examined effects of lexical ambiguity in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) on beginning second-language learners, focusing on whether personality type affects retention of second-language vocabulary independent of translation issues and in an ambiguous CALL context. Findings support the need for beginning…

As the numbers of migrant farmworkers active in the United States increases, so does the need to provide effective literacy programs for them and their families. Homestate and upstream programs are designed to meet the needs of migrant workers. The paper provides examples of successful programs that involve whole migrant families in literacy…

Investigates how accurately learners can assess their understanding of words and whether this accuracy is influenced by the learners' culture, gender, and lexical knowledge. Subjects were university students of English in China, Israel, and Japan. A mismatch between the objective and perceived understanding of a reading task was related to the…

Reports a study investigating how multilingual language learners evaluate their own multilingualism, how they view the interaction of their different languages, and whether they think the different languages help or hinder them when speaking, listening, understanding, or writing the foreign languages. Ways in which these perceptions can be used to…

Describes how instruction and exposure contributed to the development of oral proficiency in English as a Second Language in mutually exclusive learning situations in Nepal. This study finds that both instruction and exposure contribute to second-language acquisition, the former promoting accuracy, the latter promoting fluency. (Author/VWL)

Reports on how language and gender issues have been integrated into the discussion of letter writing, speech making and writing, and the long essay in an advanced English composition course at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The teaching was done with the main goal of enhancing students' writing skills, while also making them…

To test how to achieve a reliable score on an essay test, based on judgments of specific criteria such as grammatical accuracy or topic relevance, a workshop was conducted on interrater reliability at a teacher educators conference in South Africa. Experienced English teacher educators assessed two essay protocols. Results showed substantial…

Describes an exploratory study that investigated the effects of explicit instruction in revision on learners' performance and perceptions about writing. Learners were from a secondary school in Hong Kong. Indicates that explicit teaching of revision strategies has a measurable influence on writing performance. (Author/VWL)

Discusses growing enrollments in foreign languages at Spelman College, a small language arts college for African American women in Atlanta, Georgia. Attributes the growing enrollments to the willingness of faculty to attend to student needs, interests, and specific black heritage. Suggests strategies for attracting students of color to languages…

Presents findings relating to a study on pupils' perceptions of the in-school foreign language learning experience. The study is part of a longitudinal study on the motivational perspectives of secondary pupils learning German. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the English literacy development of Cambodian adults in the United States. Describes how Cambodian adults, literate in Khmer, participate in each other's English literacy development; how Cambodian children, fluent but not literate in Khmer participate in their parents' English literacy development; and how a Cambodian teacher…

Examines the performance of Hungarian secondary school students on two types of unscripted tasks--an argument task and a narrative task. Focuses on grammatical patterns of learner language, and reports significant differences in the learners' performance. (Author/VWL)

A descriptive case study provides a comprehensive profile of 13 learning disabled students' experience after one full year in a French immersion learning difficulties program in Canada. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the potential for stories in the foreign language curriculum, and presents results of a qualitative research study in which 22 stories from the oral traditions of Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico were presented to students in different formats: picture books, audiotapes, videotapes, a Web page, and a Hypermedia program. (Author/VWL)