This article reports findings obtained from a large-scale national study (299 schools; 2761 students) that examined academic achievements of immigrants in Israeli schools. It focused on two distinct groups of immigrant students--those from the former USSR and from Ethiopia, in two subject areas--mathematics and academic language (Hebrew), and in…

Three major drivers of internationalisation in higher education are student mobility, staff mobility and offshore delivery. All have increased rapidly over the last 20 years and a high-end estimate suggests that 6 million students will be studying abroad by 2020. Anglophone countries have dominated this process: four English-speaking countries…

A number of studies have highlighted that anxiety, confidence and enjoyment are influential factors on students' participation in mathematics, and in particular girls' participation. This paper, based upon data collected as part of a PhD thesis, examines the effect of these influences on pupil choices within different types of secondary schools in…

This qualitative case study examines the literacy practices of an emerging bilingual child in a preschool classroom comprised mostly of recent Mexican immigrant students. It describes how political pressures after the passage of Proposition 203 in Arizona alter the language of instruction in the classroom, even when preschools do not have to…

This paper reviews the research output on English language education in China published in 24 international journals from 2001 to 2006 and delineates the nature of this corpus of research. The review covers research in the following areas: the linguistic situations and culture of learning in China in relation to English language education,…

Throughout the English-speaking world, children from bilingual backgrounds are being educated in mainstream classrooms where they have little or no opportunity to use their mother tongue. Second and third generation children, in particular, are assumed to be learning sufficiently through English only. This study investigated how British…

Background: An important issue in the discourse on language rights is the degree to which they influence the development and implementation of language policies or perpetuate inequalities in many language situations. Skutnabb-Kangas (1996, 2002a, 2002b) and May (2000), for example, have argued that language rights offer a reasonable framework for…

The development in Mauritius's three major languages is essentially sequential for most of the population: Creole, French, English. In schools, English is used alongside French (and some Creole) in Primary Standards 1 (ages five-six) to 3 (ages seven-eight). English is officially the sole medium of instruction from Primary Standard 4 (ages…

The crucial role of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension has been well recognized in first language (L1) situations and this has appeared to be true of second language (L2) settings as well. However, in relation to a sociocultural context such as Singapore, where English is designated as an L1 in the school curriculum but the majority of…

Argues that providing accessible adult basic education in South Africa will call for a flexible approach in terms of both the languages of learning and variety of areas of learning that will be regarded as acceptable for accreditation. (SR)

In elementary schools today, most students receive their education in a single classroom from one teacher who is responsible for teaching language arts, social studies, math, and science. The self-contained classroom organization is predicated on the assumption that an elementary school teacher is a Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades who is equally…

In 1980, Walter L. Williams suggested that experience with U.S. Indian policy had influence on the debates over Philippine annexation. This was the first direct connection made between experience with American Indians and Filipino policy, however it only focuses on annexation debates and does not explore education at all. A more recent work by…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been promoted by the European Union as a means to achieve multilingualism. While in Germany and other European countries the trend to use the L2 as a medium of instruction is increasing, in Hong Kong, however, we see a converse development. Many schools switched from English as a medium of…

This article examines the experiences of three Indigenous communities with language immersion models in preschool through 12th grades to revitalize and preserve their native languages through ethnographic research design and methods. The history and implementation of language instruction in three Indigenous communities are summarized. The analysis…

This article examines some of the problems concerning the language of instruction in higher education within Europe and relates them to the African context. The author argues that there is reason to be worried about the spread of the use of English as a language of instruction in higher education, to the detriment of the smaller European languages…