This paper focuses on agency in language policy change. The object of the analysis is the processes of bilingualization of signage in three European towns. Located in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Wales, the towns differ in various respects, including the extent to which signage language policies have faced opposition and threatened social…

The impact of social dimensions (e.g., parental involvement) on second language literacy acquisition is not well studied in the field (August & Shanahan, 2008). Although quite a few studies report immigrant parents' belief and perspectives of their children's second language reading and writing, it remains unknown for school teachers…

One dimension of language proficiency considered important for reading and writing academic texts is morphological awareness--the understanding of how complex words are formed from meaningful smaller units (i.e., affixes, roots) that contribute to words' meanings and functions. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the effects of instruction on…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the ways in which young transfronterizo students who live between the two worlds of El Paso (USA) and Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) bring their literacy practices and content to the classroom. Drawing on the data gathered during a 3-year ethnographic study, we illustrate how transfronterizo texts and content are…

The disproportionate identification of learning disabilities among certain sociodemographic subgroups, typically groups that are already disadvantaged, is perceived as a persistent problem within the education system. The academic and social experiences of students who are misidentified with a learning disability may be severely restricted,…

Global research has shown the persistence of inequality with regard to accessing curriculum with a view to obtaining suitable work and making useful contributions to society. The intersection of race, gender, language and low socio-economic levels creates situations which often marginalize ethnic minorities in school settings (Freire, 1968; Nieto…

Previous accounts of preverbal subjects in Spanish and European Portuguese (EP) in the literature have debated the syntactic position of these elements. According to some analyses, preverbal subjects are canonical arguments appearing in an A-position (e.g. Goodall 2001, 2002; Suner 2003 for Spanish; Duarte 1997; Costa 2004 for EP). Other analyses…

This study investigates change in the home language environment of Language Minority (LM) learners between kindergarten and eighth grade, drawing on data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Cohort. The analytic sample included 1,538 children whose parents reported a language…

This article looks at the linguistic landscape in two Northern Italian cities: Milan and Udine. Signs in two streets of a similar length were recorded and classified according to the language or languages they were written in. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence in the linguistic landscape of the different languages making up the…

This study investigated the relation between teachers' (N = 22) use of sophisticated and complex language in urban middle-school classrooms and their students' (mean age at pretest = 11.51 years; N = 782; 568 language minority and 247 English only) vocabulary knowledge. Using videotaped classroom observations, teachers' speech was transcribed and…

The purpose of this article is to examine how struggles over language ownership are played out in a minority language setting, focusing on the case of Irish in the Republic of Ireland. The article examines the more or less serious struggles that emerge between so-called native, or L1, and nonnative, or L2, speakers of Irish in a language learning…

This paper deals with the initial findings from an international research project called "Children Crossing Borders." This study focused on discovering how early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems in five countries (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and the USA) serve the children of recent immigrants and what parents with diverse…

This paper examines bilingual children's use of language inside and out of the minority language classroom. A total of 145 children between 8 and 11 years of age, attending 16 bilingual Welsh-English primary schools in North Wales, responded to questionnaires (supplemented by classroom observations) requesting information about their language…

There are now significant numbers of children who speak a language other than English when they enter the formal school system in Australia. Many of these children come from a language background that is entirely different from the school language. Many Indigenous children, however, come from creole-speaking backgrounds where their home language…

Research over the past fifteen years has investigated and developed online science inquiry environments to support students engaging in authentic scientific inquiry practices. This research has focused on developing activity structures and tools to scaffold students in engaging in different aspects of these practices, but relatively little of this…