Two elements of constructivist pedagogy warrant attention with respect to second language (L2) learning: collaborative dialogue and learner decision-making. These two elements in instruction bring about experiential and task oriented classrooms. The constructivist approach to the L2 classroom foregrounds conceptual development focused on…

This paper reviews recent research on children's literacy development and learning, focusing on "emergent literacy" theory. Advocates of emergent literacy believe that children learn to read by reading and to write by writing, and that children are active constructors and investigators of their own knowledge. Recent studies have suggested that…

Test data from 200 examinees from the Spanish Teacher Certification Examination and 75 examinees from the French Teacher Certification Examination were used in a study of scale drift in sequentially equated test forms. Using sampling with replacement, 1,000 samples of 100 examinees each for Spanish and 1,000 samples of 50 each for French were…

This paper contributes to the growing debate in Japan about how to teach Japanese students to speak English effectively. It is argued that there must be a shift from learning about the English language to using English to learn and communicate about topics that are interesting and relevant to students' lives in Japan. Role playing is an effective…

The papers in this volume are all phonological in nature, and all but one of them are written within the framework of Optmality Theory. This volume includes work on a variety of languages: American Indian (Kiowa, Koasati, Shoshoni), Austronesian (Muna and Nancowry), Bantu (Tsonga), and Indo European (English and Spanish). The following articles…

This book provides a description and synthesis of a range of relevant practice and offers a framework for making language learning more relevant for new generations of practice. It is intended as a contribution to the debate about the purposes of language studies in higher education in the 21st century. The book is divided into five parts and 15…

This book reports dispassionately on what has been happening in both the theory and practice of translation and interpreting, and introduces students and teachers of translation to the intricacies of the process and the diverse demands of the profession. The book is divided into four sections and 15 chapters. Section 1, "Translation Studies:…

This paper is in large part a critique of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences presented in his 1983 book "Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences," and asserts that the multiple intelligences (MI) concept has been widely misinterpreted. The paper outlines some of the misconceptions of Gardner's theory as identified by…

After many years of attention to input that supplies classroom second language (L2) learners with positive evidence on L2 forms and features, recent studies have begun to identify and describe the negative evidence in "reactive" input, provided through interlocutor responses to forms and features that are used by learners, but are not…

This report evaluates how effectively four federally funded bilingual education block grant programs--Program Development and Implementation Grants, Program Enhancement Projects, Comprehensive School Grants, Systemwide Improvement Grants--used $163 million in fiscal year 2000 to serve children with limited English proficiency (LEP). There are four…

This book is an introductory textbook for those with no previous knowledge of Arabic or for those who know Arabic but want to learn the Iraqi dialect. The book is divided into 16 lessons: "Arabic Alphabet and Vowels"; "Greetings and Courtesy Expressions"; "Asking for Directions"; "Arrival at Baghdad Airport, Part…

One of the problems that continues to plague teachers of foreign languages at the secondary and university levels is the students' use of a "pony," or literal translation, to assist them in completing their translation assignments. Due to the wide availability of such translations and the tendency for students to choose the path of least…

This dictionary of collocations was compiled by an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher in Saudi Arabia who teaches adult, native speakers of Arabic. The dictionary is practical in teaching English because it helps to focus on everyday events and situations. The dictionary works as follows: the teacher looks up a word, such as…

This article provides a brief historical review of efforts to prepare immigrants to pass the U.S. citizenship test, defines key terms, discusses events that have shaped civics education, and offers suggestions, whatever the approach chosen, for integrating civics content with English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) skills development. Covered topics…

This study examines whether working memory capacity, a construct of current information processing theory, correlates with fluent foreign language (L2) speech production. It is based on M. Daneman's study (1991), who found significant correlation between individuals' working memory capacity and the fluency with which they can speak their first…