Essays in this collection deal with the complex pedagogical and political issues of language-minority education in U.S. public schools. The book focuses on language-minority students in bilingual programs, those who receive some instruction in their native languages. The essays are: (1) "Language Loss and Language Gain in the Brazilian Community:…

These resource materials were developed in response to requests from school districts for a reference tool to assist them through the process of developing a comprehensive English language learners (ELL) program. The districts desired a program that would be in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI was passed in the…

This paper describes the adoption of communicative language teaching (CLT) in the Peoples' Republic of China in the early 1990s, the difficulties teachers encountered in implementing this change of approach, and efforts to overcome these difficulties. Secondary teachers had considerable difficulty in implementing CLT mainly, because they lacked…

This paper discusses the implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) methodology within the English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context in the Peoples' Republic of China. It suggests investigating the context of an English language teaching program first, and then adapting the program to the Chinese context in order to more effectively…

An instructional module designed to help prepare college-level teaching assistants (TAs) for their duties in second language instruction is presented. It consists of an overview of research on foreign language teaching, focusing on research conducted within a theoretical framework. Attention is directed to four issues: the language being taught;…

A study investigated the extent to which American learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) are able to distinguish polite Japanese speech, and the effect of instruction on this skill. Specifically, it looked at performance on a midterm listening comprehension question in which students listened to self-introductory speeches of three job…

This paper provides a summary of well established, conventional thinking on the importance of writing to the language learning process. Writing is a central element of language. Any reading and language arts program must consider the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, assessment procedures, and language development. The…

This report was undertaken to help the Tennessee State government comply with federal requirements that all states collect valid, reliable, and uniform data for programs receiving federal funds as English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) adult education programs. Data must be collected to report learner gains in reading, writing, speaking, and…

This paper examines the growing literature on pedagogical lexicography and the growing focus on how well the learner uses the dictionary in second language learning. Dictionaries are becoming more user-friendly. This study used the writing task to reveal new insights into how students use a CD-ROM dictionary. It found a lack of dictionary-using…

It is observed that teacher motivation can change drastically over the course of an individual teacher's career. This is particularly the case in Mexico with regard to teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), because the situation and role of Mexican EFL teachers has changed so significantly--especially in the wake of the passage of the…

This paper examines some of the rarely discussed aspects of Apachean classificatory verb stems with particular reference to Navajo and Western Apache. It is asserted that the concept of prototypes (and associated fuzziness) is useful in a description of Apachean classificatory verb stems, and that it can be used at two logically distinct levels of…

This document provides an overview of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), the state's student testing system. MCAS measures the performance of students, schools, and districts by assessing student knowledge of the academic learning standards contained in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. The purpose of this document is…

This paper examines the potential benefits of standards-based instruction for English language learners (ELLs), presents a backward mapping process for designing standards-based instructional units, and reviews the design of two standards-based units for ELLs. Most of the document is in the form of a table to make the standards-based process…

This study is a qualitative exploration of the amount of talk (also known as linguistic space) used by girls as opposed to boys in a grade 2 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom in British Columbia. The focus of this study is the amount of language generated in a classroom lesson-time talk based on gender. Data was collected through…

This CD-ROM provides interactive, multimedia software that enables students to investigate many aspects of Native American and European encounters in the Mississippi Valley through study of original historical sources, including texts, maps, artworks, and archaeological finds. The Lower Mississippi Valley was chosen as the study area because of…