A study investigated and compared the vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) of five non-native English-speaking and six native English-speaking (NES) graduate students of theology in a core course. The students of English as a Second Language (ESL) were all native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, the research explored (1)…

A study investigated the nature of college students' English-as-a-second-language self-concept using a hierarchical, multidimensional model of self-concept. Subjects were 306 students in a Hong Kong higher education institution responding to a self-concept questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) replicated previous findings that a global…

Culture was not considered significant in foreign language instruction until the direct method was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. By the 1970s, language teachers came to realize that language was deeply rooted in culture and could not be separated from it. International understanding has been emphasized in foreign language…

This book aims to meet the needs of students who are beginning to learn English and to help them reach such goals as gaining an education, finding a job, continuing on to higher education, or functioning better in everyday life in the United States. The book stresses the basic language skills of vocabulary development, grammar, reading, writing,…

The effects of specific guidelines in the taking and rating of tests of language summarizing ability were investigated, as well as interrater agreement regarding the rating of specific ideas within the summaries. The tests involved respondents reading source texts and providing written summaries as a measure of their reading comprehension and…

Beginning with three anecdotes that illustrate problems with current assessment practices in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL)/literacy programs, this paper reports a study that involved feedback from both programs and their funders. Literature is cited to show the opposing positions of proponents of standardized tests and those who search for…

The study investigated the role of a second language (L2) learner's prior cultural knowledge in target language lexical meaning-making. Comparison focuses on what important similarities in L2 lexical meaning-making of culturally loaded words appear among learners with the same ethnic background, and what important lexical meaning differences exist…

This case study describes the separation distress experienced by Mei Mei, a 2-year-old Chinese-American female toddler at a midwestern university laboratory preschool. The toddler, who could not speak English, was undergoing the first substantial separation from her parents. The toddler was observed over a 9-week period, during which behaviors…

After a review of the historical background, theories, and techniques related to teaching English pronunciation, this study describes the production of a Pronunciation Pictures videotape. The videotape shows animated "Sammy" diagrams presenting the physical movements needed to produce the initial consonants of English. The lessons provide…

Americans have long had and deserved the stereotypical reputation of knowing little about the language and cultures of other nations. Most college students, including language majors, leave higher education with inadequate language skills, and many high school language teachers are also in need of improved skills. The reliance of literature to…

Research on second language learning has shown that several myths about how children learn languages exist. Among these mistaken ideas are that: (1) children learn second languages quickly and easily; (2) the younger the child, the more skilled he will become in acquiring a second language; (3) the more time students spend in a second language…

The case study of a 5-year-old Taiwanese child, newly arrived in the United States with no English skills, focuses on the effect that parent and teacher expectations have on the child's acquisition of English literacy skills. Data were gathered in home and classroom visits, in formal and semi-structured interviews, and from samples of the child's…

A study investigated whether adult anglophone readers of French could be taught to use the organizational patterns (top-level structures, or TLSs) in expository text and whether they could then use this knowledge (the structure strategy) to facilitate reading comprehension as measured quantitatively through immediate free recall. Subjects were 43…

If teacher education is to train second language teachers to be principled practitioners, it is essential to resist the attraction of panaceas and recipe-type solutions to instructional problems, and to promote teachers' better understanding of what constitutes successful language learning. Second language acquisition (SLA) research, both applied…

Personality has largely been ignored or written off as a variable in second language learning. However, it should be considered as an alternative research perspective for four reasons: (1) the writing off of personality variables in second language research has been unjustified, and results from giving credibility to studies based on ill-conceived…