Research on language-minority student outcomes has revealed sizeable and persistent achievement gaps. The reasons for these gaps are often closely linked with other factors related to underperformance, including generational status, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Using sociocultural second-language acquisition theories and community…

This study explores a second-grade English language learner's literacy development and ability to use blogging for social and academic purposes, in the context of learning academic writing genres in a US urban school. Grounded in sociocultural theories, it conceptualizes learning as appropriation, and language as a dynamic and functional system of…

The assessment of second language (L2) pragmatic competence typically involves questionnaires, such as discourse completion tasks. This article describes a novel approach to using questionnaires to assess L2 metapragmatic capacities while simultaneously promoting their development: engaging learners in cooperative interaction as they complete the…

This article explores how a primary school teacher utilized the frameworks of dynamic assessment (DA) and the instructional conversation (IC) within a Spanish as a foreign language classroom. DA was used to construct zones of proximal development with individuals in the classroom context. A menu of pre-scripted assisting prompts, used to respond…

Dynamic Assessment (DA) derives from Vygotsky's (1987) insight that the use of mediation, attuned to learner needs, enables learners to perform beyond their current level of functioning, thereby providing insights into emerging capabilities. The instructional quality of mediation means that this process simultaneously creates possibilities for…

This paper presents narratives from two parents about the exclusion of their disabled children within early childhood and primary school settings. Interpretations of particular "kinds of participation" that appear to be accepted as inclusive are explored. We argue that these interpretations have disabling effects on the children's…

Based on sociocultural and contextual perspectives, this study examines how Japanese language learners perceive a conflict between their beliefs and actions when speaking the target language in the classroom context, and how these learners change their beliefs or actions to overcome the conflict. Data were collected during a second-year level…

Over the past decade, the mathematics education research community has incorporated more sociocultural perspectives into its ways of understanding and examining teaching and learning. However, researchers who have a long history of addressing anti-racism and social justice issues in mathematics have moved beyond this sociocultural view to espouse…

To date, no empirical research has focused solely upon understanding the personal and sociocultural stressors of Chinese international students in the United States. This qualitative inquiry examined what the most stressful aspects of their personal and social lives in the United States are, how they characterize their stress, and what conditions…

This study investigates contextual features surrounding the use of a first language (L1) in a Japanese university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) course during peer interaction in the extended preparation phase leading up to two oral presentation tasks (OP1 and OP3), performed seven months apart. Interaction data were analysed in terms of the…

This paper explores, from a sociocultural perspective, the nature and functions of "zemi" or seminars in which Japanese undergraduate students received group supervision for research and thesis writing. The study also investigates how the "zemi" contributed to completion of their theses. It was found that the "zemi"…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the sociocultural influences on dialogues about race of undergraduate students from various racial backgrounds at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). This qualitative study included 16 undergraduate students from various racial backgrounds at a small, private university in the Midwest who participated…

In this article, the author utilizes critical and sociocultural approaches to race, language and culture to examine the intersectional experiences of a multiethnic and "mixed race" cohort of students in an inner-city, working-class neighborhood between their elementary and high school years. This article examines the students'…

There has been increasing concern over the poor performance and lack of interest in modern language learning among secondary-school students. Although there is some evidence as to the under-achievement of boys in modern languages (ML), there is less information as to the degree to which other factors such as social class, and bilingual or…

Analyzing data from a probability sample representative of secondary school students in Singapore (N = 1,599), this study examined the independent impact between the quality of mother-child relationship, the quality of father-child relationship and family conflict on the frequency of drinking and drunkenness, and whether each dyadic parent-child…