Like many other developing countries around the world, China is witnessing a growing prominence of English in its school system. One immensely popular form of English provision in the country is Chinese-English bilingual education for majority-language students, which involves the varying use of English as a medium of instruction in the teaching…

The unavoidability of language makes it critical that language policies appeal to some notion of language neutrality as part of their rationale, in order to assuage concerns that the policies might otherwise be unduly discriminatory. However, the idea of language neutrality is deeply ideological in nature, since it is not only an attempt to treat…

This article reports on findings pertaining to scholarship in education policy drawn from a wider study on all education research in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. This study, which defined education research as broadly pertaining to teaching and/or learning, obtained extensive data from a wide range of sources, including universities, public…

Research has demonstrated that second language immersion is an effective means of facilitating primary school students' second language without undermining competence in their first language. Despite the rapid growth of English immersion (EI) programmes in China, only limited empirical research has been conducted to evaluate students' academic…

Official policy in post-apartheid education is aimed at redressing linguistic inequity in schooling by promoting the 11 official languages of South Africa through mother tongue instruction. However, since the life chances of children are inextricably linked to the language of power, many parents believe that their children would benefit from…

Using a student's native language, either as a medium of instruction or as a scaffolding technique, has been used effectively in many classrooms throughout the U.S. In the past, many schools provided native language instruction to meet the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). However, with the advent of antibilingual education proposals such…

The Cultural Heritage Bilingual Program (CHBP) was developed for English Language Learner (ELL) students from language groups not served by current bilingual programs in the Houston Independent School District (HISD), which are designed for Spanish-speaking ELLs. The largest group of students in this category consists of ELLs whose home language…

Although Germany has experienced net in-migration for the past five decades, this fact has only recently been officially acknowledged. Furthermore, Germany is marked by a general monolingual self-concept very much attached to the idea of a nation-state with one homogeneous language. However, in large urban areas of Germany about 35 per cent of the…

One of the goals of education in Nigeria is to develop in children the ability to adapt to their changing environment. This goal could be achieved through competency in life skills. Therefore, this study examines the competency level of Nigerian Primary 4 pupils in the life skills achievement test. The test was administered on a sample of 22,638…

Research into the uses of personal response systems or "clickers" shows that their use increases students' engagement levels in the classroom. In South Africa, clicker usage is still in its infancy, with little research published in the field. This study reports on 37 Graphic Design students' perceptions of the use of clickers and their…

This paper reports on Stage 1 of a learning and teaching project focused on students studying in the Chinese and English language delivery of transnational Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs of an Australian university. The programs are delivered using limited and intensive face-to-face teaching augmented by self-directed and…

This study reports the impact of a professional development course on experienced, highly qualified secondary school teachers of English as a foreign language in preparation for their becoming paid assessors of student teachers on practicum. The course concerned a literacy-oriented pedagogy informed by literacy pedagogical content knowledge…

This report presents results from a new quantitative synthesis of research on the effectiveness and validity of test accommodations for English language learners (ELLs) taking large-scale assessments. In 2006, the Center on Instruction published a review of the literature on test accommodations for ELLs titled "Practical Guidelines for the…

This paper presents an overview of the research conducted within a funded Comenius project which aims at developing a virtual European CLIL Resource Centre for Web 2.0 Education. E-CLIL focuses on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), creativity and multiculturalism through digital resources. In this sense, our prior research on CLIL…

The theme behind this paper is to review the language policy and language planning in the Sudan, after the institutionalization of peace; by exploring the recent policy of political factions in the North and the South towards languages in post-war Sudan. This effort aims at encouraging non-Arabic speaking-ethnic-groups to accept the Arabic…