The outcomes of The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) child sexual abuse scandal have left many scholars and individuals questioning the university's collective identity. The goal of this research was to uncover the dominant themes that describe a problematic institutional response to the child sexual abuse incidents in order to provide…

Creating opportunities for students to engage in positive peer interactions is important because these interactions benefit students' motivation to learn, and their social, linguistic, and cognitive development. Peer interactions are particularly important for supporting English language learners' (ELL) because they are often at risk for academic…

Over the years, less attention is given to students' spelling skills compared to other areas of literacy achievement like word reading and passage comprehension in relationship to nonmainstream dialect usage. Considering that English spelling is based on the phonological and morphological structures of Mainstream American English (MAE), it is…

Africa is a continent, not a country. Yet, a monolithic misunderstanding of Africa as a country is prevalent especially in the United States. Thus, Africans in the diaspora who speak heritage languages other than English are asked frequently if they speak African. This study countered existing misunderstandings through cultural immersion in Kenya,…

In this article, author Bobby Fong states that what is needed in higher education today is a renewed urgency and commitment to assist students in forming their souls. Fong suggests soul-making is integral to education at our institutions--whether secular or religious-- and it ought to make itself felt in all areas of academic life.

Religious poetry is, a heightened and impregnated form of expression. There is a marriage of form and sense. Linguistically speaking, religious poetry has a conceptual interface between syntax and semantics; a strong relationship between language and thought; universality and cultural specificity; the discourse context and the psychological…

This article explores the institutional policies and practices concerning multilingualism in small claims courts in New York City. Building on prior work that has investigated the language use of court interpreters and of the litigants for whom they translate, this study focuses on the analysis of institutional interactions in which all…

Communicative approaches to language teaching that emphasize the importance of speaking (e.g., task-based language teaching) require innovative and evidence-based means of assessing oral language. Nonetheless, research has yet to produce an adequate assessment model for oral language (Chun 2006; Downey et al. 2008). Limited by automatic speech…

Many "African English" researchers (see Kachru, B. B. (1983). "The Indianization of English." "The English language in India." Singapore: Singapore University Press.) have argued that when English is used in non-native environments, many aspects of its lexicon, grammar and pronunciation are modified and…

This author presents variable and stimulating activities using songs to encourage students to connect with language. Seven dynamic activities include Song Pictures, Re-order It, Matching Meanings, Changing the Text, Song Strip Connections, Song Cards, and Pair Watching. All are outlined to facilitate their use, and many have added extensions and…

This article has an overall aim as follows: to develop an alternative understanding to a narrow view of education, and in particular teacher training--preparatory and continuing--in terms of economy, as well as the competencies needed for the teaching profession. It takes the view that such an alternative is or could be found in the ideas put…

This qualitative study investigated the visions and metaphors for teaching held by teacher candidates enrolled in an urban-based alternative certification program. While late-entry teacher recruits are considered to have high motivations for urban school teaching, few studies explore the nature of these motivations. Findings from this study…

This study investigates subject pronominal expression in second language Chinese and compares learner usage with patterns found in their first language. The results show that (a) overt pronouns are used more for singular, +animate subjects than plural, -animate ones; (b) switch in subject surface form favors overt pronouns; (c) English and Russian…

This study focuses on three main goals: First, 3-year-olds' spatial assembly skills are probed using interlocking block constructions (N = 102). A detailed scoring scheme provides insight into early spatial processing and offers information beyond a basic accuracy score. Second, the relation of spatial assembly to early mathematical skills…

Generics ("'Dogs' bark") convey important information about categories and facilitate children's learning. Two studies with parents and their 2- or 4-year-old children (N = 104 dyads) examined whether individual differences in generic language use are as follows: (a) stable over time, contexts, and domains, and (b) linked…