This article explores the use of the instant messaging app, WhatsApp, to teach close reading, critical thinking, and argumentation skills. Academic and argumentative essays continue to be the dominant form of both formative and summative assessments, particularly in literary studies. However, many students who enter university in South Africa…

Common sense and a growing academic literature suggest that student absences harm achievement. Public schools have witnessed a conspicuous surge in student absenteeism in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. Social norms regarding school attendance have changed, as has technology that facilitates students' ability to communicate with their…

The uncertainty swirling around the Department of Education's future has created an opening to reconsider the course of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAEP is an important tool for education accountability, helping ensure that our national education system is on track. Targeted changes could make it even more useful…

Listening comprehension and retelling are essential skills for academic success. However, students with learning disabilities experience difficulties in both areas, which can negatively affect their academic achievement. It is noteworthy that the relevant literature includes only a limited number of studies examining the correlation between these…

Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill that all individuals should have. A foundation of reading set in children's early years is integral to proper growth and development. Parents or guardians should spend quality time reading to their children at home prior to children attending school. Teachers should construct language arts programs,…

Academic vocabulary is the specialized language used to communicate within academic settings. The Coxhead (2000) taxonomy is one such list that identifies 570 headwords representing academic vocabulary. Researchers have hypothesized that students possessing greater fluent reading skills are more likely to benefit from exposure to vocabulary due to…

Pearson sought to explore whether the use of Bug Club, an online and in-print reading scheme targeted at ages 4-11, is related to pupils' literacy learning, attitudes to reading and school, and reading activity. This Research Report presents findings from one research study: a multi-approach evaluation we conducted in collaboration with University…

Despite the widespread use of social educational tools during the last decade in K12 education, the growth curve of utilizing these tools to enhance reading activities has remained lower than expected in learning environments. However, the rapid shift from face-to-face education to online education brought about by the pandemic has attracted…

This article covers the contribution reading and stories (children's literature) have made to reading, its study, its material world, and the implications for teaching and learning to read -particularly with picturebooks -- at the heart of that practice. It first explores the category of children's literature as a possible 'lie', but also its…

Research on elementary schoolteachers' beliefs about dual language development and its relation to English learners' (ELs) achievement is scant, despite the increasing representation of ELs in US classrooms. To address this gap, this study investigates: (1) teacher beliefs about ELs' dual language development and (2) associations between teacher…

Poor comprehension of specialised terminology presents a significant obstacle that impedes students' ability to learn science. The present study examined the influences of scientific terminology comprehension on students' cognitive processes during science-text reading. We used eye-tracking tests to examine science-text reading behaviours among…

The Rungus are the indigenous people in Sabah, Malaysia. Malay as a second language and the primary instruction in schools seems inevitable. The study aims to determine the effects of reading strategies in the L2 reading comprehension tests on textual content and vocabulary. Participants consisted of twenty-six Form Four Rungus tribe pupils from…

If we are to build in our students, literacy skills relevant for the 21st century, reading classrooms need to take into account the changing nature of texts that our students are required to read in real-world contexts (Alexander & The Disciplined Reading and Learning Research Laboratory, 2012). This paper exhorts ESL teachers to use online…

Using metacognitive strategies to enhance EFL reading comprehension is well-established, but it remains unclear how strategy use may differ according to individual reader characteristics like gender and reading ability. To address this limitation in the literature, 137 Chinese EFL university students completed a reading comprehension task and the…

The aim of this study was to determine the metaphorical perceptions of preservice Turkish teachers (PTTs) regarding the concept of ebook. In accordance with this aim, answers to the questions of "What are the metaphors used by PTTs for the concept of e-book?" and "Under which categories could the metaphors used by PTTs for the…