This qualitative study focused on the learning experiences of four third-year Spanish student enrolled in a college-level Spanish composition and conversation course. The study provided insights into the impact of expanding out-of-class opportunities to engage in communicative task through the use of streamed feature films, online chats, and video…

English language learners (ELL) are typically instructed in general education programs that do not have bilingual instructional support (Zehler et al., 2003). Teachers instructing those students must focus on strengthening the students' English language skills because language is such a primary component for learning and achieving. Instructional…

The present study examines the role of a Vietnamese heritage language school in cross-cultural adaptation, as operationalised by the confluence of two independent variables, language competence and integrated cultural identity. To characterise the students' language competencies and degree of integrated cultural identities, interview…

The international marketing of school education has gathered momentum in the Asia Pacific region, where an English medium education is prized by many parents. This paper investigates the responses of a group of teachers in Australia to the needs of international students in their school. The analysis of a 1 h professional discussion between four…

The issue of whether to separate English language development (ELD) into a separate instructional block or whether to integrate it with reading/language arts instruction is an unanswered question with theoretical and practical implications. We addressed this question by observing instruction across the year in 85 kindergarten classrooms that…

A new measure of reading comprehension, the Diagnostic Assessment of Reading Comprehension (DARC), designed to reflect central comprehension processes while minimizing decoding and language demands, was pilot tested. We conducted three pilot studies to assess the DARC's feasibility, reliability, comparability across Spanish and English,…

The increasing availability and performance of computer-based testing has prompted more research on the automatic assessment of language and speaking proficiency. In this investigation, we evaluated the feasibility of using an off-the-shelf speech-recognition system for scoring speaking prompts from the LanguEdge field test of 2002. We first…

Whatever else might be said about the No Child Left Behind Act, it has the potential to be one of the most important pieces of education civil rights legislation in a generation. Its goals are an indispensable component of a renewed commitment to promoting racial and ethnic justice. The emphasis on accountability gives essential urgency and…

Many teachers today use Learning Management Systems (LMS), several of which are open-source. Specific examples are Claroline and Moodle. However, they are not specifically designed for language learning, and hence not entirely suitable. In this article, I will compare two uses of the Claroline LMS available at Louvain-la-Neuve within the framework…

This report presents the development and results of a 1-year foreign language module program of 15-weeks duration for university students in the arts, commerce, science, and engineering. The project's central concern was to develop and test a general model for the delivery of foreign language teaching to students of other disciplines. The program…

The construction, administration, and scoring of the Teachers Oral Proficiency Interview for South Africa (TOPISA) are described, and issues in its use are discussed. The test was developed to help standardize English proficiency levels of teachers in the post-apartheid, multicultural society. The rationale for a standardized test in this context…

This study provides information about the total and component scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). First, the study provides comparative global and component estimates of test-retest, alternate-form, and internal-consistency reliability, controlling for sources of measurement error inherent in the examinees and the testing…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of interlanguage development in Japanese adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in acquisition-poor environments. A total of 353 subjects were divided into 9 groups based on their level of English proficiency and tested to determine: (1) what types of errors Japanese adult ESL…

A study examines the past-tense inflection process for native and non-native speakers of English. Subjects, ten native speakers of standard British English and ten proficient non-native speakers of English, were tested for responses to pseudo-irregular and -regular verbs according to their phonological distance (i.e., prototypicality) to known…

A good knowledge of English vocabulary is important for anyone who wants to use the language, so knowledge of vocabulary is often tested. A test may test one or all of the types of vocabulary (active spoken, active written, passive listening, and passive reading), but the test maker should be aware of the differences among the types and which is…