Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Curriculum Quality and includes: (1) Suggestions for Conducting Effective Teaching Demonstrations in Classrooms with Diverse Learners…

This case study explores the learning experiences of three international students who were enrolled in an online master's program offered by a large university in Canada. The aim of the study was to understand the international students' experiences with, and perspectives on, the online learning environment. Findings indicate that previous…

Bilingualism (Sanz, 2000), motivation (Pintrich, 1989), and language aptitude (Grigorenko, Sternberg, and Ehrman, 2000) are crucial individual differences that contribute to successful adult language learning. Since Gardner's (1985) seminal work on motivation, many studies have shown that motivation is dynamic and that it affects language…

This dissertation has examined English proficiency as a mediating social factor within the occupational structure of Puerto Rico. It included an analysis of the educational records of 641 students majoring in industrial engineering, nursing, education and finance of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez from 1998-2000. The investigation…

No empirical studies exist comparing the effectiveness of the two prevalent foreign language methodologies, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS), at helping students achieve second language acquisition. In turn, the purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to…

An implicit goal of Congress, the Department of Defense, and the armed services is that diversity in the armed services should approximate diversity in the general population. A key aspect of that diversity is the representation of Hispanics. Although polls of Hispanic youth show a strong propensity to serve in the military, Hispanics are…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of participation in Read 180, a teacher-mediated, computer-mediated reading instruction program, on the reading proficiency of 4th and 5th grade English Language Learners. The students who participated in the Read 180 program scored below the 25th percentile on the Florida Comprehensive…

Due to the growing focus on learner independence, peer assessment has received a lion's share of attention in recent years. Nevertheless, this idea is novel to most English language teachers and students in Taiwan where traditional assessment is still dominant. This study investigated college students' attitudes towards and possible language…

This dissertation reports development and validation studies of a Web-based standardized test of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL), designed to measure learners' off-line grammatical and pragmatic knowledge in multiple-choice format. Targeting Japanese majors in the U.S. universities and colleges, the test is designed to explore possible…

In this study, we compare the first and the last sessions from an online oral proficiency course aimed at doctoral students conducted in the virtual world Second Life. The study attempts to identify how supportive moves made by the teacher encourage learners to engage with language, and what type of linguistic behaviour in the learners leads to…

This study examined barriers experienced by veteran school paraprofessionals attempting to complete a 4-year degree leading to public school teaching credentials. The study followed culturally and linguistically diverse, nontraditional student-participants through their 1st and 2nd years as sophomore/junior students in a large urban university.…

Young Filipino children are expected to solve mathematical word problems in English, which is not their mother tongue. Because of this, it is often assumed that Filipino children have difficulties in solving problems because they cannot read or comprehend what they have read. This study tested this assumption by determining whether presenting word…

In this study, the authors explore English as a Second Language (ESL) placement as a measure of how schools label and process immigrant students. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimate the effect of ESL…

Limericks and tongue twisters for learning short vowel sounds in English are presented in this illustrated booklet for speakers with limited English proficiency. After proclaiming that "English is so crazy it makes you want to cry," the book presents first the sounds of the English alphabet, then long and short vowels, a limerick for…

Rapid Profile, developed by Manfred Pienemann of National Languages Institute of Australia/Language Acquisition Research Centre, is a computer-based procedure for screening speech samples collected from language learners to assess their level of language development as compared to standard patterns in the acquisition of the target language. Rapid…