Effective and appropriate communication is critical for the successful integration of newcomers in Canada. In this paper, we describe the intercultural communicative competence beliefs and practices of 70 adult English as a second language (ESL) instructors. Responses to an online survey indicated a strong belief in the value of integrating…

In the context of public and policy concerns about human induced climate change, it is striking that dominant models and histories of English teaching marginalise the environmental significance of English as a school subject (Matthewman, 2010). This is in spite of a growing body of ecocritical work within English and cultural studies which has…

This study operationalizes four measures of instructional differentiation: one for Grade 2 English language arts (ELA), one for Grade 2 mathematics, one for Grade 5 ELA, and one for Grade 5 mathematics. Our study evaluates their measurement properties of each measure in a large field experiment: the Indiana Diagnostic Assessment Tools Study, which…

The primary aim of this study was to explore the relationship between teachers' instruction and students' vocabulary and comprehension in grades 3-5. The secondary aim of this study was to investigate whether this relationship differed for English monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual students. To meet these aims, we observed and…

One of the most notable aspects of democracy in schooling lies in the challenge of schools to prepare individuals with the skills to participate and deliberate with others who have varying beliefs and worldviews. Deliberation and dialogue are seen as core components for academic achievement and cross-cultural connections between English language…

Drawing on experience and the emerging results of a research project, this article examines the role of play, in particular child-initiated play, when learning languages in pre-primary settings. It begins by characterizing play and highlights the importance of a balanced relationship between adult-led and child-initiated play activities. It…

For many striving readers in the early grades (Grades K-3), difficulty learning to read manifests at the word level. As a result, such readers are likely to need explicit instruction in the structure of the English language, also referred to as "basic language concepts" (i.e., concepts and skills related to phonology, phonics,…

Measures of teachers' "value added" to student achievement play an increasingly central role in k-12 teacher policy and practice, in part because they have been shown to predict teachers' long-term impacts on students' life outcomes. However, little research has examined variation in the long-term effects of teachers with similar…

It is not clear that the literary genre called poetry has a future in the face of a reduction in literary study that Common Core's English language arts standards implicitly mandate-- and in the context of Common Core's drive for workforce development. Common Core claims the standards will prepare students equally for "college and…

The use of service learning in university courses can be limited depending on the class and the subject matter. In this article, the authors provide examples of two teachers' experiences with service learning in literature courses, showing service learning can have a home in fields of study where it might not initially seem to belong. The authors…

Incarcerated adolescent girls can benefit from an English classroom where personal identities, roles, and relationships can be challenged, resisted, and confronted. Education in English can be a transformative experience allowing adolescent girls to reshape and rethink not only their literacy identities but also their lives. An analysis of the…

The author critiques covers of "Ebony" and "GQ" magazines in order to expose race and class narratives, and he encourages teachers to help students to become more aware of the ways in which other images "connote cultural information." Because of the prevalence of images in contemporary society, it is imperative that…

Molly Poland is a first year English and Home Economics teacher who began her career in a small Far North Queensland town. In this article, she writes about her first year teaching and the last year of her degree and the challenges she faced as both teacher and student. Reading Boomer's "Negotiating the Curriculum" forced her to think a…

In this article sixth grade English/language arts and science teacher at Oldfield Middle School (Greenlawn, New York) Monica Zenyuh describes how she established a program called "Adopt-a-School" in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Schools that wished to provide assistance would be matched with a grade, school, or district in devastated…

Young adult literature is a tool of socialisation and acculturation for young readers. This extends to endowing "reading" with particular significance in terms of what literature should be read and why. This paper considers some recent young adult fiction with an eye to its engagement with canonical literature and its representations of…