This article reports on a survey study that investigated the types of authentic materials and activities that ESL teachers of adults utilize and deem successful in their classrooms. Data were gathered through the use of a researcher-developed questionnaire consisting of nine items. Thirty participants provided examples of authentic materials and…

The comprehension of multimodal texts is now a key concern with the release of the Australian National Curriculum for English (ACARA, 2010). However, the nature of multimodal texts, the diversity of readers in classrooms, and the complex technological environments through which multimodal texts are mediated, requires English teachers to reconsider…

This article explores the use of digital poetry in a secondary English classroom and its implications for adolescents' multimodal composition and identity development. The authors--an English teacher and a library media specialist--collaborated over the course of three years to design, implement, and reiterate a digital poetry curriculum. Through…

To create the kinds of school-family partnerships that raise student achievement, improve local communities, and increase public support, schools need to understand the difference between family involvement and family engagement. Schools that emphasize the latter tend toward doing with families, rather than doing to families. These schools do more…

The aim of this article is to describe the model developed for the teaching practice component of the pre-service Distance English Language Teacher Training Program (DELTT) at Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey. The steps taken to improve the model over a six-year period will be explained and the recent developments in the teaching practice…

This article reports on the findings of a photography and literacy project ("Through Students' Eyes") the authors conducted with middle level English language learners and alternative high school youth from a mid-Atlantic (US) ex-urban area. In order to bridge middle and high school settings, the authors used multimodal and photo…

Interest in the instructional application of virtual worlds, such as "Second Life" (SL), has grown substantially. However, little information is available about effective instructional activities using virtual worlds. This case study illustrates lessons learned from a pilot integrating SL into a two-semester English course at a large…

I have been an English teacher for 38 (gulp!) years. For over 20 of those I have taught "English methods" courses in initial teacher education programs. As the retirement light glows increasingly brighter at the end of my career pathway, I reflect on three aspects of teaching English that have been--and remain--the cornerstones of my…

Most of the nearly 300 indigenous American languages in North America are moribund, including Ojibwe and Dakota. Despite numerous basic studies of stimulus equivalence, only a small handful of applied studies have demonstrated that a stimulus equivalence paradigm can be an effective and efficient means of teaching several concepts including math,…

This article describes the contradictions reported by student-teachers in Barcelona who engaged in telecollaboration with transatlantic peers via Second Life, during their initial training in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The data analysis draws upon Grounded Theory and is theoretically informed by Activity Theory and the notion of…

The need for knowledge and understanding of inclusive practice is now required in higher educational contexts as increasing numbers of students with special educational needs enter the university system. This has implications for university teachers whose background knowledge and experience of teaching students with special educational needs is…

Fifteen graduate students enrolled in an English methods class were organized into three book clubs to participate in online literature discussion. Participants' posts about their reading included evidence of group harmony, text focus, text connections, and aesthetic responses. The findings suggest that an online format allows for natural,…

Data literacy is recognized as a critically important skill in today's society, but thinking with and about data is often ignored in K-12 curricula. The Thinking With Data (TWD) project advocates that data literacy is a skill that should be addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. This article provides an overview of the TWD curriculum for middle…

This mixed methods study combined quantitative statistics and qualitative inquiry to determine if any differences exist between how students in face-to-face and online college English composition courses performed on and demonstrated knowledge of the California state curriculum standards, and to explore the online learning environment in this…

This study intends to represent attitudes toward English and English learning at an Iranian military university. Iranian military staff is required to study English in a social environment where there is little immediate need or opportunity to use the language for real communicative purposes.The subjects included 34 Iranian military personnel who…