This paper is about the language attitudes that bilingual youth in Singapore have towards their Mother Tongue and English, and towards codeswitching between the two. The language attitudes of 443 primary school students were investigated using a variation of the matched-guise technique. Status and solidarity dimensions of attitudes, with ethnicity…

Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Toronto, Ontario, this article examines the schooling behaviour of parents who have migrated from France to Canada. The population under study, engaged in a "northern" kind of migration, generally benefits from an education acquired in the pre-migration period and from the legitimacy of…

This paper reports on the effectiveness of a tailored undergraduate course at a tertiary institution in New Zealand constructed to challenge, and encourage changes to, monolingual "English-only" attitudes. The course was designed to provide knowledge and promote understanding of the phenomenon of English as a global language, and the…

Two experimental studies to improve vocabulary knowledge and comprehension were conducted in 7th-grade social studies classes with English language learners (ELLs). Two different nonoverlapping samples of classes of 7th-grade students (N = 381 and N = 507) were randomly assigned at the classroom (i.e., section) level to a social studies…

In recent decades, with an increasing application of computer technology to the delivery of oral language proficiency assessment, there have been renewed debates over the appropriateness of two different testing modes, namely, (a) face-to-face, or direct, testing, and (b) person-to-machine, or semi-direct, testing. Previous research conducted in…

The presence of a bilingual educator is proving pivotal to the success of technology initiatives aimed at developing Spanish-speaking students' grasp of both the concepts and the language of mathematics. This article features Ginny Badger, a teaching assistant at Glenwood Springs High School in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, who sacrificed her…

This study investigates the variation in oral proficiency demonstrated by 14 Air Traffic Controllers across two types of testing tasks: work-related radio telephony-based tasks and non-specific English tasks on aviation topics. Their performance was compared statistically in terms of level ratings on the International Civil Aviation Organization…

This study examined effects of synonym generation on second language (L2) vocabulary learning during reading in both incidental and intentional vocabulary learning contexts. Spanish-speaking adult learners of L2 English (N = 114) at low- and high-intermediate proficiency levels read an English passage containing 10 target words translated in the…

This study examines factors correlated with the use of "nous" and "on" by university students formerly enrolled in French immersion programs. Their variant frequency and stylistic appropriateness are compared to those of (1) former core French university students; (2) French as a second language (FSL) speakers in a francophone environment; and (3)…

The Professional Standards Project (PSP) is a nationally coordinated professional learning program for languages teachers, to improve the quality of languages teaching and, thereby, improve student learning. It is based on the use of the "Professional standards for accomplished teaching of languages and cultures" (hereafter, "the…

At the end of 2008, the Professional Standards Project (PSP) management team conducted the final scheduled Project Advisory Committee meeting. The Project was to conclude in December 2008 with a final report and evaluation informing all stakeholders of the developments and achievements of what has to be termed a major national contribution to…

As part of our professional development intervention, this study examined third-grade ELL students' writing achievement that included "form" (i.e., conventions, organization, and style/voice) and "content" (i.e., specific knowledge and understanding of science) in expository science writing. The study included six treatment schools from a large…

Spanish heritage language (SHL) programmes in post-secondary institutions must continue to redesign their curricula to accommodate the needs of a growing Latino population with a broad range of bilingual competencies. Despite the proliferation of research in heritage languages, pedagogically based research that incorporates students' voices is…

This study describes the grammar-related behaviours of three experienced non-native teachers of English working in state secondary schools in Catalonia and investigates what beliefs may explain, from the teachers' point of view, these behaviours; it also examines what factors in their turn determine these beliefs. The results uncover three…

This paper is based on an analysis of chat transcripts from an English-language telecollaboration project between students at universities in Chile and California. This research found that the richest intercultural interactions involved events that could not have been foreseen: the immigrant rights demonstrations in the USA and the massive student…