This article addresses the situation of lower-proficiency heritage language learners of Spanish in terms of their linguistic similarities to second language learners. The analysis highlights grammatical and lexical features in the oral discourse of Spanish heritage and second language learners at intermediate and advanced levels of study,…

This study examines word decision strategies that 40 U.S. college beginning and advanced learners of Chinese applied during reading. It first compares similarities and differences between the two groups in choosing strategies when making word decisions, then identifies effective word decision strategies from more than a hundred strategies used by…

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the Turkish-speaking population in the United States increased significantly in the 1990s and has risen steadily over time. Today, the highest concentration is located in the states of New York, California, New Jersey, and Florida. Kaya (2003) reported a geographical dispersion across the U.S., from New York to…

This article focuses on the instructional needs of newcomers to the North American classrooms who already speak one or more foreign languages and who are coping with classroom-related language issues. It taps into positive instructional strategies that are culturally-validating and welcoming for these students. Inspired by an invited Oxford Round…

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the variable use of the subjunctive which constitutes a notable "fragile zone" in the spoken French of advanced L2 learners. A comparative approach is adopted to consider the relative impact of naturalistic and instructed L2 exposure in the case of our learner-participants who were Irish university…

Ten Hispanic university students enrolled in higher education courses were interviewed and considered successful despite the lack of support they received in learning English during their primary and secondary education. Analysis of the questionnaires and personal interviews reveal four major types of mentors who supported and motivated them to…

We examined the performance of sequential bilingual children with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI), who had Spanish as an L1 and English as their L2, on an auditory non-word repetition task using Spanish phonotactic patterns. We also analyzed the accuracy with which this task distinguished these children (according to children's and…

This article explores processes and possibilities for critical learning in the workplace, with a focus on workers laboring in what are often exploitive and dehumanizing conditions. The argument is based on a study of work-life learning of women, mostly new immigrants, employed long-term at an Alberta garment manufacturing plant. It is argued that…

Developing the ability to use academic English is not the same as basic proficiency, but students need skills in both to succeed. This article talks about a university-school district partnership that helps teachers broaden students' language skills. To respond to the reality that all teachers need sustained professional learning opportunities to…

The Burlington School District has experienced a sharp increase in the number English language learners (ELLs) in its schools over the past several years, as have many schools across the country. As is typical in U.S. schools, Burlington offered newly arriving students pullout instruction to meet their linguistic and academic needs. Yet even with…

An important component of fluent linguistic production is control of the multi-word expressions referred to as clusters, chunks or bundles. These are extended collocations which appear more frequently than expected by chance, helping to shape meanings in specific contexts and contributing to our sense of coherence in a text. Bundles have begun to…

This article investigates the vocabulary of textbooks and relates it to education policy, assessment methods and teaching methods. It considers the range of vocabulary covered by key stages 3 and 4 German foreign language textbooks for secondary schools from the beginning of the 1990s to 2006 and shows that there is an overall decrease in the…

Patterns of language are usually perceived, learned and used as meaningful chunks that are processed as a whole, resulting in a reduced learning burden and increased fluency. The ability to comprehend and produce lexical chunks or groups of words which are commonly found together is an important part of language acquisition. This paper…

Owing to analyses of large spoken corpora the linguistic knowledge of conversation has grown in recent years exponentially. Up until now little of this knowledge has trickled down to the EFL classroom. One of the reasons, this paper argues, is the failure in the relevant literature to spell out clearly how teaching conversational grammar affects…

This paper reports on an investigation into the international intelligibility of the English of educated Hong Kong speakers whose L1 is Cantonese. Samples of recordings of extended discourse obtained from three female and three male final-year English majors studying at the Hong Kong Institute of Education were played to groups of university…