This article explores teachers' assessment knowledge and practice through a narrative inquiry of a college EFL teacher, Betty (pseudonym), in the People's Republic of China. Drawing on Crites' (1971) notions of "sacred stories" and "secret stories" in teachers' professional knowledge landscapes (Connelly & Clandinin, 1995),…

In the current english-only programs in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts only a small percentage of students are learning English and subject matter content. This violates the success in practice prong of "Castaneda v. Pickard" (1981). Further, these program failures bolster the claim that these programs also violate castaneda's…

In South Africa, as in many parts of postcolonial Africa, English dominates the political economy and as a result is the medium of instruction chosen by the majority of South African schools, despite the fact that most learners do not have the opportunity to acquire English to the levels necessary for effective engagement with the curriculum.…

In Ratanakiri province, northeastern Cambodia, the majority of the local people are native speakers of ethnic minority languages. Primarily subsistence farmers, they use their own language to communicate with others in their villages, and as they work in their rice fields. A baseline survey taken between 1996 and 1998 in five such villages showed…

This ethnographic, cross-cultural study used a dialogic, sociolinguistic framework to describe learning processes in portraits of three immersion summer camps in the eastern US. Using the data collection techniques of in-depth interviewing, participant observation and textual analysis, the study examined the process of second language learning and…

This case study investigates whether teachers model reading in 1 Singapore primary school during an exercise called "uninterrupted sustained silent reading" (USSR) carried out in the classroom. Even though reading is an important determinant of a student's growth in language skills and ability, and modeling the act of reading is…

This review highlights recent doctoral research in the United States completed between the spring of 2006 and the fall of 2007 in the areas of language teaching and language learning. Topics of particular interest included language policy, second/foreign language pragmatics, computer-mediated communication, non-native-speaking teachers, academic…

The following paper presents two stages of an action research project involving two oral proficiency courses held in the virtual world Second Life. Course 1 was conducted during the Autumn of 2007. Based on the experiences of this course, we redesigned many aspects of it in order to improve student activity in terms of oral participation and gave…

This study follows a cohort of first-time ninth graders over five years in San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) to describe the magnitude of its dropout problem and the numbers, characteristics, and graduation outcomes of the dropouts who subsequently reenrolled in the district. Additionally, it documents reenrollment issues…

This article analyzes how minority-language students responded to what they felt to be disrespectful behavior of a mainstream teacher towards their language from a case at an Aotearoa/New Zealand school in 1997-1998. Even when minority language is recognized officially and institutionally, as in Aotearoa/New Zealand, some minority-language…

Practitioners working closely with second language (L2) writers in the US recognize at least two types of L2 students: international (IL2) and Generation 1.5 (G1.5) students. Some argue that specific differences in each group's writing performance are evident (cf. Harklau, 2003; Reid, 2006); however, investigations into observable and measurable…

Reticence in foreign language classes has long been a challenge for both teachers and students. With the advent of globalization, there is a pressing need for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers to help reticent students develop the skills and confidence needed to take an active role in oral English lessons. This article reports on a…

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that co-speech gestures are semantically integrated with speech during language comprehension and development. The present study explored whether gestures also play a role in language learning in adults. In Experiment 1, we exposed adults to a brief training session presenting novel…

This paper presents some of the preliminary findings of a study into modern languages (ML) learning in five Scottish secondary schools. Five ML teachers were observed and audio-recorded over a period of several weeks while teaching their third-year classes (pupils aged 14-15 years). All the teachers used the target language extensively in their…

Alderson (2005) suggests that diagnostic tests should identify strengths and weaknesses in learners' use of language and focus on specific elements rather than global abilities. However, rating scales used in performance assessment have been repeatedly criticized for being imprecise and therefore often resulting in holistic marking by raters…