Terminology is a central theme of debate about language shift in Malaysia's judicial system--sometimes seen as the last bastion of the colonial language. Advocates of more Malay in courtroom argument and professional practice often point to the Institute of Language and Literature's creation of thousands of terms to equip the national language for…

Many elementary EFL teachers in Taiwan have concerns in integrating target culture teaching into their language classrooms for reasons such as teachers' limited knowledge of the target culture, lack of time, lack of methods and materials. In order to persuade more language teachers to teach target language culture, guidelines about designing an…

The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) is used to assess the ability of individuals to use language for real-world purposes. Today, OPIs are used by academic institutions, government agencies, and private corporations for many purposes: academic placement, student assessment, program evaluation, professional certification, hiring, and…

In this article, the author describes the place of the oral proficiency guidelines as the only nationally recognized criteria for the assessment of communicative competence in speaking across languages and discusses learning outcomes studies based on the proficiency guidelines. The guidelines are now 20 years old, but learning outcomes are not…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of classwide peer tutoring (CWPT), a peer-mediated teaching approach, on the social interaction behavior of children who are English language learners and children who are native English speakers. Two second-grade classrooms from an elementary school were selected as the research setting. CWPT…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

This manual has been prepared for all New Mexico Statewide Assessment Program (NMSAP) assessment administrators, teachers, school specialists, and principals. It includes information about the following topics: PED contacts, New Mexico Standards Based Assessments (SBA), Grades 3-8 and 11; New Mexico High School Competency Examination (NMHSCE);…

The number of English language learners (ELLs) in early childhood regular and special education services has increased dramatically in the past decade. A survey was conducted with 141 early childhood administrators and teachers to examine their beliefs and practices concerning the special education referral, evaluation, and placement process for…

This article describes the author's experiences coping with the challenges of teaching English in an Indonesian university, such as classroom conditions and large numbers of students at different proficiency levels. The author suggests five activities that are designed to involve students in learning with little dependence on materials and little…

"Safe, Healthy and Ready to Succeed: Arizona School Readiness Key Performance Indicators" presents a set of baseline measurements that gauge how well a statewide system of school readiness supports is addressing issues that affect Arizona children's readiness for school. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) measure the system, rather…

Addressing the needs of a diverse student population is a critical issue in school improvement efforts. Without appropriate support, ESL (English as a Second Language) students risk becoming low achievers. This pragmatic literature review endeavors to capture formative theories and practitioner ideas on ESL learning and multiage education.…

The present study evaluates the relative effectiveness of two types of input-based instruction, structured input instruction (a structured input task only) and structured input instruction with feedback (the structured input task + reactive explicit feedback) for teaching English polite requestive forms, involving 45 Japanese learners of English.…

This study reports a small-scale experiment that was set up to estimate the extent to which (i) the use of formulaic sequences (standardized phrases such as collocations and idiomatic expressions) can help learners come across as proficient L2 speakers and (ii) an instructional method that emphasizes "noticing" of L2 formulaic sequences can help…

This report describes an approach to third-year college-level French literature instruction that used a more informal approach to student writing than that traditionally used in such a course. The approach evolved from a comparison of students' formal writing skills with the skills defined in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign…

A study investigated the effects of eight sessions of classroom instruction on the ability of adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) to produce Wh- questions orally. Preliminary assessment of the students' writing samples enabled classification of two groups: "proficient" (n=6), consistently able to produce written samples…