Adult Language Learners: Context and Innovation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smith, Ann F. V., Ed.; Strong, Gregory, Ed.
2009-01-01
"Adult Language Learners: Context and Innovation" presents instructional practices that are particularly successful with adults. Adult language learners are goal oriented and direct their learning to fulfill particular needs or demands: to advance their studies, to progress up the career ladder, to follow business opportunities, to pass…
Authenticity in the Language Classroom and Beyond: Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rilling, Sarah, Ed.; Dantas-Whitney, Maria, Ed.
2009-01-01
Adult language learners have specific learning goals that reflect their lives within a global society, and adults negotiate multiple and changing identities throughout their personal, academic, and professional lives. Chapters in "Authenticity in the Language Classroom and Beyond: Adult Learners" highlight how teachers have the ability…
Teaching Pronunciation to Adult English Language Learners. CAELA Network Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schaetzel, Kirsten; Low, Ee Ling
2009-01-01
Adult English language learners in the United States approach the learning of English pronunciation from a wide variety of native language backgrounds. They may speak languages with sound systems that vary a great deal from that of English. The pronunciation goals and needs of adult English language learners are diverse. These goals and needs…
Self-Access and the Adult Language Learner.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Esch, Edith, Ed.
The immediate stimulus for this collection of papers was a conference, Self-Access and the Adult Language Learner, organized by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) and the Language Centre of the University of Cambridge in December 1992 at Queen's College, Cambridge. Several 1-day conferences on the same theme were…
Adult English Language Learners with Limited Literacy
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bigelow, Martha; Schwarz, Robin Lovrien
2010-01-01
Adult English language learners who lack print literacy or experience with formal education encounter a unique set of challenges in their lives and their efforts to learn English. Educators and policymakers are similarly challenged by how best to help these adults acquire English literacy. This paper reviews a variety of research, including that…
Tensions in Prioritizing Adult English Language Learners' Literacy Needs
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Haworth, Penny
2014-01-01
Despite increasing ethnic diversity globally, there has been little research into meeting the further education needs of these learners (Bidgood, Saebi, & May, 2006). In particular, the international literature provides scant understanding of how organizations go about meeting the literacy needs of adult English language learners (ELLs). It is…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schaetzel, Kirsten; Young, Sarah
2010-01-01
Adult English language learners comprise a substantial proportion of the adult education population in the United States. In program year 2006-2007, 46% of participants enrolled in state-administered adult education programs were in English as a second language (ESL) classes. This percentage does not include English language learners enrolled in…
Practitioner Toolkit: Working with Adult English Language Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lieshoff, Sylvia Cobos; Aguilar, Noemi; McShane, Susan; Burt, Miriam; Peyton, Joy Kreeft; Terrill, Lynda; Van Duzer, Carol
2004-01-01
This document is designed to give support to adult education and family literacy instructors who are new to serving adult English language learners and their families in rural, urban, and faith- and community-based programs. The Toolkit is designed to have a positive impact on the teaching and learning in these programs. The results of two…
Assessing the Literacy Skills of Adult Immigrants and Adult English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wrigley, Heide Spruck; Chen, Jing; White, Sheida; Soroui, Jaleh
2009-01-01
This chapter examines the characteristics and performance of adult immigrants and adult English language learners on the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. These factors are related to key social outcomes such as involvement in the labor force, income, and welfare participation, and the data reported can be used in making decisions about…
Trauma and the Adult English Language Learner. ERIC Digest.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Isserlis, Janet
English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) practitioners are familiar with adult learners' stories of disruption, political trauma, and mental upheaval. Until recently, however, little attention has been paid to personal trauma and domestic abuse. Acknowledgement of the prevalence of violence generally, and of that experienced by those in the adult ESL…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mangubhai, Francis
1991-01-01
Investigated the behaviors for processing language input demonstrated by five adults beginning to learn Hindi as a second language through the Total Physical Response method. The study suggests that, when adult learners are provided with comprehensive input, they engage in a variety of behaviors to extract meaning from it. (73 references) (GLR)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Paredes, Elsie Elena
2010-01-01
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how Colombian adult English language learners (ELL) select and use language learning strategies (LLS). This study used Oxford's (1990a) taxonomy for LLS as its theoretical framework. Semi-structured interviews and a focus group interview, were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed for 12…
Error Analysis of Present Simple Tense in the Interlanguage of Adult Arab English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Muftah, Muneera; Rafik-Galea, Shameem
2013-01-01
The present study analyses errors on present simple tense among adult Arab English language learners. It focuses on the error on 3sg "-s" (the third person singular present tense agreement morpheme "-s"). The learners are undergraduate adult Arabic speakers learning English as a foreign language. The study gathered data from…
Literacy Development and Language Expression for Adult Learners in Transition
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Larrotta, Clarena; Moon, Ji Yoon Christine
2016-01-01
This chapter provides examples of transitions that learners face connected to their participation in adult education and English literacy instruction. It describes their efforts to attain relevant language expression skills.
Uses of Technology in the Instruction of Adult English Language Learners. CAELA Network Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Moore, Sarah Catherine K.
2009-01-01
In program year 2006-2007, 46 percent of the adults enrolled in federally funded, state-administered adult education programs in the United States were enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. These adult English language learners represent a wide range of ages, nationalities, native languages, and English proficiency levels. In…
Marshall, Chloë R; Morgan, Gary
2015-01-01
There has long been interest in why languages are shaped the way they are, and in the relationship between sign language and gesture. In sign languages, entity classifiers are handshapes that encode how objects move, how they are located relative to one another, and how multiple objects of the same type are distributed in space. Previous studies have shown that hearing adults who are asked to use only manual gestures to describe how objects move in space will use gestures that bear some similarities to classifiers. We investigated how accurately hearing adults, who had been learning British Sign Language (BSL) for 1-3 years, produce and comprehend classifiers in (static) locative and distributive constructions. In a production task, learners of BSL knew that they could use their hands to represent objects, but they had difficulty choosing the same, conventionalized, handshapes as native signers. They were, however, highly accurate at encoding location and orientation information. Learners therefore show the same pattern found in sign-naïve gesturers. In contrast, handshape, orientation, and location were comprehended with equal (high) accuracy, and testing a group of sign-naïve adults showed that they too were able to understand classifiers with higher than chance accuracy. We conclude that adult learners of BSL bring their visuo-spatial knowledge and gestural abilities to the tasks of understanding and producing constructions that contain entity classifiers. We speculate that investigating the time course of adult sign language acquisition might shed light on how gesture became (and, indeed, becomes) conventionalized during the genesis of sign languages. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Center for Adult English Language Acquisition, 2010
2010-01-01
The Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Network, under contract with the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), has created a framework that can be used to plan, implement, and evaluate professional development for practitioners working with adult English language learners at the state, regional, and program levels. The…
Reaching a Culturally Diverse Immigrant Population of Adult English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Joan; Owen, Linda
2013-01-01
Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a framework to help adult English as a second language (ESL) educators renovate their practices into effective, culturally responsive programs, readily accessible to adult learners. Four CRT strategies that can be used include (a) validation through caring, (b) valuing cultural experiences, (c) creating a…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Riley, Tracy; Douglas, Scott Roy
2016-01-01
While service learning platforms hold great potential for adult learners of English as an additional language (EAL), there has been little research to date related to the impact of these programs on adult newcomers' linguistic and social development. The Multicultural Café was a food service learning platform for adult EAL learners operated over a…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rodriguez, Lisa Ann; Shepard, MaryFriend
2013-01-01
This study explored the perceptions of adult English language learners about audience response systems (clickers) as tools to facilitate communication. According to second language acquisition theory, learners' receptive capabilities in the early stages of second language acquisition surpass expressive capabilities, often rendering them silent in…
Emergent Target Language Identities among Latino English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ciriza-Lope, Maria; Shappeck, Marco; Arxer, Steven
2016-01-01
During 2nd language acquisition, a learner's identity is consigned, juxtaposed, coconstructed, and reified through various affective positions and mitigating linguistic behaviors. Our study of adult Latino ESL students in Dallas, Texas, shows how language socialization experiences are shaped by the learners' affective stances toward the project of…
Developing a New Course for Adult Learners. TESOL Language Curriculum Development Series
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Snow, Marguerite Ann, Ed.; Kamhi-Stein, Lia, Ed.
2006-01-01
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL), introduces "Developing a New Course for Adult Learners," edited by Marguerite Ann Snow and Lia Kamhi-Stein. This volume in TESOL's Language Curriculum Development Series presents the stories of teachers, curriculum developers, and administrators from all over the world who…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Li, Hongli; Suen, Hoi K.
2015-01-01
This study examines how Chinese ESL learners recognize English words while responding to a multiple-choice reading test as compared to Romance-language-speaking ESL learners. Four adult Chinese ESL learners and three adult Romance-language-speaking ESL learners participated in a think-aloud study with the Michigan English Language Assessment…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ouellette-Schramm, Jennifer R.
2016-01-01
Academic language is a challenging yet increasingly important skill for Adult Basic Education/English as a Second or Other Language learners. Related to academic language learning is an adult's developmental perspective. Developmental perspectives have been shown to vary in adulthood and shape qualitatively distinct ways of reasoning and learning…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weger, Heather D.
2013-01-01
The present study reports on the motivations of adult, international learners of English, studying English 20 hours a week in a US-based Intensive English Program (IEP). Though often used as participants in language acquisition studies, there are few studies of these learners' motivational profiles. In the current study, a questionnaire designed…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vinogradov, Patsy; Bigelow, Martha
2010-01-01
In addition to learning to read and write for the first time, adult English language learners with limited or emerging literacy skills must acquire oral English. Often, learners with limited print literacy in their first language have oral skills in English that exceed their English literacy skills (Geva & Zadeh, 2006). While this mismatch of oral…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Janis, Thomas
2013-01-01
While community colleges have been accessible for adult learners with an immigrant and an English Language Learning (ELL) background, there is a gap between preparation and academic success on the college level among these students. Within community colleges, older adult English as a Second Language (ESL) students have the lowest first-semester…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grafals, Zoraida
2013-01-01
The purpose of this study was twofold. First, this study was conducted to compare English communicative competency achievement between two different models of instruction. Adult English language learners (AELLs) participated in either the communicative task-based (CTB) or in a more traditional (MT) language instructional approach. The goal of the…
Promoting Learner Engagement when Working with Adult English Language Learners. CAELA Network Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Susan Finn
2010-01-01
Teachers of adults learning English often compete with many demands on learners' attention. Concerns about family, jobs, money, and transportation; fatigue; and negative past experiences with education are some of the factors that might inhibit an adult learner's full engagement in class. In a study of learner engagement in adult literacy…
Harmonic biases in child learners: In support of language universals
Culbertson, Jennifer; Newport, Elissa L.
2015-01-01
A fundamental question for cognitive science concerns the ways in which languages are shaped by the biases of language learners. Recent research using laboratory language learning paradigms, primarily with adults, has shown that structures or rules that are common in the languages of the world are learned or processed more easily than patterns that are rare or unattested. Here we target child learners, investigating a set of biases for word order learning in the noun phrase studied by Culbertson, Smolensky & Legendre (2012) in college-age adults. We provide the first evidence that child learners exhibit a preference for typologically common harmonic word order patterns—those which preserve the order of the head with respect to its complements—validating the psychological reality of a principle formalized in many different linguistic theories. We also discuss important differences between child and adult learners in terms of both the strength and content of the biases at play during language learning. In particular, the bias favoring harmonic patterns is markedly stronger in children than adults, and children (unlike adults) acquire adjective ordering more readily than numeral ordering. The results point to the importance of investigating learning biases across development in order to understand how these biases may shape the history and structure of natural languages. PMID:25800352
Getting it right by getting it wrong: When learners change languages
Hudson Kam, Carla L.; Newport, Elissa L.
2009-01-01
When natural language input contains grammatical forms that are used probabilistically and inconsistently, learners will sometimes reproduce the inconsistencies; but sometimes they will instead regularize the use of these forms, introducing consistency in the language that was not present in the input. In this paper we ask what produces such regularization. We conducted three artificial language experiments, varying the use of determiners in the types of inconsistency with which they are used, and also comparing adult and child learners. In Experiment 1 we presented adult learners with scattered inconsistency – the use of multiple determiners varying in frequency in the same context – and found that adults will reproduce these inconsistencies at low levels of scatter, but at very high levels of scatter will regularize the determiner system, producing the most frequent determiner form almost all the time. In Experiment 2 we showed that this is not merely the result of frequency: when determiners are used with low frequencies but in consistent contexts, adults will learn all of the determiners veridically. In Experiment 3 we compared adult and child learners, finding that children will almost always regularize inconsistent forms, whereas adult learners will only regularize the most complex inconsistencies. Taken together, these results suggest that regularization processes in natural language learning, such as those seen in the acquisition of language from non-native speakers or in the formation of young languages, may depend crucially on the nature of language learning by young children. PMID:19324332
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sidwell, Duncan, Ed.
A collection of six essays focuses on second language instruction for adult learners. In "Modern Languages and the Adult Student" (David Smith), the motivations of adults taking evening classes are examined and the ways in which language teachers need to adjust to this population are discussed. "Language Learning Theories and Their Implications…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mathews-Aydinli, Julie
2008-01-01
This article provides a synthesis and review of 41 recent research studies focusing on the population of adult English language learners (ELLs) studying in nonacademic contexts. It notes the unique qualities and importance of understanding the English-language needs of this population, provides a critical overview of the existing literature, and…
Teaching Grammar to Adult English Language Learners: Focus on Form. CAELA Network Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gallup Rodriguez, Amber
2009-01-01
Many adult English language learners place a high value on learning grammar. Perceiving a link between grammatical accuracy and effective communication, they associate excellent grammar with opportunities for employment and promotion, the attainment of educational goals, and social acceptance by native speakers. Reflecting the disagreement that…
Differences in Language Skills: Heritage Language Learner Subgroups and Foreign Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kondo-Brown, Kimi
2005-01-01
Using both proficiency tests and self-assessment measures, this study investigated (a) whether 3 subgroups of Japanese heritage language (JHL) learners would demonstrate language behaviors distinctively different from those of traditional Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) learners, and (b) which domains of language use and skills would…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lukes, Marguerite
2011-01-01
This study explores the potential of native language literacy instruction for adult immigrant English language learners who have limited formal schooling or have had interruptions in their formal education. By examining 3 programs that provide native language literacy in combination with English as a second language (ESL) instruction, this study…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Park, Gloria
2011-01-01
This article is the culmination of the Cultural and Linguistic Autobiography (CLA) writing project, which details narrative descriptions of adult English language learners' (ELLs') cultural and linguistic experiences and how those experiences may have influenced the ways in which these learners constructed and reconstructed their identities.…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Walls, Laura
2013-01-01
This study investigates the dynamics in the Spanish classroom between heritage language learner (HLL) dyads, second language learner (L2L) dyads, and mixed HLL-L2L dyads. Specifically, it examines oral, written and embodied discourse that informs our understanding of how learners attend to language. Analysis for this dissertation examined…
Grammatical Processing of Spoken Language in Child and Adult Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Felser, Claudia; Clahsen, Harald
2009-01-01
This article presents a selective overview of studies that have investigated auditory language processing in children and late second-language (L2) learners using online methods such as event-related potentials (ERPs), eye-movement monitoring, or the cross-modal priming paradigm. Two grammatical phenomena are examined in detail, children's and…
Teaching Low-Level Adult ESL Learners. ERIC Digest.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Holt, Grace Massey
In recent years, the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching profession has made discoveries about teaching beginning or low-level adult learners (those with little or no schooling in their native languages, learners who may not be familiar with the Roman alphabet, those with learning disabilities, and those literate in their native languages…
Explicit Instruction, Bilingualism, and the Older Adult Learner
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cox, Jessica G.
2017-01-01
Little is known about older adult language learners and effects of aging on L2 learning. This study investigated learning in older age through interactions of learner-internal and -external variables; specifically, late-learned L2 (bilingualism) and provision of grammar explanation (explicit instruction, EI). Forty-three older adults (age 60+) who…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Naif, Ahmed H.; Saad, Noor Saazai Mat
2017-01-01
Adult Arab learners of Finnish as second language (FSL) often encounter communication difficulty when dealing with official documents. They also cannot help their children in their school homework. FSL proficiency is an essential requirement to get an employment and to obtain the Finnish citizenship. The aim of this paper is to explore the use of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lambert, Olga Demin
2009-01-01
Adult English as a second language (ESL) students learning English outside of traditional academic settings are an understudied population of second language learners. The purpose of the research reported here is to contribute to meeting the instructional needs of these students more effectively by investigating the relationships between their…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Correa, Carolina T.
2009-01-01
In 2005, the U. S. Department of Education estimated that 44% of the 3 million students enrolled in non-traditional, that is, non-academic, adult education programs were English language learners. Yet, because of the overt focus that tends to be placed on oral communication, little has been done to document how these learners might view themselves…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jiang, Xiangying
2016-01-01
This study discusses the construct of oral reading fluency and examines its relationship to reading comprehension among adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners of four first language (L1) backgrounds. One hundred and forty-nine adult learners of English with Arabic, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese language backgrounds participated in this…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Abal, Abdulaziz
2013-01-01
The population of English Language Learners (ELLs) globally has been increasing substantially every year. In the United States alone, adult ELLs are the fastest growing portion of learners in adult education programs (Yang, 2005). There is a significant need to improve the teaching of English to ELLs in the United States and other English-speaking…
Transitioning English Language Learners: Annotated Bibliography
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hector-Mason, Anestine; Shaewitz, Dahlia; Sherman, Renee; Brown, Delphinia; Salomon, Erika; Bauman, Emily; Mendieta, Yorkmit; Corley, Mary Ann
2009-01-01
On July 17, 2008 the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) awarded a contract to the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to assist OVAE in conducting a descriptive study of instructional and programmatic practices that support the transition of English language learners (TELL) from English as a second…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nadeau, Melody Hallenbeck
2014-01-01
This mixed-methods study examined the lived experience of adult English Language Learners (ELLs) in classrooms led by native speaking teachers, compared with their experience in classrooms led by non-native teachers. The socio-cognitive approach to language and emergent common ground framed the development of the English classroom as a Community…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
De Paepe, Liesbeth; Zhu, Chang; Depryck, Koen
2018-01-01
For the growing group of adult migrants, flexible solutions for second language (L2) acquisition are increasingly important, while concerns about the efficacy of online language learning abound. This study on the L2 situation in Flanders has 4 key aims: analyzing adult learner profiles in fully online Dutch beginners' courses; comparing learner…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brodzinski, Frederick R., Ed.; Shriberg, Arthur, Ed.
1984-01-01
Presents nine articles which provide a broad overview of issues and concerns related to the delivery of student services to adult learners. Specific topics include needs and interests of adult learners, marketing, special technology, adult resource centers, adult support groups, and the role of the chief student affairs officer. (JAC)
The Effect of Phonological Variation on Adult Learner Comprehension.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eisenstein, Miriam; Berkowitz, Diana
1981-01-01
Reports on a study of the relationship of English phonological variation to intelligibility for adult second language learners of English. Indicates that learners tested on their ability to understand working-class (New Yorkese), educated (Standard English), and Foreign-accented speakers of English found the standard more intelligible than the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stacey, Jenny
2016-01-01
This enquiry based project set out to find out if adult English language learners, known as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners in the UK, might benefit, in terms of their acquisition of English, from studying maths. This research has been conducted at a medium sized FE college in the East Midlands where I teach. I evaluate…
Flipped Instruction with English Language Learners at a Newcomer High School
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Graziano, Kevin J.; Hall, John D.
2017-01-01
Research on flipped instruction with English Language Learners (ELLs) is sparse. Data-driven flipped research conducted with ELLs primarily involves adult learners attending a college or university. This study examined the academic performance of secondary ELLs who received flipped instruction in an algebra course at a newcomer school compared to…
Becoming Adult Learners: Principles and Practices for Effective Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Drago-Severson, Eleanor
2004-01-01
This book offers a new and promising way to support adults in Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) programs specifically, and learners in adult education, in general. Applying renowned Harvard University psychologist Robert Kegan's constructive-development theory, Drago-Severson depicts an in-depth…
Second Language Learners' Divergence from Target Language Pragmatic Norms
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gomez-Laich, Maria Pia
2016-01-01
Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk…
EFL Proficiency in Language Learning and Learner Autonomy Perceptions of Turkish Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ünal, Süleyman; Çeliköz, Nadir; Sari, Irfan
2017-01-01
The aim of this study is to determine the relationships of Turkish-English Language Teaching (ELT) learners' perceptions of learner autonomy with ELT learner's proficiency level in language learning. Particularly, the study aimed at investigating to what extent ELT learners' autonomy perceptions are affected by proficiency level of learners.…
Dimensionality in Language Learners' Personal Epistemologies
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nikitina, Larisa; Furuoka, Fumitaka
2018-01-01
This study aimed to examine dimensionality in language learners' epistemic beliefs. To achieve this, a survey was conducted using a newly-developed research instrument-"Language Learners' Epistemic Beliefs" (LLEB) questionnaire. Based on a review of literature, it was proposed that language learners' epistemic beliefs would cluster in…
Reading-Strategy Use by English as a Second Language Learners in Online Reading Tasks
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Park, Ho-Ryong; Kim, Deoksoon
2011-01-01
This study investigates adult English language learners' reading-strategy use when they read online texts in hypermedia learning environments. The learners joined the online Independent English Study Group (IESG) and worked both individually and collaboratively. This qualitative case study aims (a) to assess college-level ESL learners' use of…
Language Teacher Candidates' Self-Assessment Process for Teaching to Young Learners in EFL Classes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Genç Ilter, Binnur
2017-01-01
Teaching a foreign language to young learners have some differences from teaching adults. Young children have concentration problems and they tend to change their mood every ten minutes and need more creative activities than adults. Therefore, foreign language teachers have to choose interesting activities for them and foreign language teacher…
Acquisition of Mathematical Language: Suggestions and Activities for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cirillo, Michelle; Bruna, Katherine Richardson; Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth
2010-01-01
In this article, we describe aspects of mathematical language that could be problematic to English-language learners, provide recommendations for teaching English-language learners, and suggest activities intended to foster language development in mathematics. (Contains 1 figure.)
Language Background and Learners' Attitudes to Own-Language Use
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Scheffler, Pawel; Horverak, May Olaug; Krzebietke, Weronika; Askland, Sigrunn
2017-01-01
Learners' language background is one of the factors which may influence the amount and functions of own-language use in English instruction. This article reports a study in which a group of almost 400 Polish and Norwegian secondary school learners of English were asked how their own languages are used in the classroom, how they use them when they…
Language Identity among Iranian English Language Learners: A Nationwide Survey
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rezaei, Saeed; Khatib, Mohammad; Baleghizadeh, Sasan
2014-01-01
The present study is a nationwide survey of language identity among English language learners in Iran. The participants who completed the survey in this research included 1851 English language learners from different parts of the country who belonged to different genders, age groups and English language proficiency levels. The main instrument was…
Optimizing New Language Use by Employing Young Learners' Own Language
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Oga-Baldwin, W. L. Quint; Nakata, Yoshiyuki
2014-01-01
The use and appropriate amount of students' own language (OL) in foreign language classes remains a subject of debate. While exclusive new language (NL) use may not necessarily always benefit all learners, especially young language learners (YLLs), overuse of the students' OL may not provide the same range of communicative experiences as greater…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Csepelyi, Tunde
2012-01-01
This phenomenological study examined the transition of a group of adult English language learners from an Adult Basic Education program to a community college. The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of the driving forces of Adult Basic Education English language learners who had successfully transitioned from a non-credit…
Content-Learning Tasks for Adult ESL Learners: Promoting Literacy for Work or School
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ewert, Doreen E.
2014-01-01
Teachers of English as a second language (ESL) are often on the frontline of working with adult ESL learners who are facing a difficult developmental pathway to academic and/or economic success. These learners come to the task of learning English with widely varying schooling experiences, degrees of first language literacy, and English language…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Saito, Kazuya
2017-01-01
This study examines the relationship between different types of language learning aptitude (measured via the LLAMA test) and adult second language (L2) learners' attainment in speech production in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. Picture descriptions elicited from 50 Japanese EFL learners from varied proficiency levels were analyzed…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Serafini, Ellen Johnson
2013-01-01
This study examined the second language (L2) development of adult learners of Spanish at three levels of proficiency during and after a semester of instruction. A fundamental goal was to identify cognitive and psychosocial individual differences (IDs) that can explain between-learner variation over time in order to expand our understanding of the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Montrul, Silvina; Ionin, Tania
2012-01-01
This study investigates dominant language transfer (from English) in adult Spanish second language (L2) learners and Spanish heritage speakers. We focus on contrasting properties of English and Spanish definite articles with respect to generic reference ("Elephants have ivory tusks" vs. "Los elefantes tienen colmillos de marfil") and inalienable…
Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Lervåg, Arne
2014-03-01
We report a systematic meta-analytic review of studies comparing reading comprehension and its underlying components (language comprehension, decoding, and phonological awareness) in first- and second-language learners. The review included 82 studies, and 576 effect sizes were calculated for reading comprehension and underlying components. Key findings were that, compared to first-language learners, second-language learners display a medium-sized deficit in reading comprehension (pooled effect size d = -0.62), a large deficit in language comprehension (pooled effect size d = -1.12), but only small differences in phonological awareness (pooled effect size d = -0.08) and decoding (pooled effect size d = -0.12). A moderator analysis showed that characteristics related to the type of reading comprehension test reliably explained the variation in the differences in reading comprehension between first- and second-language learners. For language comprehension, studies of samples from low socioeconomic backgrounds and samples where only the first language was used at home generated the largest group differences in favor of first-language learners. Test characteristics and study origin reliably contributed to the variations between the studies of language comprehension. For decoding, Canadian studies showed group differences in favor of second-language learners, whereas the opposite was the case for U.S. studies. Regarding implications, unless specific decoding problems are detected, interventions that aim to ameliorate reading comprehension problems among second-language learners should focus on language comprehension skills.
Library Literacy Programs for English Language Learners. ERIC Digest.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McMurrer, Eileen; Terrill, Lynda
This digest summarizes the history of public libraries and library literacy programs; describes current delivery models; and discusses initiatives in library literacy, profiling one successful public library program that serves adult English language learners and their families. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (Author/VWL)
Preparing Dual Language Teachers to Educate English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Craft-Coleman, Sylvia L.
2013-01-01
The purpose of this qualitative embedded multiple case study was to explore the teaching strategies, skills, and knowledge received from English language learner professional development (ELLPD) trainings and seminars and how the application of ELLPD content affected communication with English language learners in the mainstream classroom. The…
The Reading Comprehension Strategies of Second Language Learners: A Spanish-English Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Acosta Caballero, Karen Anelice
2012-01-01
Reading comprehension of school-aged students is an important topic of research; however, research on the reading comprehension of adult foreign/second language learners whose first language is English is limited, especially studies investigating the reading comprehension strategies that readers of different proficiency levels use when they…
Profiling Mobile English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Byrne, Jason; Diem, Robert
2014-01-01
The purpose of this study was to use an app-embedded survey to profile language learner demographics. A total of 3,759 EFL language learners from primarily eight L1 backgrounds (French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Thai) responded to the survey embedded within a popular English grammar app. This app has over 500,000…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smith-Christmas, Cassie; Armstrong, Timothy Currie
2014-01-01
Heritage learners of minority languages can play a lynchpin role in reversing language shift (RLS) in their families; however, in order to enact this role, they must first overcome certain barriers to re-integrate the minority language into the home domain. Using a combination of conversation and narrative analysis methods, we demonstrate how both…
Language Learners in Study Abroad Contexts. Second Language Acquisition
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
DuFon, Margaret A., Ed.; Churchill, Eton, Ed.
2006-01-01
Examining the overseas experience of language learners in diverse contexts through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, studies in this volume look at the acquisition of language use, socialization processes, learner motivation, identity and learning strategies. In this way, the volume offers a privileged window into learner…
Migrant Adult Learners and Digital Literacy: Using DBR to Support Teaching and Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vanek, Jenifer B.
2017-01-01
This research explores the difficulties faced by many migrant, refugee, and immigrant adults confronted with technological ubiquity in economically developed countries. Preparing migrant adult learners for the digital world by building digital literacy skills can help to maintain home language proficiency, support English language learning, and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thomas, Margaret
2015-01-01
This article calls attention to a facet of the expertise of second language (L2) learners of Japanese at the intersection of language, memory, gesture, and the psycholinguistics of a logographic writing system. Previous research has shown that adult L2 learners of Japanese living in Japan (similarly to native speakers of Japanese) often…
Learning Strategies Used by Successful Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thu, Tran Hoang
2009-01-01
This study examines the language learning strategies employed by successful learners of English as a foreign and second language. Two successful English learners whose first languages are Mandarin were interviewed, and asked to complete a questionnaire and a self-evaluation measure to indicate their perceived level of language proficiency as well…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jang, Eunice Eunhee; Cummins, Jim; Wagner, Maryam; Stille, Saskia; Dunlop, Maggie
2015-01-01
Research on issues concerning the assessment of school-age English language learners (ELLs) in curriculum-learning contexts has been relatively less productive than assessment of adult language learners. A growing demand for assessing school-age ELLs has led to the development of assessment frameworks that provide the opportunity to examine the…
Language Learning Strategies of Language e-Learners in Turkey
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Solak, Ekrem; Cakir, Recep
2015-01-01
The purpose of this study was to determine the use of language learning strategies of e-learners and to understand whether there were any correlations between language learning strategies and academic achievement. Participants of the study were 274?e-learners, 132 males and 142 females, enrolled in an e-learning program from various majors and…
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Perez, Ramon
2011-01-01
This qualitative case study seeks to identify factors that have a significant impact on the second language proficiency levels of adult English as a Second Language (ESL) learners at a four-year university in Puerto Rico. Current data indicate that a significant percentage of adult ESL learners encounter major difficulties within the process of…
GED Success: Case Study of an English Language Learner in Correctional Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gardner, Susanne
2017-01-01
Understanding the elements of educational success for adult English language learners (ELLs) is an important priority for correctional educators, especially today with an increased population of non-English speaking students in correctional schools throughout the country. There is a dearth of information, however, about incarcerated adult ELLs and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hermann, Frank
2003-01-01
Investigates differential effects of reading and paired associate learning on vocabulary acquisition of adult English-as-a-Second-Language learners. Two groups of university students participated. One group read "Animal Farm" while the comparison group memorized a list of words preselected from the novel. Suggests that for encouraging long-term…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Amaral, Luiz; Meurers, Detmar; Ziai, Ramon
2011-01-01
Intelligent language tutoring systems (ILTS) typically analyze learner input to diagnose learner language properties and provide individualized feedback. Despite a long history of ILTS research, such systems are virtually absent from real-life foreign language teaching (FLT). Taking a step toward more closely linking ILTS research to real-life…
Phonemic awareness of English second language learners
2017-01-01
Background The PA skills of phonological blending and segmentation and auditory word discrimination relate directly to literacy and may be weak in English second language (EL2) learners. In South Africa, literacy skills have been found to be poor in especially EL2 learners. Objectives The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of vowel perception and production intervention on phonemic awareness (PA) and literacy skills of Setswana first language (L1) learners. These learners are English second language (EL2) learners in Grade 3. Method The present study employed a quasi-experimental, pre-test–post-test design. Results The findings of low–literacy skill levels concurred with previous investigations. However, post-test results of intervention in PA seemed to improve the literacy skills of EL2 learners. Conclusion PA skills should be a crucial part of the literacy curriculum in South Africa. PMID:28155282
Communication Strategies of Adult ESL Learners: A Discourse Perspective.
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Clennell, Charles
1995-01-01
Examines the communication strategies used by adult second-language learners of English when performing contrasting pedagogic tasks. The article suggests that existing descriptions of communication strategies ignore the pragmatic function of such devices in interactive discourse and offers a reclassification that differentiates strategies…
Effects of Communication Tasks on the Grammatical Relations Marked by Second Language Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Newton, Jonathan; Kennedy, Graeme
1996-01-01
Examines the morpho-syntax of task-based interaction and reports some possible grammatical consequences of interaction in split and shared information tasks undertaken by adult second language learners of English. Results indicate that communication tasks for language learning can be designed to influence the use of particular linguistic…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kormos, Judit; Préfontaine, Yvonne
2017-01-01
The present mixed-methods study examined the role of learner appraisals of speech tasks in second language (L2) French fluency. Forty adult learners in a Canadian immersion program participated in the study that compared four sources of data: (1) objectively measured utterance fluency in participants' performances of three narrative tasks…
Heritage Language Learners' Perceptions of Acquiring and Maintaining the Spanish Language
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Torres, Kelly Moore; Turner, Jeannine E.
2017-01-01
The number of heritage language learners in American universities is increasing each year. Similar to monolingual students, this subgroup of learners is required to complete university level "foreign language" coursework, which can be a source of anxiety. Particularly, this subgroup of learners may experience high levels of anxiety due…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dewey, Dan P.; Belnap, R. Kirk; Hillstrom, Rebecca
2013-01-01
Language learners and educators have subscribed to the belief that those who go abroad will have many opportunities to use the target language and will naturally become proficient. They also assume that language learners will develop relationships with native speakers allowing them to use the language and become more fluent, an assumption…
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Leichsenring, Andrew
2015-01-01
This paper presents a teacher-led inquiry into learner language awareness and learner perceptions of: oral presentations using first language (L1) support when using a second language (L2); and L2 learner and user identity. The quantitative-based results of this preliminary inquiry represent a source of understanding for the researcher, who later,…
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Vorobel, Oksana
2013-01-01
Peer review is a complex collaborative activity, which may engage English language learners in reading, writing, listening, and speaking and carry many potential benefits for their language learning (Hu, 2005). While many research studies focused on peer review practices of adult language learners in academic settings in the USA or abroad in…
Conceptualizing Language Learners: Socioinstitutional Mechanisms and Their Consequences
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Kibler, Amanda K.; Valdés, Guadalupe
2016-01-01
Through examination of one recently manufactured term for language learners (Long-term English Learners) and review of a century of "MLJ" articles, we examine varying "socioinstitutional" conceptualizations of second/foreign/heritage language learners as shaped by educational institutions and related stakeholders over time,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rintell, Ellen
A role-playing procedure for elicitation of speech acts was designed to study aspects of the communicative competence of second language learners, namely, their language variation with respect to deference when the age and sex of the addressee are systematically manipulated. Sixteen Spanish-speaking adult learners of English as a second language…
English Language Learners. What Works Clearinghouse Topic Report
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What Works Clearinghouse, 2007
2007-01-01
English language learners are students with a primary language other than English who have a limited range of speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills in English. English language learners also include students identified and determined by their school as having limited English proficiency and a language other than English spoken in the…
The Language Growth of Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rojas, Raul; Iglesias, Aquiles
2013-01-01
Although the research literature regarding language growth trajectories is burgeoning, the shape and direction of English Language Learners' (ELLs) language growth trajectories are largely not known. This study used growth curve modeling to determine the shape of ELLs' language growth trajectories across 12,248 oral narrative language samples…
White, Erin Jacquelyn; Genesee, Fred; Steinhauer, Karsten
2012-01-01
This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner's first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1-L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., "grammaticalization") are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning.
It's Not in the Curriculum: Adult English Language Teachers and LGBQ Topics
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rhodes, Christy M.; Coda, James
2017-01-01
For adult English language learners, the English language classroom provides a space for students to examine cultural as well other identities. However, discussions often center on racial, rather than sexual identities. In addition, attention to how adult English language instructors engage in classroom practices that focus on sexual identities is…
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Smith, Ann Marie; Salgado, Yolanda
2018-01-01
The purpose of this case study was to investigate how an English language arts teacher used young adult literature to help English language learners improve English and literacy comprehension. Through the lens of Anzaldua's (2007) "borderlands", and Rolon-Dow's (2005) "critical care", the authors analyze the case study…
Learner Behaviors and Perceptions of Autonomous Language Learning
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Bekleyen, Nilüfer; Selimoglu, Figen
2016-01-01
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the learners' behaviors and perceptions about autonomous language learning at the university level in Turkey. It attempts to reveal what type of perceptions learners held regarding teachers' and their own responsibilities in the language learning process. Their autonomous language learning…
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Ullman, Char
2010-01-01
Adult education ESOL teachers usually know a lot about learners' lives inside the classroom, but they are less aware of learners' lives outside that space. This article focuses on learner talk about "Ingles Sin Barreras," a heavily advertised English-language program for Spanish-speakers who want to learn English. I analyzed learner talk…
Vocabulary Attrition among Adult English as a Foreign Language Persian Learners
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Asgari, Azadeh; Bin Mustapha, Ghazali
2010-01-01
This study aims to investigate the attrition rate of EFL concrete and abstract vocabulary among continuing and non-continuing Iranian female and male English language learners across different proficiency levels. They are students of a University and majored in different fields (between 20 and 25 years old). There was no treatment in this study…
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Madrigal-Hopes, Diana L.; Villavicencio, Edna; Foote, Martha M.; Green, Chris
2014-01-01
This qualitative study examined the impact of a six-step framework for work-specific vocabulary instruction in adult English language learners (ELLs). Guided by research in English as a second language (ESL) methodology and the transactional theory, the researchers sought to unveil how these processes supported the acquisition and application of…
Promising Instructional Practices for English Language Learners
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Prince, Johanna
2018-01-01
Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory case study was to understand how teachers, working with English Language Learners (ELLs), expanded their knowledge and instructional practices as they implemented a one-to-one iPad® program. Background: English Language Learners experience linguistic, cultural, and cognitive shifts that can be…
Learning an Embodied Visual Language: Four Imitation Strategies Available to Sign Learners
Shield, Aaron; Meier, Richard P.
2018-01-01
The parts of the body that are used to produce and perceive signed languages (the hands, face, and visual system) differ from those used to produce and perceive spoken languages (the vocal tract and auditory system). In this paper we address two factors that have important consequences for sign language acquisition. First, there are three types of lexical signs: one-handed, two-handed symmetrical, and two-handed asymmetrical. Natural variation in hand dominance in the population leads to varied input to children learning sign. Children must learn that signs are not specified for the right or left hand but for dominant and non-dominant. Second, we posit that children have at least four imitation strategies available for imitating signs: anatomical (Activate the same muscles as the sign model), which could lead learners to inappropriately use their non-dominant hand; mirroring (Produce a mirror image of the modeled sign), which could lead learners to produce lateral movement reversal errors or to use the non-dominant hand; visual matching (Reproduce what you see from your perspective), which could lead learners to produce inward–outward movement and palm orientation reversals; and reversing (Reproduce what the sign model would see from his/her perspective). This last strategy is the only one that always yields correct phonological forms in signed languages. To test our hypotheses, we turn to evidence from typical and atypical hearing and deaf children as well as from typical adults; the data come from studies of both sign acquisition and gesture imitation. Specifically, we posit that all children initially use a visual matching strategy but typical children switch to a mirroring strategy sometime in the second year of life; typical adults tend to use a mirroring strategy in learning signs and imitating gestures. By contrast, children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to use the visual matching strategy well into childhood or even adulthood
The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners
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Alroudhan, Hayat Eid
2016-01-01
This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the…
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Sarab, Mohamad Reza Anani; Gordani, Yahya
2015-01-01
Investigations into the use of private speech by adult English foreign language (EFL) learners in regulating their mental activities have been an interesting area of research with a sociocultural framework. Following this line of research, 30 advanced adult EFL learners were selected via the administration of Oxford quick placement test and took a…
Attitudes toward Task-Based Language Learning: A Study of College Korean Language Learners
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Pyun, Danielle Ooyoung
2013-01-01
This study explores second/foreign language (L2) learners' attitudes toward task-based language learning (TBLL) and how these attitudes relate to selected learner variables, namely anxiety, integrated motivation, instrumental motivation, and self-efficacy. Ninety-one college students of Korean as a foreign language, who received task-based…
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Lee, Jin Sook
2005-01-01
This study investigates how learners of the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) (i.e., Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Swahili, Yoruba) perceive their identities as heritage or non-heritage language learners. A survey of 530 college-level language learners reveals that heritage and non-heritage…
The Effects of Multimedia Task-Based Language Teaching on EFL Learners' Oral L2 Production
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BavaHarji, Madhubala; Gheitanchian, Mehrnaz; Letchumanan, Krishnaveni
2014-01-01
This study examined the effects of tasks, with varying levels of complexity, i.e. simple, + complex and ++ complex tasks on EFL learners' oral production in a multimedia task-based language teaching environment. 57 EFL adult learners carried out a total of 12 tasks, in sets of four tasks within three different themes and different levels of…
An Analysis of Lexical Errors of Korean Language Learners: Some American College Learners' Case
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kang, Manjin
2014-01-01
There has been a huge amount of research on errors of language learners. However, most of them have focused on syntactic errors and those about lexical errors are not found easily despite the importance of lexical learning for the language learners. The case is even rarer for Korean language. In line with this background, this study was designed…
Liu, Meihua
2017-06-01
The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and intercultural communication sensitivity level.
Williams, Joshua T; Newman, Sharlene D
2017-02-01
A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel language activation in M2L2 learners of sign language and to characterize the influence of spoken language and sign language neighborhood density on the activation of ASL signs. A priming paradigm was used in which the neighbors of the sign target were activated with a spoken English word and compared the activation of the targets in sparse and dense neighborhoods. Neighborhood density effects in auditory primed lexical decision task were then compared to previous reports of native deaf signers who were only processing sign language. Results indicated reversed neighborhood density effects in M2L2 learners relative to those in deaf signers such that there were inhibitory effects of handshape density and facilitatory effects of location density. Additionally, increased inhibition for signs in dense handshape neighborhoods was greater for high proficiency L2 learners. These findings support recent models of the hearing bimodal bilingual lexicon, which posit lateral links between spoken language and sign language lexical representations.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chen, Julian ChengChiang
2014-01-01
English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language use in 3-D virtual environments is a vibrant avenue that still deserves more research attention in the field of CALL. To contribute research and pedagogical implications to the current Second Life (SL) literature, this study aims to examine EFL adult learners' use of communication strategies…
Cross Context Role of Language Proficiency in Learners' Use of Language Learning Strategies
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Kamalizad, Jalal; Samuel, Moses
2015-01-01
Responding to the controversies in the results of past studies regarding the impact of language proficiency on learners' use of language learning strategies, this article reports the effect of language proficiency on the strategy use of Iranian English learners across two different settings, namely ESL Malaysia, and EFL Iran. Some 157 Iranian…
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Ciekanski, Maud
2007-01-01
Developments in lifelong learning and learner autonomy have given fresh impetus to the debate about learning without formal teaching. This paper concerns the educational relationship between learner and adviser in self-directed schemes. Two French self-directed language learning set-ups were observed, one situated at university level (Systeme…
Soskey, Laura; Holcomb, Phillip J; Midgley, Katherine J
2016-09-01
How do the neural mechanisms involved in word recognition evolve over the course of word learning in adult learners of a new second language? The current study sought to closely track language effects, which are differences in electrophysiological indices of word processing between one's native and second languages, in beginning university learners over the course of a single semester of learning. Monolingual L1 English-speakers enrolled in introductory Spanish were first trained on a list of 228 Spanish words chosen from the vocabulary to be learned in class. Behavioral data from the training session and the following experimental sessions spaced over the course of the semester showed expected learning effects. In the three laboratory sessions participants read words in three lists (English, Spanish and mixed) while performing a go/no-go lexical decision task in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. As observed in previous studies there were ERP language effects with larger N400s to native than second language words. Importantly, this difference declined over the course of L2 learning with N400 amplitude increasing for new second language words. These results suggest that even over a single semester of learning that new second language words are rapidly incorporated into the word recognition system and begin to take on lexical and semantic properties similar to native language words. Moreover, the results suggest that electrophysiological measures can be used as sensitive measures for tracking the acquisition of new linguistic knowledge. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Exploring Goals and Motivations of Maori Heritage Language Learners
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Te Huia, Awanui
2015-01-01
Motivations of Maori heritage language learners are explored within this qualitative study. "Te reo" Maori (the Maori language) is currently classed as endangered (Reedy et al., 2011), which calls for the exploration of the motivational experiences of Maori heritage language learners. A total of 19 interviews with beginner, intermediate…
Understanding Videotext: Listening Strategy Use by Adult Mandarin-Chinese English Language Learners
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Slimon, Jason
2012-01-01
A vast number of news video listening materials are now easily accessible to English language learners (ELLs) due to developments in broadcast and multimedia technology. While little is known about how ELLs attempt to comprehend this challenging medium, researchers agree on the critical nature of listening skills, which researchers have placed at…
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Center for Adult English Language Acquisition, 2008
2008-01-01
As a result of a growing immigrant population in the United States, many adult education programs are working with new populations of adult learners who need to learn English. There is a need for a strong workforce of trained and knowledgeable practitioners who can work effectively with adults learning English and facilitate transitions to…
Stancetaking and Language Ideologies in Heritage Language Learner Classroom Discourse
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Showstack, Rachel E.
2017-01-01
Drawing on linguistic anthropological notions of language ideologies and sociolinguistic approaches to stance, this study examines the meaning-making resources through which Spanish heritage language (HL) learners orient toward ideological perspectives on language value and linguistic expertise in classroom interaction. Part of a larger…
The English Language Learner Program Survey for Principals. REL 2014-027
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grady, Matthew W.; O'Dwyer, Laura M.
2014-01-01
REL Northeast & Islands at Education Development Center, in partnership with the English Language Learners Alliance, has developed a new survey tool--The English Language Learner Program Survey for Principals--to help state education departments collect consistent data on the education of English language learner students. Designed for school…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Paradis, Johanne; Schneider, Phyllis; Duncan, Tamara Sorenson
2013-01-01
Purpose: In this study, the authors sought to determine whether a combination of English-language measures and a parent questionnaire on first-language development could adequately discriminate between English-language learners (ELLs) with and without language impairment (LI) when children had diverse first-language backgrounds. Method:…
The Enhanced Musical Rhythmic Perception in Second Language Learners
Roncaglia-Denissen, M. Paula; Roor, Drikus A.; Chen, Ao; Sadakata, Makiko
2016-01-01
Previous research suggests that mastering languages with distinct rather than similar rhythmic properties enhances musical rhythmic perception. This study investigates whether learning a second language (L2) contributes to enhanced musical rhythmic perception in general, regardless of first and second languages rhythmic properties. Additionally, we investigated whether this perceptual enhancement could be alternatively explained by exposure to musical rhythmic complexity, such as the use of compound meter in Turkish music. Finally, it investigates if an enhancement of musical rhythmic perception could be observed among L2 learners whose first language relies heavily on pitch information, as is the case with tonal languages. Therefore, we tested Turkish, Dutch and Mandarin L2 learners of English and Turkish monolinguals on their musical rhythmic perception. Participants’ phonological and working memory capacities, melodic aptitude, years of formal musical training and daily exposure to music were assessed to account for cultural and individual differences which could impact their rhythmic ability. Our results suggest that mastering a L2 rather than exposure to musical rhythmic complexity could explain individuals’ enhanced musical rhythmic perception. An even stronger enhancement of musical rhythmic perception was observed for L2 learners whose first and second languages differ regarding their rhythmic properties, as enhanced performance of Turkish in comparison with Dutch L2 learners of English seem to suggest. Such a stronger enhancement of rhythmic perception seems to be found even among L2 learners whose first language relies heavily on pitch information, as the performance of Mandarin L2 learners of English indicates. Our findings provide further support for a cognitive transfer between the language and music domain. PMID:27375469
An Analysis of Iranian Language Learners' Vocabulary Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zalzadeh Borazjani, Ashraf
2017-01-01
The purpose of this study is to investigate how learner variables, including language proficiency, motivation, effort, and family background affect Iranian language learners' EFL vocabulary strategy use? Subjects in this study were 450 EFL students (N = 450) at Payam e Noor University, Borazjan, Iran. After a placement test, they were grouped into…
Do Adults Show an Effect of Delayed First Language Acquisition When Calculating Scalar Implicatures?
Davidson, Kathryn; Mayberry, Rachel I
Language acquisition involves learning not only grammatical rules and a lexicon, but also what someone is intending to convey with their utterance: the semantic/pragmatic component of language. In this paper we separate the contributions of linguistic development and cognitive maturity to the acquisition of the semantic/pragmatic component of language by comparing deaf adults who had either early or late first exposure to their first language (ASL). We focus on the particular type of meaning at the semantic/pragmatic interface called scalar implicature , for which preschool-age children typically differ from adults. Children's behavior has been attributed to either their not knowing appropriate linguistic alternatives to consider or to cognitive developmental differences between children and adults. Unlike children, deaf adults with late language exposure are cognitively mature, although they never fully acquire some complex linguistic structures, and thus serve as a test for the role of language in such interpretations. Our results indicate an overall high performance by late learners, especially when implicatures are not based on conventionalized items. However, compared to early language learners, late language learners compute fewer implicatures when conventionalized linguistic alternatives are involved (e.g.
Languages for Adult Learners. Language Teaching and Linguistics: Abstracts, Vol. 9, No. 2.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Trim, J. L. M.
Increasing attention is being paid to the teaching of languages to adults. Communications improvements, tourism, immigration and international commerce are all contributing factors. Emerging third-world states often require a European language for internal and outside communication. Close contact among European nations demands knowledge of a…
Through the Lens of Good Language Learners: What Are Their Strategies?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nazri, Nurhuda Mohamad; Yunus, Melor Md; Nazri, Nur Dalila Mohamad
2016-01-01
Often times, many English as Second Language (ESL) facilitators speculate why some learners learn faster than other learners. Provided the students were exposed with the same amount of years in the formal education system in Malaysia, the language instructors curious about the variety of performance in the English language among the learners. This…
Is Developing Employability Skills Relevant to Adult Language Students?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Beaven, Tita
2016-01-01
Open University (OU) students are typically mature students who combine studying part-time with work or caring responsibilities; the average age of OU language students has been dropping, and about 30% of our new students are now under 25. The traditional view of adult learners who study languages is that they often study for pleasure or personal…
Language Learners' and Teachers' Perceptions of Task Repetition
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ahmadian, Mohammad Javad; Mansouri, Seyyed Abbas; Ghominejad, Shiva
2017-01-01
This study examined how English language learners and teachers perceive and interpret task repetition (TR), and whether teachers' and learners' views about this pedagogic practice correspond. In addition, the study explored learners' cognitive and affective engagement with TR. We asked eight experienced language teachers to use a structured…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rafieyan, Vahid
2016-01-01
Development of target language pragmatic competence in language learners requires not only provision of cultural features of target language community in language classes but also language learner's willingness to learn and use those cultural features. To investigate the relationship between language learners' attitudes toward cultural instruction…
Ego Is a Hurdle in Second Language Learning: A Contrastive Study between Adults and Children
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Abdullah, Shumaila; Akhter, Javed
2015-01-01
The aim of this research paper is to find out by comparing and contrasting between the adults and children in second language learning process how language ego of adult learners affects them to learn second language, and how it becomes a barrier for them in second language learning process. Nowadays learning English as foreign and second language…
Profiling Language Learners in Hybrid Learning Contexts: Learners' Perceptions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lintunen, Pekka; Mutta, Maarit; Pelttari, Sanna
2017-01-01
This article discusses formal and informal foreign language learning before university level. The focus is on beginning university students' perceptions of their earlier learning experiences, especially in digital contexts. Language learners' digital competence is a part of their everyday lives, but its relationship to learning in and outside…
The Role of "Is" in the Acquisition of Finiteness by Adult Turkish Learners of Dutch
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
van de Craats, Ineke
2009-01-01
This article deals with the interlanguage of adult second language (L2) learners acquiring finiteness. Due to the inaccessibility of bound inflectional morphology, learners use free morphology to mark a syntactic relationship as well as person and number features separately from the thematic verb, expressed by a pattern like "the man is go".…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pascual y Cabo, Diego; Prada, Josh; Lowther Pereira, Kelly
2017-01-01
This study examined the effects of participation in a community service-learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service-learning activities as part of the Spanish…
Use and Impact of English-Language Learner Assessment in Arizona
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lawton, Stephen B.
2009-01-01
The Arizona English-Language Learner Assessment (AZELLA) is the backbone of Arizona's new English-language learner (ELL) policy in that it is used to assess students' English-language proficiency in order to place them into groups for English-language instruction and to determine when they have become proficient in English. This paper evaluates a…
Naming abilities in low-proficiency second language learners.
Borodkin, Katy; Faust, Miriam
2014-01-01
Difficulties in second language (L2) learning are often associated with recognizable learning difficulties in native language (L1), such as in dyslexia. However, some individuals have low L2 proficiency but intact L1 reading skills. These L2 learners experience frequent tip-of-the-tongue states while naming in L1, which indicates that they have a weakness in retrieval of phonological codes of words. The authors hypothesized that if naming ability is shared across languages, this difficulty would reemerge in L2 naming, which was tested using the tip-of-the-tongue experimental paradigm. Consistent with this hypothesis, low-proficiency L2 learners (n = 15) reported more tip-of-the-tongue states, more frequently mispronounced correctly retrieved words, and benefited less from phonological cuing compared to high-proficiency L2 learners (n = 23). It is notable that low-proficiency L2 learners performed worse than individuals with dyslexia (n = 16) on some of these measures, despite the same level of L2 proficiency. These results indicate that L2 naming difficulties of low-proficiency L2 learners are a manifestation not merely of their low L2 proficiency but rather of a general weakness in phonological word form retrieval, which is shared across languages. More broadly, the study provides further evidence for the existence of a distinct profile of cognitive weaknesses characteristic of the behavioral phenotype of low-proficiency L2 learners.
Advising Adult Learners. NACADA Task Force Report.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Polson, Cheryl; And Others
A study examined the scope of existing services for adult learners attending universities and colleges. Survey instruments designed to gather data on institutional support for adult learner services, special target groups identified by individual institutions, and institutional barriers confronted by adult learners on campus were mailed to a…
Language Anxiety among Gifted Learners in Malaysia
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kamarulzaman, Mohd Hasrul; Ibrahim, Noraniza; Yunus, Melor Md; Ishak, Noriah Mohd
2013-01-01
Language anxiety has significantly sparked great concern in the second and foreign language learning world. Researches have found negative correlation between language anxiety and academic achievement of English language learners; and, most of the studies focus on average school students and tertiary level students. This paper, however, explores…
The Effects of Language on English Language Learners' Music Preferences
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gosselin, Pei-Ying Lin
2017-01-01
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of songs in different languages on English language learners' (ELLs) music preferences. The participants (N = 62) were Chinese graduate students from a state university in the Midwestern United States. The survey contained nine excerpts from popular songs in three languages: Chinese (the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sonnenschein, Susan; Metzger, Shari R.; Dowling, Rebecca; Baker, Linda
2017-01-01
The association between monolingual children's early language abilities and their later reading performance is well established. However, for English language learners, the pattern of associations between early language skills and later literacy is much less well understood for English language learners. This study examined language predictors of…
Invented Rule with English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boyer, Valerie E.; Martin, Kathryn Y.
2012-01-01
The purpose of this study was to utilize an invented rule with English language learners (ELLs) in a clinical setting to determine differences based on language and age of the children. The performance was correlated with teacher reports of strong and weak language learning. Using a within-participants design, ELLs of age three to five were taught…
English as a Second Language for Adults: A Curriculum Guide.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Selman, Mary; And Others
To help improve English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for adult learners, this curriculum guide provides informative materials for the teacher and 30 sections of lessons suitable for adaptation by the teacher. Teacher information includes materials on language teaching and learning, use of the guide, needs assessment, adapting lesson plans,…
English Language Learning Strategies Reported by Advanced Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Juyeon; Heinz, Michael
2016-01-01
The purpose of the present study is to investigate effective English language learning strategies (LLSs) employed by successful language learners. The participants in this study were 20 student interpreters enrolled in the graduate school of interpretation and translation in Korea. Data on LLSs were collected through unstructured essay writing, a…
Ordin, Mikhail; Polyanskaya, Leona
2015-08-01
The development of speech rhythm in second language (L2) acquisition was investigated. Speech rhythm was defined as durational variability that can be captured by the interval-based rhythm metrics. These metrics were used to examine the differences in durational variability between proficiency levels in L2 English spoken by French and German learners. The results reveal that durational variability increased as L2 acquisition progressed in both groups of learners. This indicates that speech rhythm in L2 English develops from more syllable-timed toward more stress-timed patterns irrespective of whether the native language of the learner is rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Although both groups showed similar development of speech rhythm in L2 acquisition, there were also differences: German learners achieved a degree of durational variability typical of the target language, while French learners exhibited lower variability than native British speakers, even at an advanced proficiency level.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zarei, Abbas Ali; Rahmani, Hanieh
2015-01-01
The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' beliefs about language learning and language learning strategy use. A sample of 104 B.A and M.A Iranian EFL learners majoring in English participated in this study. Three instruments, the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), Beliefs about Language…
English Language Learners and English-Only Learners' Response to Direct Vocabulary Instruction
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Crevecoeur, Yvel C.; Coyne, Michael D.; McCoach, D. Betsy
2014-01-01
We examined data from an 18-week kindergarten vocabulary intervention study to determine whether treatment outcomes had differential effects that favored English language learners (ELLs) or English-only learners (EOLs) and whether the relationship between initial English general receptive vocabulary knowledge and response to vocabulary…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yang, Jinsuk; Rehner, Katherine
2015-01-01
This article explores the beliefs about second language (L2) sociolinguistic competence of four university-level advanced L2 learners. It places particular emphasis on 1) how these university learners conceptualized L2 sociolinguistic competence; 2) how they thought about two different language learning contexts (viz., the L2 classroom versus…
Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners Participant's Workbook
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hill, Jane D.; Bjork, Cynthia Linnea
2008-01-01
Everyone who participates in your workshop on "Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners" needs this participant's workbook to gain expertise in strategies that are effective with ELL (English Language Learners) students.
Technology Uses in Creating Second Language Learning Environments: When Learners Are Creators
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhang, Gaoming
2010-01-01
From a learner-as-creator perspective, this study investigates how second language learners use technology, especially computers and the Internet, to construct their language learning environments. This study also attempts to identify factors that affected the frequency of technology by second language learners. Participants were 102 Chinese…
Form-focused Communicative Practice via CMC: What Language Learners Say
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meskill, Carla; Anthony, Natasha
2007-01-01
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is being used widely to support and extend foreign language instruction. Language learners are practicing the target language by communicating with their instructors, peers, and native speakers at a distance. This study examines high-beginning and low-intermediate learners of Russian and their uses of, and…
Cultivating Bilingual Learners' Language Arts Knowledge: A Framework for Successful Teaching
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Almaguer, Isela; Esquierdo, J. Joy
2013-01-01
It is essential to support bilingual learners' language and academic development; however, teaching second language learners English has taken precedence over teaching content area knowledge and vocabulary, specifically for language arts. The focus has shifted from content area instruction to primarily second language instruction due to an…
Working with English Language Learners: Preservice Teachers and Photovoice
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Graziano, Kevin J.
2011-01-01
This study utilizes documentary photography and storytelling, photovoice, to identify the educational realities of 16 Hispanic English Language Learners from an urban elementary school in the Southwest. Reflections from preservice teachers who utilized photovoice to gather data from the English Language Learners of this study are also discussed.…
Online English Language Learners' Perceptions of Portfolio Assessment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baturay, Meltem Huri
2015-01-01
Portfolio assessment has been implemented in many core disciplines for quality assurance and consistent assessment of learner outcomes. For English language learning, for which varying proficiency levels of learners exist, portfolios are suggested to assess individual learners' progress. The current study was carried out in an online English…
Shimada, K; Hirotani, M; Yokokawa, H; Yoshida, H; Makita, K; Yamazaki-Murase, M; Tanabe, H C; Sadato, N
2015-08-06
This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the brain regions underlying language task performance in adult second language (L2) learners. Specifically, we identified brain regions where the level of activation was associated with L2 fluency levels. Thirty Japanese-speaking adults participated in the study. All participants were L2 learners of English and had achieved varying levels of fluency, as determined by a standardized L2 English proficiency test, the Versant English Test (Pearson Education Inc., 2011). When participants performed the oral sentence building task from the production tasks administered, the dorsal part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) showed activation patterns that differed depending on the L2 fluency levels: The more fluent the participants were, the more dIFG activation decreased. This decreased activation of the dIFG might reflect the increased automaticity of a syntactic building process. In contrast, when participants performed an oral story comprehension task, the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) showed increased activation with higher fluency levels. This suggests that the learners with higher L2 fluency were actively engaged in post-syntactic integration processing supported by the left pSTG. These data imply that L2 fluency predicts neural resource allocation during language comprehension tasks as well as in production tasks. This study sheds light on the neural underpinnings of L2 learning by identifying the brain regions recruited during different language tasks across different modalities (production vs. comprehension). Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
The Adult Learner: Some Things We Know
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fogarty, Robin J.; Pete, Brian M.
2007-01-01
This book addresses the "warrior" who rises to the challenge of teaching the adult learner. The discussion is designed as a catalyst for dialogue about the adult learner and to uncover the complexities of teaching this rare and riveting species. This book is organized around three interlocking themes: some things we know about the adult learner;…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Leacox, Lindsey; Jackson, Carla Wood
2014-01-01
This study examined preschool and kindergarten English language learners (ELLs) attending a migrant summer programme and their vocabulary word learning during both adult-read and technology-enhanced repeated readings. In a within-subject design, 24 ELLs (four to six years old) engaged in repeated readings in a control and a treatment condition. In…
L2 Skills and the Use of Compensation Strategies: The Case of Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lopez Medina, Beatriz
2010-01-01
The following article is based on the analysis of the compensation strategies used by two groups of intermediate students of English language at the Official School of Languages of Moratalaz (Madrid) in the academic year 2009/2010. Our analysis tries to describe to what extent adult learners make use of suitable learning strategies in the four…
Learning Words for Life: Promoting Vocabulary in Dual Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gillanders, Cristina; Castro, Dina C.; Franco, Ximena
2014-01-01
Vocabulary development plays a critical role in young dual language learners' success in school. As teachers become aware of how they use language in the classroom, systematically teach specific words in a variety of ways, and learn about dual language learners' level of English acquisition and sociocultural experiences, they can help…
Exploring the Role of Identity in Maori Heritage Language Learner Motivations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Te Huia, Awanui
2017-01-01
Substantially less is known about the motivations of indigenous heritage language learners than the motivations of learners of colonial languages. This study explores the motivations of Maori indigenous New Zealanders and the identity-related motivations they have for learning their heritage language. Interviews with 19 Maori language learners…
State Funding Mechanisms for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Millard, Maria
2015-01-01
Research is clear that English language learners (ELLs) perform better academically and achieve greater language proficiency when they have high-quality English language instruction.1 Like all supplemental services, these necessary supports require additional funding above the average per-student amount. The federal government provides grant…
School Finance and English Language Learners: A Legislative Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jimenez-Castellanos, Oscar
2010-01-01
The state of California educates over six million or twelve percent of the nation's student population. Approximately three million are Latino and 1.5 million are classified as English Language Learners (ELLs). English Language Learners are significantly underperforming in math and reading compared to White students in all grade levels. The…
White, Erin Jacquelyn; Genesee, Fred; Steinhauer, Karsten
2012-01-01
This longitudinal study tracked the neuro-cognitive changes associated with second language (L2) grammar learning in adults in order to investigate how L2 processing is shaped by a learner’s first language (L1) background and L2 proficiency. Previous studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have argued that late L2 learners cannot elicit a P600 in response to L2 grammatical structures that do not exist in the L1 or that are different in the L1 and L2. We tested whether the neuro-cognitive processes underlying this component become available after intensive L2 instruction. Korean- and Chinese late-L2-learners of English were tested at the beginning and end of a 9-week intensive English-L2 course. ERPs were recorded while participants read English sentences containing violations of regular past tense (a grammatical structure that operates differently in Korean and does not exist in Chinese). Whereas no P600 effects were present at the start of instruction, by the end of instruction, significant P600s were observed for both L1 groups. Latency differences in the P600 exhibited by Chinese and Korean speakers may be attributed to differences in L1–L2 reading strategies. Across all participants, larger P600 effects at session 2 were associated with: 1) higher levels of behavioural performance on an online grammaticality judgment task; and 2) with correct, rather than incorrect, behavioural responses. These findings suggest that the neuro-cognitive processes underlying the P600 (e.g., “grammaticalization”) are modulated by individual levels of L2 behavioural performance and learning. PMID:23300641
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ashtiani, Farshid Tayari; Zafarghandi, Amir Mahdavi
2015-01-01
The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of English verbal songs on connected speech aspects of adult English learners' speech production. 40 participants were selected based on the results of their performance in a piloted and validated version of NELSON test given to 60 intermediate English learners in a language institute in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, So-Young
2013-01-01
This study examined the linguistic competence in Korean of Korean heritage language learners (HLLs), compared to English-speaking non-heritage language learners (NHLLs) of Korean. It is unclear and controversial as to whether heritage languages learners are exposed to early but are interrupted manifest as L1 competence or share more…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Algee, Lisa M.
2012-01-01
English Language Learners (ELL) are often at a distinct disadvantage from receiving authentic science learning opportunites. This study explored English Language Learners (ELL) learning experiences with scientific language and inquiry within a real life context. This research was theoretically informed by sociocultural theory and literature on…
Learner Agency and the Use of Affordances in Language-Exchange Interactions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ahn, Tae youn
2016-01-01
Language exchange refers to a learning partnership between two learners with different native languages who collaborate to help each other improve their proficiency in the other's language. The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which language-exchange participants activate learner agency to construct opportunities for learning in…
Internet Anxiety among Foreign Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Aydin, Selami
2011-01-01
Little attention has been paid to the demotivating potential of new technologies in foreign language research. Thus, this study aims to investigate Internet anxiety among foreign language learners and to determine the relationships between Internet anxiety and certain variables. A background questionnaire, an Internet information test, and an…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pierson, Susan Jacques
2014-01-01
One way to ensure a high quality, personalized literacy program for English language learners is to use the learners' own lives and experiences as curriculum. Creating spaces for students to compose and share stories results in a strong sense of community facilitates the development of authentic literacy skills and increases student motivation and…
Mimicking Infants' Early Language Experience Does Not Improve Adult Learning Outcomes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hudson Kam, Carla L.
2018-01-01
Adult learners know that language is for communicating and that there are patterns in the language that need to be learned. This affects the way they engage with language input; they search for form-meaning linkages, and this effortful engagement could interfere with their learning, especially for things like grammatical gender that often have at…
Online Games for Young Learners' Foreign Language Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Butler, Yuko Goto; Someya, Yuumi; Fukuhara, Eiji
2014-01-01
Young learners' use of instructional games in foreign language learning is not yet well understood. Using games that were part of the learning tools for an online assessment, Jido-Eiken, a standardized English proficiency test for young learners in Japan, we examined young learners' game-playing behaviours and the relationship of these behaviours…
Video Self-Modeling for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boisvert, Précille; Rao, Kavita
2015-01-01
Teachers of English language learners (ELLs), expected to address grade-level standards and prepare ELLs for standardized assessments, have the difficult task of designing instruction that meets the range of needs in their classrooms. When these learners have experienced limited or interrupted education, the challenges intensify. Whereas…
An Event Related Field Study of Rapid Grammatical Plasticity in Adult Second-Language Learners
Bastarrika, Ainhoa; Davidson, Douglas J.
2017-01-01
The present study used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate how Spanish adult learners of Basque respond to morphosyntactic violations after a short period of training on a small fragment of Basque grammar. Participants (n = 17) were exposed to violation and control phrases in three phases (pretest, training, generalization-test). In each phase participants listened to short Basque phrases and they judged whether they were correct or incorrect. During the pre-test and generalization-test, participants did not receive any feedback. During the training blocks feedback was provided after each response. We also ran two Spanish control blocks before and after training. We analyzed the event-related magnetic- field (ERF) recorded in response to a critical word during all three phases. In the pretest, classification was below chance and we found no electrophysiological differences between violation and control stimuli. Then participants were explicitly taught a Basque grammar rule. From the first training block participants were able to correctly classify control and violation stimuli and an evoked violation response was present. Although the timing of the electrophysiological responses matched participants' L1 effect, the effect size was smaller for L2 and the topographical distribution differed from the L1. While the L1 effect was bilaterally distributed on the auditory sensors, the L2 effect was present at right frontal sensors. During training blocks two and three, the violation-control effect size increased and the topography evolved to a more L1-like pattern. Moreover, this pattern was maintained in the generalization test. We conclude that rapid changes in neuronal responses can be observed in adult learners of a simple morphosyntactic rule, and that native-like responses can be achieved at least in small fragments of second language. PMID:28174530
Generating Language Activities in Real-Time for English Learners Using Language Muse
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Burstein, Jill; Madnani, Nitin; Sabatini, John; McCaffrey, Dan; Biggers, Kietha; Dreier, Kelsey
2017-01-01
K-12 education standards in the U.S. require all students to read complex texts across many subject areas. The "Language Muse™ Activity Palette" is a web-based language-instruction application that uses NLP algorithms and lexical resources to automatically generate language activities and support English language learners' content…
Language Awareness and Comprehension through Puns among ESL Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lucas, Teresa
2005-01-01
The focus in studies of language awareness in L2 learning generally has been on the efficacy of teacher-generated attention to discrete elements of the forms of language through the manipulation of texts or corrective feedback. The study reported in this paper engaged learners in a collaborative task that involved learner-generated attention to…
English Language Learners' Epistemic Beliefs about Vocabulary Knowledge
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ziegler, Nathan E.
2014-01-01
There is a growing body of work that examines the epistemic beliefs of learners and the role those beliefs play in the development of their critical thinking and other cognitive processes (Hofer, 2001). This study examines the epistemic beliefs of English language learners, a population of learners that is relatively understudied on the topic of…
Supporting English Language Learners in Social Studies: Language-Focused Strategies
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhang, Ying
2017-01-01
With the significant enrollment increase of English Language Learners (ELLs) nationwide, social studies teachers face challenges to educate these students. As a response to the literature of preparing all content teachers to work with ELLs, this article introduces three teacher-friendly language-focused strategies. These strategies help social…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hector-Mason, Anestine; Narlock, Jason; Muhisani, Helen; Bhatt, Monica P.
2017-01-01
Prior research has classified strategies to facilitate adult learners' transitions to postsecondary opportunities into five broad categories: advising, General Educational Development-plus (GED-plus), English as a second language, career pathways, and college preparatory (Zafft, Kallenbach, & Spohn, 2006). This two-part study relied on…
English Language Learners and Their Academic Progress: 2010-2011
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shneyderman, Aleksandr
2012-01-01
This is the 2010-11 annual report on the academic progress of English language learners in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The purpose of the report is to: (1) Describe the demographic characteristics of students classified as English Language Learners (ELL) in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS); (2) Provide data regarding ELL…
"Harry Potter" and the English Language Learner.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coatney, Kathy
2001-01-01
Describes one teacher's success with using "Harry Potter" in a program to teach elementary school English language learners. Provides comprehension strategies incorporated to help learners understand the story. Highlights the importance of creating a classroom environment with a low level of anxiety, the implications of the program, and the value…
Tracking the Progress of English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Murphy, Audrey F.
2009-01-01
Educators need to document progress for English language learners, and the best structures to put into place in order to record their growth. Beginning with the stages of language proficiency, student progress can be tracked through the use of a baseline in all four language strands and the creation of rubrics to monitor performance. Language…
English Language Learners in a Digital Classroom
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Prince, Johanna
2017-01-01
English language learners (ELLs) experience linguistic, cultural, and cognitive shifts that can be challenging and at times lead to isolation for ELLs. While education technology may be an instructional resource and engage learners, devices alone do not shift instructional practices or lead to student gains. This case study was performed at an…
Life Skills Curriculum for Senior Adult Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Leon County Schools, Tallahassee, FL.
This life skills curriculum helps adult basic educators meet the needs of senior adult learners. An introduction contains the following sections: purpose statement; description of the senior adult learner; tips to remember on teaching senior adults; physiology of aging; teaching the hearing impaired; and teaching the visually impaired. The life…
Dealing with Disruptive Behavior of Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dobmeier, Robert; Moran, Joseph
2008-01-01
The adult education literature on disruptive behavior of adult learners was reviewed and a survey on disruptive behavior of adult learners was conducted with adult educators. The findings are synthesized in a conceptual framework for understanding the types and causes of disruptive behavior, which fall into the categories of inattention,…
The Adult Learner in the Online Writing Course
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hoy, Cheryl A.
2010-01-01
Because a gap in scholarly literature exists concerning the adult learner in the online writing course, I researched the effects of the online learning environment on adult learners in an online intermediate writing course offered through the Adult Learner Services Program at Bowling Green State University. This dissertation argues that online…
Preschool Teachers' Language and Literacy Practices with Dual Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sawyer, Brook E.; Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Cycyk, Lauren M.; López, Lisa; Blair, Clancy; Sandilos, Lia; Komaroff, Eugene
2016-01-01
The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the degree to which teachers used linguistically responsive practices to support the language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLL) and (b) to investigate the associations between these practices and select teacher-level factors. The sample consisted of 72 preschool…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lin, Li-Ching
2013-01-01
This dissertation focuses on interpreting the impacts of foreign language anxiety and individual characteristics on the achievement expectations of Chinese second-language learners and English second-language students at the university level. Four research questions are examined through quantitative design. In relation to methodology, this study…
Addressing the Assessment Dilemma of Additional Language Learners through Dynamic Assessment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Omidire, M. F.; Bouwer, A. C.; Jordaan, J. C.
2011-01-01
Many learners with an additional language (AL) as their language of learning and teaching (LoLT) have not acquired the level of proficiency required for them to demonstrate their knowledge and achieve the desired outcome on assessment tasks given in that language. Using instruments designed for fully fluent learners and covertly including…
Exploring the Use of Multidimensional Analysis of Learner Language to Promote Register Awareness
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Aguado-Jimenez, Pilar; Perez-Paredes, Pascual; Sanchez, Purificacion
2012-01-01
This paper discusses the use of multidimensional analysis (MA) of learner language to promote the awareness of linguistic concepts such as register and variation. Our research explores the introduction of learner register awareness by using MA of learner language in the field of university Foreign Language Teaching (FLT). In this context, a group…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
August, Diane; Branum-Martin, Lee; Cardenas-Hagan, Elsa; Francis, David
2010-01-01
The goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention--Quality English and Science Teaching (QuEST)--designed to develop the science knowledge and academic language of middle grades English language learners studying science in their second language and their English-proficient classmates. Both English language learners and…
Cultivating Effective Corpus Use by Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kennedy, Claire; Miceli, Tiziana
2017-01-01
While there is widespread agreement on the expected benefits of hands-on access to corpora for language learners, reports abound of the difficulties involved in realising those benefits in practice. A particular focus of discussion is the challenge of transferring the skills of the corpus linguist to learners, so that they can explore this type of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Williams, Conor P.
2015-01-01
On December 11, 2014, "New America" convened a group of leading experts on dual language learners (DLLs) to launch its new Dual Language Learners National Work Group. The group aimed to address three questions: (1) What are the key best practices for dual language learner instruction, policy, and research?; (2) What are the areas of…
Speech-Language Pathologists' Comfort Levels in English Language Learner Service Delivery
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kimble, Carlotta
2013-01-01
This study examined speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) comfort levels in providing service delivery to English language learners (ELLs) and limited English proficient (LEP) students. Participants included 192 SLPs from the United States and Guam. Participants completed a brief, six-item questionnaire that investigated their perceptions regarding…
The language growth of spanish-speaking English language learners.
Rojas, Raúl; Iglesias, Aquiles
2013-01-01
Although the research literature regarding language growth trajectories is burgeoning, the shape and direction of English Language Learners' (ELLs) language growth trajectories are largely not known. This study used growth curve modeling to determine the shape of ELLs' language growth trajectories across 12,248 oral narrative language samples (6,516 Spanish; 5,732 English) produced by 1,723 ELLs during the first 3 years of formal schooling (M age at first observation = 5 years 7 months). Results indicated distinct trajectories of language growth over time for each language differentially impacted by summer vacation and gender, significant intra- and interindividual differences in initial status and growth rates across both languages, and language-specific relations between language growth and initial status. Implications of ELLs' language growth are discussed. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yang, Jean Sook Ryu
2003-01-01
College Students enrolled in East Asian language classes were surveyed about their language learning motivational orientations (MOs). MOs were classified and measured on seven subscales; integrative, instrumental, heritage-related, travel, interest, school-related, and language use. Learners were highly influenced by interest, language use, and…
Asian/Pacific Islander Languages Spoken by English Learners (ELs). Fast Facts
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Office of English Language Acquisition, US Department of Education, 2015
2015-01-01
The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on Asian/Pacific Islander languages spoken by English Learners (ELs) include: (1) Top 10 Most Common Asian/Pacific Islander Languages Spoken Among ELs:…
Help! They Don't Speak English: Partnering Preservice Teachers with Adult English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hooks, Laura M.
2008-01-01
It is well documented that parent and family involvement in children's education correlates with success in school. The increasing number of English Language Learners in public schools has created a need for teacher educators to prepare preservice teachers to be able to work with families who have limited English. This study examined the outcomes…
Meaning and Function of Dummy Auxiliaries in Adult Acquisition of Dutch as an Additional Language
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Julien, Manuela; van Hout, Roeland; van de Craats, Ineke
2016-01-01
This article presents the results of experimental data on language production and comprehension. These show that adult learners of Dutch as an additional language, with different language backgrounds, and a L2 proficiency below level A2 (Waystage) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001), use…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schimke, Sarah; Dimroth, Christine
2018-01-01
In this study, verb placement with respect to negation is investigated in elicited production and elicited sentence imitation data collected with child second language (L2) learners of German. These data are compared to published data from adult L2 learners, which were collected with the same elicitation materials and were re-analysed for the…
Learner Agency in Language Learning: The Story of a Distance Learner of EFL in China
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Xiao, Junhong
2014-01-01
Learner agency plays a key role in self-regulated learning. Yet, there is a paucity of research into its role in the distance learning context. Using reflective narratives written by a distance learner of English in China, this longitudinal case study aims to investigate the ways in which learner agency mediates the language learning in the…
Language Learner Perspectives on the Functionality and Use of Electronic Language Dictionaries
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Levy, Mike; Steel, Caroline
2015-01-01
This paper investigates the extent of electronic dictionary use by language learners in an Australian university. All students in the study are formally enrolled in language courses across ten languages at first, second or third year level. The study places a particular emphasis on gauging student perceptions of the beneficial aspects of…
Serving Young Dual Language Learners in Illinois
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meléndez, Luisiana; Chamberlain, Patricia
2018-01-01
Between 2000 and 2010, the foreign born population in Illinois increased by over 200,000, and the number of young dual language learners (DLLs) also grew. By 2015, DLLs were thought to account for more than a quarter of the state's three- and four-year-olds. In addition, more K-12 children in Illinois were being designated as English learners and…
Self-Esteem among Adult Literacy Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lipnevich, Anastasiya; Beder, Hal
2007-01-01
The purpose of this study was to investigate adult literacy education learners' self-esteem and to examine the relationship between self-esteem and measures of achievement in reading and math. The rationale for the present study stemmed from the lack of research into adult literacy students' self-esteem levels. More than 200 learners enrolled in…
Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class, Grades K-2
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bresser, Rusty; Melanese, Kathy; Sphar, Christine
2009-01-01
More than 10 percent of the students in our nation's public schools are English language learners, and this number grows each year. Many of these students are falling behind in math. "Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class, Grades K-2" outlines the challenges ELL students face when learning math and provides a wealth of specific…
Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class, Grades 3-5
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bresser, Rusty; Melanese, Kathy; Sphar, Christine
2009-01-01
More than 10 percent of the students in our nation's public schools are English language learners, and this number grows each year. Many of these students are falling behind in math. "Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class, Grades 3-5" outlines the challenges ELL students face when learning math and provides a wealth of specific…
Assessment of Language Learners' Strategies: Do They Prefer Learning or Acquisition Strategies?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Altmisdort, Gonca
2016-01-01
The aim of this study is to evaluate learning and acquisition strategies used by second/foreign language learners. This study is a comparative investigation of learning and acquisition strategies of successful and less successful language learners. The main question of the study is to investigate if there is a relationship between the learners'…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dakin, Jee Wha
2010-01-01
In the context of adult learners with low English proficiency enrolled in an organization offering instruction in both language and civics content, the purpose of the study was to determine. (1) the nature of grammatical knowledge in the context in the learners' second language (L2) and the nature of civics content knowledge in the learners' first…
Use of Language Learning Strategies by Spanish Adults for Mastering Business English
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Judge, Jeffrey Wallace
2010-01-01
Research of language learning strategy (LLS) has provided insight for language learners from many international cultures since this branch of research began in the 1970s. Despite the urgent need for competence in the use of business English in Western Europe, LLS studies have not been conducted on Spanish adults who use English for business. The…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chval, Kathryn B.; Pinnow, Rachel J.; Thomas, Amanda
2015-01-01
Research in mathematics education increasingly recognizes the role of language in the education of English language learners. However, research examining the professional growth of mathematics teachers as they learn to teach English language learners is sparse. This case study addresses this issue by examining one third grade teacher as she…
Preschool Teachers' Language and Literacy Practices with Dual Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sawyer, Brook E.; Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Cycyk, Lauren M.; Lopez, Lisa; Blair, Clancy; Sandilos, Lia; Komaroff, Eugene
2016-01-01
The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the degree to which teachers used linguistically responsive practices to support the language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLL) and (b) to investigate the associations between these practices and select teacher-level factors. The sample consisted of 72 preschool…
Language Ability of Young English Language Learners: Definition, Configuration, and Implications
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gu, Lin
2015-01-01
In this study I examined the dimensionality of the latent ability underlying language use that is needed to fulfill the demands young learners face in English-medium instructional environments, where English is used as the means of instruction for teaching subject matters. Previous research on English language use by school-age children provided…
Interaction of African American Learners Online: An Adult Education Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kang, Haijun; Yang, Yang
2016-01-01
This study examines how various life factors and personal attributes affect African American adult learners' use of the three types of learning interaction-learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner. Multivariate multiple regression analyses were used. The aggregate effect of life factors on African American adult learners' use of…
Barriers to Education for the Marginalized Adult Learner
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Flynn, Sarah; Brown, Jason; Johnson, Andrew; Rodger, Susan
2011-01-01
This qualitative study examines barriers to adult education by the marginalized adult learner. We adopted an inclusive approach by interviewing potential adult learners who had not participated in adult education programs due to illiteracy. Five overlapping themes related to barriers emerged and were categorized as: family values and…
Sensitizing Young English Language Learners Towards Environmental Care
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Castillo, Rigoberto; Rojas, María del Pilar
2014-01-01
This paper reports an action research study aimed at understanding how to sensitize young English language learners towards caring for the environment. The pedagogical intervention in a 5th grade class consisted in the use of creative writing strategies to express learners' ideas. Three stages were followed: "recognizing facts,"…
English Language Learners: Annotated Bibliography
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hector-Mason, Anestine; Bardack, Sarah
2010-01-01
This annotated bibliography represents a first step toward compiling a comprehensive overview of current research on issues related to English language learners (ELLs). It is intended to be a resource for researchers, policymakers, administrators, and educators who are engaged in efforts to bridge the divide between research, policy, and practice…
Orthographic Consistency and Individual Learner Differences in Second Language Literacy Acquisition
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Sun-A; Packard, Jerome; Christianson, Kiel; Anderson, Richard C.; Shin, Jeong-Ah
2016-01-01
This study investigated whether orthographic consistency and individual learner differences including working memory (WM), first language (L1) background, and second language (L2) proficiency affect Chinese L2 learners' literacy acquisition. Seventy American college students in beginning or intermediate Chinese classes participated in a character…
Into the Field: Learning about English Language Learners in Newcomer Programs
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Silva, Cecila; Kucer, Stephen
2016-01-01
This research examines the impact of field experiences with English language learners on the conceptual and emotional development of preservice disciplinary students. For one semester, preservice university students worked with English language learners enrolled in middle and high school Newcomer Programs. During this time the university students…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Tuntiga; Rajprasit, Krich
2015-01-01
Theoretically, beliefs about English language learning have a psychological factor, such as predicting the rate of success or failure among learners in the classroom context. However, learners with different levels of language proficiency may perceive such beliefs in a different way, which may lead to the development of special needs, in terms of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Padron, Yolanda N.; Waxman, Hersh C.
2016-01-01
This study examined principals' knowledge and perceptions of second language programs for English language learners (ELLs) operating in their schools. An open-ended survey and in-depth interviews were used to examine elementary school principals' knowledge of the second language programs implemented at their schools. The survey asked principals…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sa'd, Seyyed Hatam Tamimi; Qadermazi, Zohre
2014-01-01
This study is an attempt to examine the possible effect that exposure to English has had on the use of refusal strategies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners compared with those of non-English learners when refusing in their native language, Persian. The sample included 12 EFL learners and 12 learners of other academic majors including…
The Social Construction of Age: Adult Foreign Language Learners. Second Language Acquisition
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Andrew, Patricia
2012-01-01
This book explores the social construction of age in the context of EFL in Mexico. It is the first book to address the age factor in SLA from a social perspective. Based on research carried out at a public university in Mexico, it investigates how adults of different ages experience learning a new language and how they enact their age identities…
Understanding Changes in Chinese Immigrant Language Learners' Beliefs in New Zealand
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhong, Qunyan Maggie
2014-01-01
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in language learners' beliefs in second language acquisition (SLA). Nonetheless, few studies to date have investigated the extent to which learners' beliefs develop, and the factors that contribute to this development have not been examined seriously. Employing a naturalistic inquiry, this…
Heritage Language Literacy Maintenance: A Study of Korean-American Heritage Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Catherine E.; Pyun, Danielle O.
2014-01-01
How heritage learners successfully maintain their heritage language (HL) and literacy is a significant topic of discussion in the field of bilingual education. This study examines what factors are most closely associated with literacy competence by inspecting Korean heritage learners' language and literacy practice patterns and their literacy…
An Investigation of School Counselor Self-Efficacy with English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Leonissa V.; Ziomek-Daigle, Jolie; Haskins, Natoya Hill; Paisley, Pamela O.
2017-01-01
This exploratory quantitative study described school counselors' self-efficacy with English language learners. Findings suggest that school counselors with exposure to and experiences with English language learners have higher levels of self-efficacy. Statistically significant and practical differences in self-efficacy were apparent by race, U.S.…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Castro, Ruben
2010-01-01
This study evaluated the effectiveness of Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS[TM]) compared to the Grammar-Translation approach for acquiring and retaining new vocabulary in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. The subjects were adult Hispanic learners with limited literacy. An experimental design approach was used to gather…
The Influence of Teacher Power on English Language Learners' Self-Perceptions of Learner Empowerment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Diaz, Abel; Cochran, Kathryn; Karlin, Nancy
2016-01-01
English language learners (ELL) are students with a primary language spoken other than English enrolled in U.S. educational settings. As ELL students take on the challenges of learning English and U.S. culture, they must also learn academic content. The expectation to succeed academically in a foreign culture and language, while learning to speak…
The Role of Language in Adult Education and Poverty Reduction in Botswana
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bagwasi, Mompoloki
2006-05-01
This study examines the role of language in reducing poverty in Botswana through adult-education programs. Because language is the medium through which human beings communicate and grow intellectually and socially, it should form the basis of any discussion involving the relation between development and education. In order best to respond to societal changes and bridge the gap between the less privileged and the more privileged, adult-education programs should be guided by language policies that are sensitive to this pivotal role that language plays. Language is important in any discussion of poverty reduction because it determines who has access to educational, political and economic resources. The author recommends that adult-education programs in Botswana take account of the multilingual nature of society and so allow learners to participate freely, make use of their indigenous knowledge, and enhance their self-esteem and identity.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Llamas-Flores, Silvia
2013-01-01
In 2007, Arizona voters passed House Bill (HB) 2064, a law that fundamentally restructured the Structured English Immersion (SEI) program, putting into place a 4-hour English language development (ELD) block for educating English language learners (ELLs). Under this new language policy, ELL students are segregated from their English-speaking peers…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dewey, Dan P.; Bown, Jennifer; Eggett, Dennis
2012-01-01
This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels…
Learning English as Thai Adult Learners: An Insight into Experience in Using Learning Strategies
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Suwanarak, Kasma
2015-01-01
This research aims to understand language learning strategies of Thai adult learners and factors affecting their strategy use. The participants are forty officers of General Service Division of the Council of State of Thailand, attending an English training course for developing their work potential. The data were collected through the…
ECS and National Experts Examine: State-Level English Language Learner Policies
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wixom, Micah Ann
2015-01-01
Most state policy and education leaders are keenly aware that the number of English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in the United States' public schools has increased significantly over the past several years and will likely continue to increase. States with historically large populations of English language learners--like California and New…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kleemans, Tijs; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo
2014-01-01
The present study investigated the role of both cognitive and linguistic predictors in basic arithmetic skills (i.e., addition and subtraction) in 69 first-language (L1) learners and 60 second-language (L2) learners from the second grade of primary schools in the Netherlands. All children were tested on non-verbal intelligence, working memory,…
Benefits and Challenges in Using Computers and the Internet with Adult English Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Terrill, Lynda
Although resources and training vary from program to program, adult English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) teachers and English learners across the country are integrating computers and Internet use with ESOL instruction. This can be seen in the growing number of ESOL resources available on the World Wide Web. There are very good reasons for…
National Adult Learners Satisfaction-Priorities Report. Research Report, 2011
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Noel-Levitz, Inc, 2011
2011-01-01
The 2011 National Adult Learners Satisfaction-Priorities Report presents the responses to the Adult Learner Inventory[TM] (ALI) of 29,679 students from 61 four-year private and public as well as 4,749 students from 18 two-year community and technical colleges. The results include adult learner responses over a three-year time period, from fall of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Elizabeth R.
2009-01-01
This article investigates the construction and maintenance of ideologies regarding the legitimacy of English as the dominant language in the United States in interactions involving adult immigrant learners of English. As both the researcher and these students' English as second language (ESL) instructor, I am a participant in the ESL classroom and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shenoy, Sunaina
2014-01-01
English language learners (ELLs) who are in the process of acquiring English as a second language for academic purposes, are often misidentified as having Language Learning Disabilities (LLDs). Policies regarding the assessment of ELLs have undergone many changes through the years, such as the introduction of a Response to Intervention (RTI)…
What Do Learners Make of Teachers' Gestures in the Language Classroom?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sime, Daniela
2006-01-01
This study explores the meanings that learners of English as a foreign language give to teachers' gestures. It is a qualitative, descriptive study of the perceived functions that gestures perform in the EFL classroom, viewed mainly from the language learners' perspective. The data for the study was collected through interviews with twenty-two…
Pedagogical Differences during a Science and Language Intervention for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Garza, Tiberio; Huerta, Margarita; Lara-Alecio, Rafael; Irby, Beverly J.; Tong, Fuhui
2018-01-01
The purpose of this study was to compare and describe 8 fifth-grade classrooms by their teachers pedagogy during a quasiexperimental, longitudinal, and field-based project focused on increasing English language learners' (ELLs') achievement in science and language. The larger study found statistically significant and positive intervention effects…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Josey, E. J., Ed.
1982-01-01
Of the 13 essays presented in this special issue on libraries and adult education, 8 focus on programs and services from the public library for adult learners. These essays provide information on: (1) an Education Information Centers Program (EIC) designed to complement employment skills training provided under the Comprehensive Employment and…
Shopping [for] Power: How Adult Literacy Learners Negotiate the Marketplace
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ozanne, Julie L.; Adkins, Natalie Ross; Sandlin, Jennifer A.
2005-01-01
Little empirical evidence exists on how adult literacy learners act as consumers. Yet, adult literacy programs often employ a "functional" approach to consumer education and assume that adult learners are deficient in consumer skills. Data from a qualitative study of the consumer behaviors of adult literacy learners are used to explore how adult…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Huang, Li-Shih
2010-01-01
This paper reports on a small-scale study that was the first to explore raising second-language (L2) learners' awareness of speaking strategies as mediated by three modalities of task-specific reflection--individual written reflection, individual spoken reflection, and group spoken reflection. Though research in such areas as L2 writing, teacher's…
Vocabulary Learning: A Comparison of Learners of English as a Second and Third Language
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dibaj, Farzad
2011-01-01
The purpose of this study is to compare the vocabulary learning of monolingual learners of English as a second language with bilingual learners of English as a third language. The study is based on data from 52 monolingual Persian-speaking learners of English and 45 bilingual Azeri-Persian-speaking learners of English. All the participants were…
Implementing vocabulary strategies to help English language learners in science
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ton, Nancy
This action research project was designed to incorporate two vocabulary strategies in the 'classroom to increase student learning for English language learners in science. Introduction of key words prior to starting a new chapter and incorporating pictures into glossaries are the two strategies used during the project. Teacher generated chapter pre-assessments, post-assessments, and summative assessments results were used to determine the impact of the strategies on English language learners.
Rich Environments for Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bentham, Renee
2008-01-01
Unaware of the messages a bare adult learning environment sends and its effect on adult learners, a trainer attends an intensive Reggio Emilia course and learns that the physical environment is the "third teacher"--for adults as well as for children. Using principles of Reggio, she offers suggestions for enhancing adult learning spaces and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Azar, Fereshteh Khaffafi; Saeidi, Mahnaz
2013-01-01
The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' learning strategies use and their language learning beliefs. A sample of 200 Iranian EFL learners who were all English language learners at different language institutes participated in this study. Two instruments, Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and…
Integrating Culture into Language Teaching and Learning: Learner Outcomes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nguyen, Trang Thi Thuy
2017-01-01
This paper discusses the issue of learner outcomes in learning culture as part of their language learning. First, some brief discussion on the role of culture in language teaching and learning, as well as on culture contents in language lessons is presented. Based on a detailed review of previous literature related to culture in language teaching…
Pairing the Adult Learner and Boutique Wineries
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Holyoke, Laura; Heath-Simpson, Delta
2013-01-01
This study explored connections between adult learners and their experiences in the context of small boutique wineries operating in the start-up phase of the organizational life cycle. The research objective was to gain insight regarding the pairing of adult learners with the entering of a specialty industry. Fourteen individuals from four…
Adult Learning and Learners. PREL Briefing Paper.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Timarong, Alvina; Temaungil, Marianne; Sukrad, Wilma
A survey of literature on adult learning and learners conducted for Palau Community College (PCC), Koror, Palau, found a lack of literature specific to the United States-affiliated Pacific region. Background information was compiled on development of formal education in Palau. A survey was administered in fall 2001 to adult learners working toward…
The Influence of Content on Adult L2 Learners' Task Motivation: An Interest Theory Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Poupore, Glen
2014-01-01
This study investigates the influence of content-related conditions on adult second language learners' task motivation during interactive tasks. It also aims to identify what is referred to as interestingness conditions within task content, that is, elements that are intrinsically interesting to most individuals. The investigation was conducted…
Developing Oral Language Skills in Middle School English Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fisher, Douglas; Frey, Nancy
2018-01-01
Oral language development can help English learners develop academic proficiency with the English language. In this investigation, at one middle school, teachers focused on improving oral language skills. Using a formative experiment process, the teachers developed an intervention to accomplish their pedagogical goal and then tracked data to see…
Swahili Learners' Reference Grammar. African Language Learners' Reference Grammar Series.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thompson, Katrina Daly; Schleicher, Antonia Folarin
This reference grammar is written for speakers of English who are learning Swahili. Because many language learners are not familiar with the grammatical terminology, this book explains the basic terminology and concepts of English grammar that are necessary for understanding the grammar of Swahili. It assumes no formal knowledge of English grammar…
Learners' Use of First Language (Arabic) in Pair Work in an EFL Class
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Storch, Neomy; Aldosari, Ali
2010-01-01
One of the concerns foreign language teachers may have about using small group (and pair) work is that students will use their shared first language (L1) instead of the target language. This study investigated the effect of learner proficiency pairing and task type on the amount of L1 used by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in pair…
Bilingual and Home Language Interventions With Young Dual Language Learners: A Research Synthesis.
Durán, Lillian K; Hartzheim, Daphne; Lund, Emily M; Simonsmeier, Vicki; Kohlmeier, Theresa L
2016-10-01
The purpose of this systematic review was to determine what bilingual or home language interventions have been found to be effective for 2- to 6-year-old dual language learners who have language impairment (LI) or are at risk for LI. We conducted ancestral searches and searches of electronic databases, hand-searched article bibliographies, and searched 19 journals for experimental, quasiexperimental, or single-subject studies. The review yielded 26 studies that were coded for quality, frequency and duration of the intervention, number of participants, location of intervention, interventionist, language(s) of intervention, and reported or calculated effect sizes. Studies were grouped by those that focused specifically on at-risk populations and those that focused on children with LI. Emerging trends provide support for bilingual and/or home language interventions for both children with LI and those at risk for LI. There were relatively few studies that met inclusion criteria, and the average quality rating for a study was 6.8 out of 9.0 possible points. More high-quality research is needed, particularly with populations that speak languages other than Spanish. Clinicians need more evidence-based recommendations to improve the language and literacy outcomes of the diverse range of dual language learners served in the United States and abroad.
The Spiritual Journey: Black Female Adult Learners in Higher Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones Tinner, LaShanta Y.
2013-01-01
This study explored the experience of Black female adult learners and how spirituality influenced their academic journeys. Research concerning Black female adult learners in higher education is ostensibly partial. These data offered an extended understanding of Black female adult learners' academic experiences, while also investigating common…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nemati, Majid; Alavi, Sayyed Mohammad; Mohebbi, Hassan; Masjedlou, Ali Panahi
2017-01-01
To date, L2 researchers have studied the effect of feedback on improving L2 learners' writing from different perspectives. However, there are a lot of aspects which are not comprehensively researched yet, such as L2 learners' and teachers' perceptions and practices about feedback. To close the gap, this study investigates language learners'…
Te Rita Papesch: Case Study of an Exemplary Learner of Maori as an Additional Language
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ratima, Matiu Tai; Papesch, Te Rita
2014-01-01
This paper presents a case study of the life experiences of one exemplar adult second language Maori learner--Te Rita Papesch. Te Rita was one of 17 participants who were interviewed as a part of the first author's PhD study which sought to answer the question: what factors lead to the development of proficiency in te reo Maori amongst adult…
Foreign Language Learners' Beliefs about CALL: The Case of a U.S. Midwestern University
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sydorenko, Tetyana; Hsieh, Ching-Ni; Ahn, Seongmee; Arnold, Nike
2017-01-01
A significant body of research has examined language learners' attitudes toward particular technologies used in foreign language classrooms. However, literature is scarce on foreign language learners' beliefs toward computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in general. To narrow this gap, we investigated the constructs that compose a system of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thakkar, Darshan
2013-01-01
It is generally theorized that English Language Learner (ELL) students do not succeed on state standardized tests because ELL students lack the cognitive academic language skills necessary to function on the large scale content assessments. The purpose of this dissertation was to test that theory. Through the use of quantitative methodology, ELL…
Adult Part-Time Learners in the Eighties.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eliason, N. Carol
Numerous issues and questions related to the adult, part-time student are addressed in this research review, especially as they pertain to the community college. The paper begins by comparing the demographic characteristics of adult learners and non-learners and then points to several sub-populations which might be better served by the community…
Delivering Instruction to Adult Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cantor, Jeffrey A.
This guide to working with adult learners approaches the job of the instructor from a threefold perspective that focuses on the role of the instructor as a professional, the needs of the learner, and the instructional process and related technology. Chapter 1 examines the role of an effective instructor as a behavior model and change agent.…
Issues and Concerns of Assessment for English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pichardo, Blanca
2014-01-01
Limited research has been accomplished within the past few years regarding issues and concerns of assessment for English Language Learners (ELL) with Learning Disabilities (LD). The increasing number of this unique population throughout schools has raised many concerns for professionals in education. English Language Learners with Learning…
A Guide to Involving English Language Learners in School to Career Initiatives.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Allen, Lili; DiBona, Natanya; Reilly, Michael Chavez
This guidebook provides suggestions and directions for increasing and improving English language learners' involvement in school-to-career initiatives across the country. It describes model career initiatives that either target or include significant numbers of English language learners, and it analyzes some school restructuring issues raised by…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pieretti, Robert A.; Roseberry-McKibbin, Celeste
2016-01-01
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are experiencing the exciting challenge of serving increasing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools. When ELLs struggle in school, they may be overreferred for speech-language services. SLPs are routinely expected to differentiate a language difference based on cultural, linguistic, and…
Learners' Attitudes toward "English-Only" Institutional Policies: Language Use outside the Classroom
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shvidko, Elena
2017-01-01
It is commonly believed that intensive English programs (IEP) are designed to immerse learners in an English-speaking environment to help them effectively develop their language skills. Therefore, despite countless studies on the importance of a learner's first language (L1) in second language learning, some IEPs enforce English-only policies that…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Butler, Yuko Goto; Zeng, Wei
2015-01-01
In response to the growing interest in evaluating young learners' foreign language (FL) performance, this study aims to deepen our understanding of young learners' developmental differences in interaction during task-based paired-language assessments. To examine age effects separately from the effect of general language proficiency, we analysed…
Facilitating Creativity in Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tsai, Kuan Chen
2013-01-01
Creativity in education research has received increasing attention, although the major focus of this research has been on children. Despite pleas by several adult educators for promoting creativity, very few studies have focused on adult learners, leaving to it to be explored what approaches are useful for adult educators to facilitate creativity…
LingoBee: Engaging Mobile Language Learners through Crowd-Sourcing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Petersen, Sobah Abbas; Procter-Legg, Emma; Cacchione, Annamaria
2014-01-01
This paper describes three case studies, where language learners were invited to use "LingoBee" as a means of supporting their language learning. LingoBee is a mobile app that provides user-generated language content in a cloud-based shared repository. Assuming that today's students are mobile savvy and "Digital Natives" able…
Language Learning Strategy Use among Iranian Engineering EFL Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nahavandi, Naemeh; Mukundan, Jayakaran
2014-01-01
The present study aimed at understanding the language learning strategy use of Iranian EFL learners' about learning a foreign language. The main purpose of the study was to understand if there was any relationship between proficiency level, gender and extra education in language institutes and strategy use. To achieve this end, 369 engineering…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Poarch, Gregory J.; van Hell, Janet G.
2012-01-01
In five experiments, we examined cross-language activation during speech production in various groups of bilinguals and trilinguals who differed in nonnative language proficiency, language learning background, and age. In Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 5, German 5- to 8-year-old second language learners of English, German-English bilinguals,…
Running Records and First Grade English Learners: An Analysis of Language Related Errors
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Briceño, Allison; Klein, Adria F.
2018-01-01
The purpose of this study was to determine if first-grade English Learners made patterns of language related errors when reading, and if so, to identify those patterns and how teachers coded language related errors when analyzing English Learners' running records. Using research from the fields of both literacy and Second Language Acquisition, we…
Exploring Learner Autonomy: Language Learning Locus of Control in Multilinguals
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Peek, Ron
2016-01-01
By using data from an online language learning beliefs survey (n?=?841), defining language learning experience in terms of participants' multilingualism, and using a domain-specific language learning locus of control (LLLOC) instrument, this article examines whether more experienced language learners can also be seen as more autonomous language…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alt, Mary; Arizmendi, Genesis D.; Beal, Carole R.
2014-01-01
Purpose: The present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs). Method: School-age children (N = 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native…
Test Accommodations for English Language Learners Using the Student Language Assessment Plan
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brantley, Sherri G.
2014-01-01
Public schools are attempting to work with a growing number of immigrant English language learners (ELLs) in the U.S. education system at a time when the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has mandated that ELLs achieve proficiency on assessments even if they have not acquired sufficient language proficiency. The purpose of this qualitative case…
Instructional Materials for English Language Learners in Urban Public Schools, 2012-2013
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Council of the Great City Schools, 2013
2013-01-01
The purpose of this report, "Instructional Materials for English Language Learners in Urban Public Schools," is to examine how district- and school-level staff members acquire and use instructional materials for English Language Learners (ELLs). The report also answers questions regarding the preparedness of district and school staff members to…
E-Learning Turkish Language and Grammar: Analyzing Learners' Behavior
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Georgalas, Panagiotis
2012-01-01
This study analyses the behavior and the preferences of the Greek learners of Turkish language, who use a particular e-learning website in parallel with their studies, namely: http://turkish.pgeorgalas.gr. The website offers free online material in Greek and English language for learning the Turkish language and grammar. The traffic of several…
Whose English Counts? Native Speakers as English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grill, Jennifer
2010-01-01
The author, a teacher educator, explains that because of a lack of training in language studies, many teachers do not view language as linguists do. She identifies three misconceptions (and the implications they have for English language learners) that still persist in education: Standard English is the best and most correct form of English,…
Reasons behind Young Learners' Learning of Foreign Languages
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Akçay, Aslihan; Ferzan Bütüner, Tuba; Arikan, Arda
2015-01-01
English has become a compulsory lesson starting at the second grade in Turkey while younger learners are growingly introduced to it at earlier ages through various pre-schools, day-care programs and private courses. This descriptive study focuses on young learners' self-reported reasons for learning English and other foreign languages. Twenty…
The Effect of Reading on Second-Language Learners' Production in Tasks
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Collentine, Karina
2016-01-01
Tasks provide engaging ways to involve learners in meaningful, real-world activities with the foreign language (FL). Yet selecting classroom tasks suitable to learners' linguistic readiness is challenging, and task-based research is exploring the relationship between learners' overall abilities (e.g., reading, grammatical) and the complexity and…
De Facto Language Policy in Legislation Defining Adult Basic Education in the United States
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vanek, Jenifer
2016-01-01
This paper investigates the impact of differing interpretation of federal education policy in three different states. The policy, the Workforce Investment Act Title II, has defined the services provided for adult English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in Adult Basic Education programs in the United States since it was passed in 1998. At the…
The Efficacy of a Vocabulary Intervention for Dual-Language Learners with Language Impairment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Restrepo, Maria Adelaida; Morgan, Gareth P.; Thompson, Marilyn S.
2013-01-01
Purpose: In this study, the authors evaluated the efficacy of a Spanish-English versus English-only vocabulary intervention for dual-language learners (DLLs) with language impairment compared to mathematics intervention groups and typically developing controls with no intervention. Further, in this study the authors also examined whether the…
Thai Learners' Linguistic Needs and Language Skills: Implications for Curriculum Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ulla, Mark B.; Winitkun, Duangkamon
2017-01-01
Learners' success in language learning always has implications for curriculum and instruction. Thus, it is important to take into account the kinds of learning experiences that these learners will find helpful in learning English as a foreign language; and, highlight them when planning a curriculum and adapting classroom activities. This study,…
Application of Learner Corpora to Second Language Learning and Teaching: An Overview
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Xu, Qi
2016-01-01
The paper gives an overview of learner corpora and their application to second language learning and teaching. It is proposed that there are four core components in learner corpus research, namely, corpus linguistics expertise, a good background in linguistic theory, knowledge of SLA theory, and a good understanding of foreign language teaching…
Why and How Do Distance Learners Use Mobile Devices for Language Learning?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Demouy, Valérie; Jones, Ann; Kan, Qian; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Eardley, Annie
2016-01-01
Most of the literature on mobile language learning is located in classroom contexts, and often concerns the use of resources developed by teachers or researchers. However, we also need to understand learner initiated practices, in informal as well as formal settings, where mobile language learners are increasingly using digital resources. In this…
English Language Learner Education Finance Scholarship: An Introduction to the Special Issue
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jiménez-Castellanos, Oscar
2017-01-01
In this article, I introduce the special issue on education finance and English Language Learners, with the purpose to disseminate timely and relevant education finance scholarship with a particular focus on English Language Learners (ELLs). Here, I provide an analytical argument for why this topic is of great importance for our educational system…
Anxiety in English Language Learning: A Case Study of English Language Learners in Saudi Arabia
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sadiq, Jamilah Mohammed
2017-01-01
Language anxiety as a specific aspect of language acquisition has occupied a great body of research for the past few decades. In this study, the level of foreign language anxiety among English language learners was investigated. This study was carried out with a quantitative research design using a survey methodology to collect data about the…
The Educational Trajectories of English Language Learners in Texas
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Flores, Stella M.; Batalova, Jeanne; Fix, Michael
2012-01-01
About 5.3 million English Language Learners (ELLs)--students whose primary language is not English and whose English language skills are not sufficient to keep up with classes conducted only in English--are enrolled in PK-12 public schools across the United States. The number of these students increased dramatically in ten years, from 3.5 million…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fukuda, Makiko
2014-01-01
The present study revealed the dynamic process of speech development in a domestic immersion program by seven adult beginning learners of Japanese. The speech data were analyzed with fluency, accuracy, and complexity measurements at group, interindividual, and intraindividual levels. The results revealed the complex nature of language development…
Assessment of Language Learning Strategies Used by Palestinian EFL Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Khalil, Aziz
2005-01-01
This article assesses the language learning strategies (LLSs) used by 194 high school and 184 university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in Palestine, using Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). It also explores the effect of language proficiency and gender on frequency of strategy use. The findings show…
Equipping Learners with Listening Strategies in English Language Classes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Seferoglu, Golge; Uzakgoren, Sedef
2004-01-01
This study aimed at investigating beginner level English language learners' perspectives on the listening skill with regard to several dimensions, and to find out the extent to which the learners who have been trained in listening strategies actually use them while listening. The study took place at the English Preparatory School of an English…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bernal Castañeda, Sergio
2017-01-01
This article aims to show and explain the growing motivational, personal or affective difficulties that unemployed adult learners are currently facing in the English subject when they decide to retake their education in age-diverse Vocational Training Programs in the Spanish educational system. The results presented in this article are based on a…
The Relationship between Demotivation and EFL Learners' English Language Proficiency
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hu, Rou-Jui Sophia
2011-01-01
To what extent does demotivation affect EFL learners' English language proficiency attainment? The present study addresses this question by investigating the relationship between technological institute EFL students' past demotivating factors and their English language proficiency. Although the role of demotivation in foreign language achievement…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Williams, Joshua T.; Newman, Sharlene D.
2017-01-01
A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel…
El-Dakhs, Dina Abdel Salam
2017-08-01
The present study investigates the patterns of word associations among Arab EFL learners and compares these patterns with those of native speakers of English. The study also examines the influence of increased language exposure and word characteristics on the learners' association patterns. To this end, 45 native speakers of English and 421 Arab learners of English at a Saudi university with two distinct levels of English language exposure completed a multiple-response word association test and their responses were analyzed, examined and compared. The results revealed strong influence for language exposure and word characteristics on the learners' associations and support a developmental approach to the second language lexicon where an increase in language exposure and word knowledge enhances mental word connectivity and increases its native-like similarity.
Becoming a Japanese Language Learner, User, and Teacher: Revelations From Life History Research
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Armour, William S.
2004-01-01
This article discusses how Sarah Lamond, a Japanese language teacher in Sydney, Australia has juggled three of her identities: second language (L2) learner, L2 user, and L2 teacher. Data come from four interviews used to create an edited life history. These data are used to draw attention to the relationship between L2 learner and language user.…
Language-Related Computer Use: Focus on Young L2 English Learners in Sweden
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sundqvist, Pia; Sylvén, Liss Kerstin
2014-01-01
This paper presents findings from a study investigating young English language learners (YELLs) in Sweden in 4th grade (N = 76, aged 10-11). Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and a one-week language diary. The main purpose was to examine the learners' L2 English language-related activities outside of school in general, and their…
The Impact of First and Second Languages on Azerbaijani EFL Learners' Writing Ability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shabani, Mansour; Tahriri, Abdorreza; Ardebili, Samaneh Farzaneh
2016-01-01
There has always been a debate whether or not the learners' first language (L1) can facilitate the process of learning foreign language. Since foreign language writing (FL) is a complicated process, it seems that the role of the learners' L1 and its effect on FL writing is of great importance in this regard. The present study aimed at…
The Influence of Teachers' Anxiety-Reducing Strategies on Learners' Foreign Language Anxiety
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alrabai, Fakieh
2015-01-01
This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects on learner anxiety of anxiety-reducing strategies utilized by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, sources of foreign language (FL) anxiety for Saudi learners of English (N = 596) were identified using The…
Preschool Teachers’ Language and Literacy Practices with Dual Language Learners
Sawyer, Brook E.; Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Cycyk, Lauren M.; López, Lisa; Blair, Clancy; Sandilos, Lia; Komaroff, Eugene
2016-01-01
The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the degree to which teachers used linguistically responsive practices to support the language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLL) and (b) to investigate the associations between these practices and select teacher-level factors. The sample consisted of 72 preschool teachers. Observational data were collected on practices. Teachers self-reported on language and culture beliefs, Spanish speaking ability, and classroom composition. Results indicated that teachers, including those who spoke Spanish, used few linguistically responsive practices to support preschool DLLs. Only Spanish-speaking ability was related to practices. Implications for targeted professional development are discussed. PMID:27667968
Preschool Teachers' Language and Literacy Practices with Dual Language Learners.
Sawyer, Brook E; Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Cycyk, Lauren M; López, Lisa; Blair, Clancy; Sandilos, Lia; Komaroff, Eugene
The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the degree to which teachers used linguistically responsive practices to support the language and literacy development of Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLL) and (b) to investigate the associations between these practices and select teacher-level factors. The sample consisted of 72 preschool teachers. Observational data were collected on practices. Teachers self-reported on language and culture beliefs, Spanish speaking ability, and classroom composition. Results indicated that teachers, including those who spoke Spanish, used few linguistically responsive practices to support preschool DLLs. Only Spanish-speaking ability was related to practices. Implications for targeted professional development are discussed.
Supporting Academic Persistence in Low-Skilled Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
O'Neill, Susan; Thomson, Margareta Maria
2013-01-01
The current literature review explores the factors that contribute to academic persistence for adult learners. The aim of the study is to identify current research-based strategies aimed at supporting learner persistence, particularly for low-skilled adults. Elements of three theoretical frameworks, namely, expectancy-value theory (EVT), goal…
Office of English Language Learners: 2013 Demographic Report
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
New York City Department of Education, 2013
2013-01-01
The aim of this report is to provide context about the NYC Department of Education's (DOE) English Language Learners (ELLs) students. The data provided is based on the Bilingual Education Student Information Survey (BESIS). Just over 41% of the students enrolled in New York City public schools speak a language other than English at home. That…
Naming Abilities in Low-Proficiency Second Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Borodkin, Katy; Faust, Miriam
2014-01-01
Difficulties in second language (L2) learning are often associated with recognizable learning difficulties in native language (L1), such as in dyslexia. However, some individuals have low L2 proficiency but intact L1 reading skills. These L2 learners experience frequent tip-of-the-tongue states while naming in L1, which indicates that they have a…
Engaging K-12 Language Learners in Media Literacy
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Egbert, Joy; Neville, Chon
2015-01-01
Calls to integrate media literacy into K-12 language classrooms appear to have gone largely unheeded. However, media literacy skills are seen as crucial for 21st-century learners. This article answers the calls for a focus on media literacy in the language classroom by addressing both why and how systematic attention might be brought to this issue…
Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Daniels, Sharilyn Fox
2009-01-01
This study determined if the vocabulary gap for English Language Learners (ELLs) and their peers could be bridged through providing home interventions with multiple exposures to words, definitions, model sentences and context. Ninety-one first grade students from a public school in Southern California with a 95% ELL population were researched. ELL…
Scaffolding English Language Learners' Reading Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McKenzie, Lolita D.
2011-01-01
English language learners (ELLs) spend a majority of their instructional time in mainstream classrooms with mainstream teachers. Reading is an area with which many ELLs are challenged when placed within mainstream classrooms. Scaffolding has been identified as one of the best teaching practices for helping students read. ELL students in a local…
They're Not Just Big Kids: Motivating Adult Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thoms, Karen Jarrett
This paper discusses motivation of adult learners. The first section discusses the adult learner, including the concepts of andragogy and pedagogy, as well as student-centered learning. The second section summarizes changing student demographics and predictions. The third section presents principles of adult learning. The fourth section covers…
Spanish Instruction in Head Start and Dual Language Learners' Achievement
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miler, Elizabeth B.
2016-01-01
Prior research suggests that Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLLs)--young children who must master two languages simultaneously, their home language and English (Espinosa, 2013)--differentially benefit from quality Early Childhood Education (ECE), and in particular from Head Start, compared with children of other subgroups and…
Teaching Life Sciences to English Second Language Learners: What Do Teachers Do?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ferreira, Johanna G.
2011-01-01
South Africa has eleven official languages and legally learners receive tuition in their mother tongue until the end of Grade 3. From then on teachers are required to teach through the medium of English or Afrikaans. The implication is that the majority of learners in the senior secondary school phase study Life Sciences in their second language,…
E-Story and Writing Skill among Second Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Abd Rahim, Normaliza; Abdul Halim, Hazlina; Mansor, Nor Shahila
2017-01-01
The study focused on the use of e-story and writing skill among the second language Korean learners. The objectives of the study were to identify and discuss the students' writing in the second language by using e-story. The samples of the study involved all 21 participants from two classes of Malay language at one of the universities in South…
Language, the Learner and the School. Penguin Papers in Education.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Barnes, Douglas
This book is concerned with language as it is used by the teacher, as it affects the learner, and as it can function to integrate the curriculum. Douglas Barnes, in "Language in the Secondary Classroom," discusses the student-teacher language interaction in 12 sample lessons, and analyzes the importance upon student learning of the languages used…
Building Schema for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Navarro, Ann M.
2008-01-01
Background: Many classrooms today have ESL students who do not speak English and are completely lost. How can teachers help these students comprehend what they are learning in English? Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify effective reading strategies to build schema for English language learners (ELLs) to help them comprehend.…
Integrating Science and English Proficiency for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Okhee; Buxton, Cory A.
2013-01-01
Despite the expectation that all students should achieve high academic standards, content area instruction and English for speakers of other languages instruction for English language learners (ELLs) have traditionally been conceptualized as separate domains, resulting in educational inequities for ELLs. This is because effective instruction to…
From Needs to Wants: Motivation and the Language Learner.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ladousse, Gillian Porter
1982-01-01
Discusses theories of motivation in foreign language learning especially as an interactional, dynamic process focusing on how diffuse needs become channeled into wants through behavior itself. Sociological issues involved include the personality model of the learner and the institutional setting where language is being taught. (Author/BK)
The Education of English Language Learners: Research to Practice
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shatz, Marilyn, Ed.; Wilkinson, Louise C., Ed.
2010-01-01
This comprehensive volume describes evidence-based strategies for supporting English language learners (ELLs) by promoting meaningful communication and language use across the curriculum. Leading experts explain how and why learning is different for ELLs and pinpoint specific best practices for the classroom, illustrated with vivid examples.…
Dilemmas of Blended Language Learning: Learner and Teacher Experiences
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gleason, Jesse
2013-01-01
Rapidly advancing technology continues to change the landscape of blended foreign language education. Pinpointing the differences between blended language (BL) learning environments and understanding how stakeholders experience such spaces is complex. However, learner experiences can provide a roadmap for the design and development of BL courses.…
We're All Adults Here: Clarifying and Maintaining Boundaries with Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Booth, Melanie; Schwartz, Harriet L.
2012-01-01
Working with adult learners presents a unique set of interpersonal boundary questions. In this chapter, the authors discuss the characteristics of working with adult learners that have led them to explore questions about boundaries between them and their students. They then identify how they might define, set, maintain, adjust, and work close to…
A Framework for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction with English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nisbet, Deanna L.; Tindall, Evie R.
2015-01-01
Academic vocabulary development is critical to the success of all learners--particularly English language learners (ELLs). This article presents a framework for integrating explicit academic vocabulary instruction for ELLs into middle school classrooms. The framework embodies five research-based principles and serves as a vehicle for structuring…
Improving Science and Vocabulary Learning of English Language Learners. CREATE Brief
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
August, Diane; Artzi, Lauren; Mazrum, Julie
2010-01-01
This brief reviews previous research related to the development of science knowledge and academic language in English language learners as well as the role of English language proficiency, learning in a second language, and first language knowledge in science learning. It also describes two successful CREATE interventions that build academic and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ortega, Gerardo; Morgan, Gary
2015-01-01
The present study implemented a sign-repetition task at two points in time to hearing adult learners of British Sign Language and explored how each phonological parameter, sign complexity, and iconicity affected sign production over an 11-week (22-hour) instructional period. The results show that training improves articulation accuracy and that…
Achievement goals in adult learners: evidence from distance education.
Remedios, Richard; Richardson, John T E
2013-12-01
There is evidence that learners may adopt different kinds of achievement goals: mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach, and performance avoidance. In higher education, this evidence has mainly come from young people who have recently gone straight from secondary education to higher education. However, higher education is increasingly populated by older students, and it has been theorised that the relationship between goals and achievement might be very different for adult learners. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the relationships between achievement, drop-out rate, and goal orientation observed for non-adult populations are mirrored in adult learners. The Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) was administered to adult learners taking courses by distance learning. Respondents were 195 men and 586 women between the ages of 19 and 87. The results confirmed the reliability of the 2 × 2 version of the AGQ for this distinctive population. As in previous studies of younger students, mastery-approach goals were unrelated to attainment, performance-approach goals tended to facilitate attainment, and performance-avoidance goals tended to impair attainment. In addition, mastery-avoidance goals tended to impair students' attainment and also increased the likelihood that they would drop out of their course altogether. The achievement-goal framework is as appropriate for understanding influences on attainment in adult learners as it is in younger students. Adult learners may be more sensitive to the deleterious effects of adopting mastery-avoidance achievement goals. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.
Input Processing at First Exposure to a Sign Language
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ortega, Gerardo; Morgan, Gary
2015-01-01
There is growing interest in learners' cognitive capacities to process a second language (L2) at first exposure to the target language. Evidence suggests that L2 learners are capable of processing novel words by exploiting phonological information from their first language (L1). Hearing adult learners of a sign language, however, cannot fall back…
Building Vocabulary for Language Learning: Approach for ESL Learners to Study New Vocabulary
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alharbi, Adel M.
2015-01-01
This project investigated Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) English Language Learners used; and strategies they thought were effective to them in terms of language proficiency. Using an online survey, 121 participants responded to statements regarding their usage of VLSs. Participants have been divided into two groups: (1) learners with low…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
O'Loughlin, Tricia Ann
2017-01-01
Beginning learners of English progress through the same stages to acquire language. However, the length of time each student spends at a particular stage may vary greatly. Under the current educational policies, ELL students are expected to participate in the general education curriculum while developing their proficiency in the English language.…
Neural Language Processing in Adolescent First-Language Learners
Ferjan Ramirez, Naja; Leonard, Matthew K.; Torres, Christina; Hatrak, Marla; Halgren, Eric; Mayberry, Rachel I.
2014-01-01
The relation between the timing of language input and development of neural organization for language processing in adulthood has been difficult to tease apart because language is ubiquitous in the environment of nearly all infants. However, within the congenitally deaf population are individuals who do not experience language until after early childhood. Here, we investigated the neural underpinnings of American Sign Language (ASL) in 2 adolescents who had no sustained language input until they were approximately 14 years old. Using anatomically constrained magnetoencephalography, we found that recently learned signed words mainly activated right superior parietal, anterior occipital, and dorsolateral prefrontal areas in these 2 individuals. This spatiotemporal activity pattern was significantly different from the left fronto-temporal pattern observed in young deaf adults who acquired ASL from birth, and from that of hearing young adults learning ASL as a second language for a similar length of time as the cases. These results provide direct evidence that the timing of language experience over human development affects the organization of neural language processing. PMID:23696277
Child first language and adult second language are both tied to general-purpose learning systems.
Hamrick, Phillip; Lum, Jarrad A G; Ullman, Michael T
2018-02-13
Do the mechanisms underlying language in fact serve general-purpose functions that preexist this uniquely human capacity? To address this contentious and empirically challenging issue, we systematically tested the predictions of a well-studied neurocognitive theory of language motivated by evolutionary principles. Multiple metaanalyses were performed to examine predicted links between language and two general-purpose learning systems, declarative and procedural memory. The results tied lexical abilities to learning only in declarative memory, while grammar was linked to learning in both systems in both child first language and adult second language, in specific ways. In second language learners, grammar was associated with only declarative memory at lower language experience, but with only procedural memory at higher experience. The findings yielded large effect sizes and held consistently across languages, language families, linguistic structures, and tasks, underscoring their reliability and validity. The results, which met the predicted pattern, provide comprehensive evidence that language is tied to general-purpose systems both in children acquiring their native language and adults learning an additional language. Crucially, if language learning relies on these systems, then our extensive knowledge of the systems from animal and human studies may also apply to this domain, leading to predictions that might be unwarranted in the more circumscribed study of language. Thus, by demonstrating a role for these systems in language, the findings simultaneously lay a foundation for potentially important advances in the study of this critical domain.
Adult Learners' Week in Russia.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Litvinova, Nina
2002-01-01
In Russia International Adult Learners Week highlights the democratization process the country is undergoing. Government attention to rural development and training and agrarian policy is needed. (SK)
Second Language Text Comprehension: Processing within a Multilayered System
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Donin, Janet; Graves, Barbara; Goyette, Els
2004-01-01
The results of a within-subject cross-language study of text comprehension in adult second language (L2) learners are presented. Text comprehension and sentence reading time measures were obtained for matched narrative and procedural texts in English and French from adult learners of French as a second language (FSL) at two levels of French…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Matsumoto, Kazumi
2013-01-01
This study investigated whether learners of Japanese with different first language (L1) writing systems use different recognition strategies and whether second language (L2) exposure affects L2 kanji recognition. The study used a computerized lexical judgment task with 3 types of kanji characters to investigate these questions: (a)…
Determining Classroom Placement for First Year English Language Learner Students
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Peña, Rodrigo H.; Maxwell, Gerri M.
2015-01-01
This study explores classroom placement for first year English Language Learner (ELL) students from the perspective of a dual language director and two bilingual education strategists. The study strives to interrogate classroom placement for first year ELL students whose language proficiency level is at beginning level. Through a process of coding…
Exploring Flipped Classroom Effects on Second Language Learners' Cognitive Processing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Jeong-eun; Park, Hyunjin; Jang, Mijung; Nam, Hosung
2017-01-01
This study investigated the cognitive effects of the flipped classroom approach in a content-based instructional context by comparing second language learners' discourse in flipped vs. traditional classrooms in terms of (1) participation rate, (2) content of comments, (3) reasoning skills, and (4) interactional patterns. Learners in two intact…
Teaching Reading to English Language Learners: Insights from Linguistics
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lems, Kristin; Miller, Leah D.; Soro, Tenena M.
2009-01-01
Written specifically for K-12 educators, this accessible book explains the processes involved in second-language acquisition and provides a wealth of practical strategies for helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed at reading. The authors integrate knowledge from two fields that often remain disconnected--linguistics and literacy--with a…
Contextualizing Instruction for English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Rhonda D.
2016-01-01
English language learners (ELLs) with learning disabilities (LD) can find navigating the content areas quite difficult due to challenges involving limitations in English language proficiency, gaps in English academic vocabulary, difficulties with working memory and long-term memory, and limited background knowledge on content area topics. However,…
Cognitive Correlates of Vocabulary Growth in English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Farnia, Fataneh; Geva, Esther
2011-01-01
This study modeled vocabulary trajectories in 91 English language learners (ELLs) with Punjabi, Tamil, or Portuguese home languages, and 50 English monolinguals (EL1) from Grades 1 to 6. The concurrent and longitudinal relationships between phonological awareness and phonological short-term memory and vocabulary were examined. ELLs underperformed…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sa'd, Seyyed Hatam Tamimi; Rajabi, Fereshte
2018-01-01
Vocabulary constitutes an essential part of every language-learning endeavour and deserves scholarly attention. The objective of the present study was three-fold: 1) exploring Iranian English language learners' Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs), 2) examining language learners' perceptions of vocabulary learning, and 3) exploring Iranian…
Speaking the Same Language: A CILT Guide to Partnership in Adult Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Harnisch, Henriette; Swanton, Pauline
2007-01-01
The conflicting pressures of supply and demand often raise significant challenges for providers of languages for adults. Numbers of learners are inconveniently patchy, trends in take-up often short lived and provision vulnerable due to funding pressures. This makes institution-based curriculum planning very precarious. The answer, it seems more…
Balancing Generalization and Lexical Conservatism: An Artificial Language Study with Child Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wonnacott, Elizabeth
2011-01-01
Successful language acquisition involves generalization, but learners must balance this against the acquisition of lexical constraints. Such learning has been considered problematic for theories of acquisition: if learners generalize abstract patterns to new words, how do they learn lexically-based exceptions? One approach claims that learners use…
E-Pal Exchanges: A Way to Connect Preservice Teachers and English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Patton, Anne; Hirano, Eliana; Garrett, Anna Rose
2017-01-01
Pen pal exchanges have been used for years to promote cross-cultural communication. In educational settings, pen pal projects have served additional purposes. One is providing English language learners (ELLs) with a safe but realistic context in which language skills can be practiced and learner motivation increased. This study investigates the…
Concept-Based Teaching and Spanish Modality in Heritage Language Learners: A Vygotskyan Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Garcia Frazier, Elena
2013-01-01
This study analyzed how six Heritage language learners at the university level gained conscious awareness and control of the concept of modality as revealed in student verbalizations (Vygotsky, 1998) throughout five different written communicative events. This work took place in the only course designed for Heritage language learners at a large…
Identity and the Young English Language Learner. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Day, Elaine Mellen
This ethnographic case study examines the language socialization experiences of Hari, a Punjabi-speaking English language learner integrated into a mainstream kindergarten classroom in an urban area of British Columbia, Canada. The book begins by discussing theory and literature (e.g., mainstream second language acquisition research, language as…
An Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning System for Arabic Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shaalan, Khaled F.
2005-01-01
This paper describes the development of an intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) system for learning Arabic. This system could be used for learning Arabic by students at primary schools or by learners of Arabic as a second or foreign language. It explores the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques for learning…
Full-Time Instructional Staffing and Outcomes of Advanced Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Patterson, Margaret Becker
2016-01-01
Two core adult education outcomes for advanced adult learners in U.S. states under the National Reporting System are learning gains in adult secondary education and entry into postsecondary education (PSE). Advanced learner outcomes are associated with key functions in an adult education programming framework, as well as with adequate…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John
2012-01-01
This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…
Video-Mediated Teacher Collaborative Inquiry: Focus on English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baecher, Laura; Rorimer, Sarah; Smith, Leonore
2012-01-01
High school teachers today work in challenging, high-accountability instructional environments, striving to meet the needs of upwards of 100 learners per day. Rapidly growing numbers of English-language learners (ELLs) in U.S. classrooms have added to these pressures. Rather than using collaborative structures to face these challenges, the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rabab'ah, Ghaleb
2013-01-01
This study explores the discourse generated by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners using synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) as an approach to help English language learners to create social interaction in the classroom. It investigates the impact of synchronous CMC mode on the quantity of total words, lexical range and…
Effects of Locus of Control and Learner-Control on Web-Based Language Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chang, Mei-Mei; Ho, Chiung-Mei
2009-01-01
The study explored the effects of students' locus of control and types of control over instruction on their self-efficacy and performance in a web-based language learning environment. A web-based interactive instructional program focusing on the comprehension of news articles for English language learners was developed in two versions: learner-…
AdjScales: Visualizing Differences between Adjectives for Language Learners
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sheinman, Vera; Tokunaga, Takenobu
In this study we introduce AdjScales, a method for scaling similar adjectives by their strength. It combines existing Web-based computational linguistic techniques in order to automatically differentiate between similar adjectives that describe the same property by strength. Though this kind of information is rarely present in most of the lexical resources and dictionaries, it may be useful for language learners that try to distinguish between similar words. Additionally, learners might gain from a simple visualization of these differences using unidimensional scales. The method is evaluated by comparison with annotation on a subset of adjectives from WordNet by four native English speakers. It is also compared against two non-native speakers of English. The collected annotation is an interesting resource in its own right. This work is a first step toward automatic differentiation of meaning between similar words for language learners. AdjScales can be useful for lexical resource enhancement.
Teaching Reading Strategies to English Language Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jenks, Christopher J.
This paper discusses the importance of teaching English language learners (ELLs) three reading strategies to help facilitate a productive literacy environment, suggesting that students must be taught specific reading strategies in which purpose, comprehension, and memorization are facilitated. The first section presents a pre-reading strategy,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Saito, Kazuya
2013-01-01
The current study investigated the impact of recasts together with form-focused instruction (FFI) on the development of second language speech perception and production of English /?/ by Japanese learners. Forty-five learners were randomly assigned to three groups--FFI recasts, FFI only, and Control--and exposed to four hours of communicatively…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sagarra, Nuria; Ellis, Nick C.
2013-01-01
Adult learners have persistent difficulty processing second language (L2) inflectional morphology. We investigate associative learning explanations that involve the blocking of later experienced cues by earlier learned ones in the first language (L1; i.e., transfer) and the L2 (i.e., proficiency). Sagarra (2008) and Ellis and Sagarra (2010b) found…
Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class, Grades 6-8
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Melanese, Kathy; Chung, Luz; Forbes, Cheryl
2011-01-01
This new addition to Math Solutions "Supporting English Language Learners in Math Class series" offers a wealth of lessons and strategies for modifying grades 6-8 instruction. Section I presents an overview of teaching math to English learners: the research, the challenges, the linguistic demands of a math lesson, and specific strategies and…
Language Learning Strategies Profiles of EFL Learners in Nepal
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dawadi, Saraswati
2017-01-01
This study investigated language learning strategies (LLS) used by English as foreign language (EFL) learners in Nepal. For this study, 370 undergraduate level students from a university in Nepal responded to a questionnaire. The quantitative software SPSS was used to analyse the data. Results indicated that students were moderate users of those…
Enhancing English Learners' Language Development Using Wordless Picture Books
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Louie, Belinda; Sierschynski, Jarek
2015-01-01
This article presents an approach to use wordless picture books to enhance the language development of English language learners. This approach is grounded in best practices to teach ELLs. The process starts with viewing and analyzing the visual images, engaging ELLs in discussion, and ending with students' self-authored texts. The wordless…
Words, Words, Words: Reading Shakespeare with English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Porter, Christina
2009-01-01
In 2006, the author returned to school after completing the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Library inspired with new performance-based ideas for teaching the plays. The author began to wonder about using Shakespeare as a vehicle for investigating "rich and strange" language with English Language Learners (ELLs). The author began by…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Choi, Jean; Milburn, Rebecca; Reynolds, Brett; Marcoccia, Philip; Silva, Patrick Justin; Panag, Sikander
2013-01-01
Given the increasing number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in post-secondary environments (Roessingh & Douglas, 2012), educational practices such as availability of language support for mathematics should be assessed to ensure that all students' needs are met. To explore the effects of language on mathematics in ELLs, mathematical test…
Individual Differences in Early Language Learning: A Study of English Learners of French
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Courtney, Louise; Graham, Suzanne; Tonkyn, Alan; Marinis, Theodoros
2017-01-01
The present longitudinal study examines the interaction of learner variables (gender, motivation, self-efficacy, and first language literacy) and their influence on second language learning outcomes. The study follows English learners of French from Year 5 in primary school (aged 9-10) to the first year in secondary school (Year 7; aged 11-12).…
Self-Instruction and Success: A Learner-Profile Study.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, Francis R.
1998-01-01
Interviews with adults experienced in foreign language self-instruction generated profiles of language experience at learner and self-instructed language-token levels. Results showed separations between languages with and without self-instruction. The most effective learning route was starting with classwork. Ab initio self-instruction produced…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Granger, Sylviane; Kraif, Olivier; Ponton, Claude; Antoniadis, Georges; Zampa, Virginie
2007-01-01
Learner corpora, electronic collections of spoken or written data from foreign language learners, offer unparalleled access to many hitherto uncovered aspects of learner language, particularly in their error-tagged format. This article aims to demonstrate the role that the learner corpus can play in CALL, particularly when used in conjunction with…
Learners' Perceptions of the Use of Mobile Technology in a Task-Based Language Teaching Experience
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Calabrich, Simone L.
2016-01-01
This research explored perceptions of learners studying English in private language schools regarding the use of mobile technology to support language learning. Learners were first exposed to both a mobile assisted and a mobile unassisted language learning experience, and then asked to express their thoughts on the incorporation of mobile devices…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shishavan, Homa Babai; Sadeghi, Karim
2009-01-01
This study attempted to characterize qualities of an effective English language teacher (EELT) as perceived by Iranian English language teachers and learners. For this purpose, a tailor-made questionnaire was administered to 59 English language teachers and 215 learners of English at universities, high schools and language institutes in Iran. The…
Input Generation by Young Second Language Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cathcart-Strong, Ruth L.
1986-01-01
Examined spontaneous communicative acts (requests for information, calls for attention, intention statements, etc.) of a group of young second-language learners and their native-speaker interlocutors in three play situations. Results showed that, while the response rate to some types of utterances was predictable, others did not generate the…
English Language Learners in the Mathematics Classroom
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coggins, Debra; Kravin, Drew; Coates, Grace Davila; Carroll, Maria Dreux
2007-01-01
Whether teaching mathematics in a contained elementary classroom, as a specialized math teacher, or as an ELL teacher, this new resource will help meet the needs of English Language Learners. Offering strategies, guidelines, and classroom vignettes, this book demonstrates how to adjust mathematics instruction to make the learning less…
Effective Teaching Strategies for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Facella, Melissa A.; Rampino, Kristen M.; Shea, Elizabeth K.
2005-01-01
This paper provides effective strategies for early childhood teachers to use with children who are English language learners (ELLs). The strategies were compiled from interviews with 20 early childhood educators from two culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Massachusetts. Emphasis was placed on the strategies that the greatest…
Building a Dynamic Online Learning Community among Adult Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Minjuan; Sierra, Christina; Folger, Terre
2003-01-01
Examines the nature of learning communities constructed among a diverse group of adult learners in an international online graduate-level course. Discusses independent work, team tasks, the variety of computer-mediated communication tools used, and implications for promoting adult learners' active participation in online learning and instructional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Torres, Gabriella
2013-01-01
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how an understanding of the Good Language Learner models described in the SLA literature can be used to tailor and implement a program of learning strategy training and self-regulatory practices in the classroom to empower L2 learners in an EFL context. The paper begins by reviewing the various…
Collaborative Enquiry through the Tabletop for Second/Foreign Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lin, Mei; Preston, Anne; Kharrufa, Ahmed; Kong, Zhuoran
2014-01-01
Interactional communicative competence and higher-order thinking have been well documented as two of the biggest challenges for second/foreign language learners (EFL learners). This paper evaluates the use of digital tabletops as tools for problem-solving tasks in groups. The evaluation is based on a preliminary study of an application of the use…
Predicting the Proficiency Level of Language Learners Using Lexical Indices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Crossley, Scott A.; Salsbury, Tom; McNamara, Danielle S.
2012-01-01
This study explores how second language (L2) texts written by learners at various proficiency levels can be classified using computational indices that characterize lexical competence. For this study, 100 writing samples taken from 100 L2 learners were analyzed using lexical indices reported by the computational tool Coh-Metrix. The L2 writing…
American Indian English Language Learners: Misunderstood and Under-Served
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carjuzaa, Jioanna; Ruff, William G.
2016-01-01
English Language Learners (ELLs) represent the fastest growing segment of pre-K-12 students in the United States. Currently, Montana has the highest percentage of ELLs who are American Indian/Alaska Native. Although there is tremendous linguistic diversity among students, more than 80% of ELLs in the US speak Spanish as their first language. This…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eneau, Jerome; Develotte, Christine
2012-01-01
This study concerns the development of autonomy in adult learners working on an online learning platform as part of a professional master's degree programme in "French as a Foreign Language". Our goal was to identify the influence of reflective and collaborative dimensions on the construction of autonomy for online learners in this programme. The…
Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners' Experiences in High School Chemistry Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Flores, Annette; Smith, K. Christopher
2013-01-01
This article reports on the experiences of Spanish-speaking English language learners in high school chemistry courses, focusing largely on experiences in learning the English language, experiences learning chemistry, and experiences learning chemistry in the English language. The findings illustrate the cognitive processes the students undertake…
Factors Affecting the Level of Test Anxiety among EFL Learners at Elementary Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Aydin, Selami
2013-01-01
Many studies on test anxiety among adult language learners have been performed, while only a few studies have dealt with overall test anxiety. In addition, these studies do not specifically address test anxiety in foreign language learning among elementary school language learners. Thus, this study aims to investigate the level of test anxiety…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sawyer, Brook E.; Manz, Patricia H.; Martin, Kristin A.
2017-01-01
Guided by Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological theory of human development and Moll's theory of funds of knowledge, the aim of this qualitative study was to examine the beliefs of parents and early childhood teachers on (a) the language development of Spanish-speaking preschool dual language learners (DLLs) and (b) how they can collaborate to support…
Motivational Effects of Standardized Language Assessment on Chinese Young Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhao, Chuqiao
2016-01-01
This review paper examines how standardized language assessment affects Chinese young learners' motivation for second-language learning. By presenting the historical and contemporary contexts of the testing system in China, this paper seeks to demonstrate the interrelationship among cultural, social, familial, and individual factors, which…
Exploring Young Learners' Foreign Language Learning Awareness
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Muñoz, Carmen
2014-01-01
The present study explores young learners' awareness of foreign language learning and of their learning conditions. The participants were 76 Catalan-Spanish children who were learning English at primary school. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected by means of two different interviews that contained questions related to pupils'…
Providing Support for English Language Learner Services
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Corona, Elia; Armour, Lauren
2007-01-01
Encouraging literacy and academic success among English language learners (ELLs) is becoming an increasingly common challenge for educators. In the course of the authors work of training teachers or providing training for implementation of materials, they have found that the resources of the school library media center are invaluable for helping…
English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies that Work
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ferlazzo, Larry
2010-01-01
This unique new perspective and method for teaching English Language Learners is the proven result of the author's community organizing career and his successful career in the classroom. Great teaching is about facilitating intrinsic motivation and self-directed learning. It's about giving students the opportunity to learn by doing and encouraging…
Classification System for English Language Learners: Issues and Recommendations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Abedi, Jamal
2008-01-01
High-stakes decisions for the instruction and assessment of English language learner (ELL) students are made based on the premise that ELL classification is a valid dichotomy that distinguishes between those who are proficient in the use of the English language and those who are not. However, recent research findings draw a vague picture of the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tong, Xiuli; Yip, Joanna Hew Yan
2015-01-01
Radicals are building blocks of Chinese complex characters and exhibit certain positional, phonological and semantic regularities. This study investigated whether adult non-native learners of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) were aware of the positional (orthographic), phonological and semantic information of radicals, and whether such…
Responding to the Diversity of Chinese Language Learners in Australian Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Scrimgeour, Andrew
2014-01-01
Until recently Chinese language learning in Australian primary and junior secondary schools has been characterised by programs primarily designed for second language learners who have had no prior knowledge of or exposure to Chinese language. Participation in such programs by Australian-born children who speak Putonghua (Mandarin) or another…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alexopoulou, Theodora; Michel, Marije; Murakami, Akira; Meurers, Detmar
2017-01-01
Large-scale learner corpora collected from online language learning platforms, such as the EF-Cambridge Open Language Database (EFCAMDAT), provide opportunities to analyze learner data at an unprecedented scale. However, interpreting the learner language in such corpora requires a precise understanding of tasks: How does the prompt and input of a…
Students' Attitudes and Motivation towards Technology in a Turkish Language Classroom
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chryso, Pelekani
2016-01-01
The purpose of this study is to investigate adult learners' approaches towards Turkish Language (TL) and examine learners' outlooks towards the use of digital technologies for learning. It will also evaluate the impact of the Language Lab's model on learners' language achievement. Language Lab model is a system that is used for learning languages…
Information Literacy and Adult Learners: Using Authentic Assessment to Determine Skill Gaps
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rapchak, Marcia E.; Lewis, Leslie A.; Motyka, Julie K.; Balmert, Margaret
2015-01-01
Information literacy (IL) skills are essential for adult learners in higher education, especially those unfamiliar with information systems. Citing a lack of literature assessing such skills in adult learners, this article examines the IL abilities of adult learners in an IL course. Using a rubric and annotated bibliographies from study…
Learner Outcomes as Articulated in Adult Education Literature: An Annotated Bibliography.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brewer, Patricia
This annotated bibliography contains 14 citations of books, papers, and videotapes that pertain to learner outcomes in adult education. The following are cited: "Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning" (S. Brookfield); "Self-Direction for Lifelong Learning" (P. Candy); "Helping Adults Learn Workshop" (A. Chickering); "Adults as Learners"…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kuti, Laura M.
2011-01-01
The purpose of this research study was to conduct exploratory research to examine federally-mandated annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment of English language learners (ELLs) and their use of accommodations on the assessment. First the researcher provides a review of the literature regarding accommodations provided for ELLs,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rodriguez, Cathi Draper; Filler, John; Higgins, Kyle
2012-01-01
Through this exploratory study the authors investigated the effects of primary language support delivered via computer on the English reading comprehension skills of English language learners. Participants were 28 First-grade students identified as Limited English Proficient. The primary language of all participants was Spanish. Students were…
Teacher Leadership to Support English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Russell, Felice Atesoglu; Von Esch, Kerry Soo
2018-01-01
As today's K-12 schools become increasingly diverse, many teachers are struggling to meet the needs of English language learners and teach them in a culturally and linguistically responsive manner. The authors provide a pair of examples to illustrate specific ways teacher leaders can be effective advocates for better instruction and services for…
Second Language Learners' Use of Marginal Glosses
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
O'Donnell, Mary E.
2012-01-01
The use of marginal reading glosses by 18 second language (L2) learners is examined through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of audiotaped think-aloud protocols. How these readers interact with the glosses is identified and divided into five categories or gloss interactions. Examples from each are presented. The primary research question…
Factors Influencing the Use of Captions by Foreign Language Learners: An Eye-Tracking Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Winke, Paula; Gass, Susan; Sydorenko, Tetyana
2013-01-01
This study investigates caption-reading behavior by foreign language (L2) learners and, through eye-tracking methodology, explores the extent to which the relationship between the native and target language affects that behavior. Second-year (4th semester) English-speaking learners of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish watched 2 videos…
Providing Deep Learning through Active Engagement of Adult Learners in Blended Courses
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McDonough, Darlene
2014-01-01
Malcolm Knowles (2011) indicates that adult learners are most likely to be actively engaged in learning when they are given some choice and control over the learning process. When the curriculum relates to the adult learner's interests, is individualized, and authentic; the adult learner becomes actively engaged in the process by making a…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lane, Martha A.
This bibliography contains annotated citations of primarily non-commercial instructional materials for adult literacy education in English as a Second Language (ESL). All are for learners at beginning to intermediate English language skill levels, and were selected for ease of use by volunteers, relevance to an urban area, overall applicability to…
Learner Outcomes for English Language Learner Low Readers in an Early Intervention
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kelly, Patricia R.; Gomez-Bellenge, Francisco-Xavier; Chen, Jing; Schulz, Melissa M.
2008-01-01
This study investigated the efficacy of Reading Recovery[R] (RR) with first grade English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools by examining the literacy outcomes of ELLs compared with their native English-speaking (NES) peers, who were also enrolled in RR. We also explored how ELLs' fall oral English proficiency levels were related to their…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gibson, Charles
2016-01-01
Despite a well-documented history of immigration in the United States of America and rise in population of students that speak a language other than English, academic achievement gaps between English Language Learners and their native English language speaking counterparts from Grades Pre-Kindergarten through the college/university level still…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
VanPatten, Bill
1985-01-01
Reports on several stages of development in the acquisition of the Spanish copulas "ser" and "estar" by adult learners of Spanish and how the data relate to current hypotheses about second language acquisition. Postulates three stages of competence in the use of "ser" and "estar." (SED)
Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie
2013-04-01
The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful word learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: in which phonologically unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults.
Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie
2014-01-01
Purpose The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar vs. unfamiliar referents, and whether successful word-learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Method Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically-familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically-unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition-task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word-learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Results Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly-learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: Where phonologically-unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Conclusions Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents, and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults. PMID:22992709
Teaching Genre to English First-Language Adults: A Study of the Laboratory Report
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carter, Michael; Ferzli, Miriam; Wiebe, Eric
2004-01-01
The question of whether written genres can be learned through explicit teaching or can only be acquired implicitly through writing in authentic contexts remains unanswered. The question is complicated by the different parameters associated with teaching genre to first- or second-language learners, to children or adults, in settings in which the…
Development of Vocabulary in Spanish-Speaking and Cantonese-Speaking English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Uchikoshi, Yuuko
2014-01-01
This study examines vocabulary growth rates in first and second languages for Spanish-speaking and Cantonese-speaking English language learners from kindergarten through second grade. Growth-modeling results show a within-language effect of concepts about print on vocabulary. Language exposure also had an effect on English vocabulary: earlier…
Exploring Korean Heritage Language Learners' Anxiety: "We Are Not Afraid of Korean!"
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jee, Min Jung
2016-01-01
This study investigated Korean heritage language (KHL) learners' foreign language classroom anxiety, reading anxiety and writing anxiety using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) by Saito, Garza and Horwitz and the Writing Apprehension Test (WAT) by…
The Physical Educator as a Language Teacher for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gomez, Conrado L.; Jimenez-Silva, Margarita
2012-01-01
The linguistic diversity in schools is increasing throughout the United States and as state and federal accountability increases in the instruction of English language learners (ELLs), many teachers who never before were asked to work with ELLs are now required to contribute to the education of these students. In some states, all education majors,…
Gains to Language Learners from Viewing Target Language Closed-Captioned Films
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stewart, Melissa A.; Pertusa, Inmaculada
2004-01-01
In an effort to facilitate students' understanding of films in the target language, many instructors turn to films with English subtitles. Viewing films subtitled in English does not encourage learners to use their previously acquired listening skills, but rather allows them to rely on reading English instead of making the extra effort required to…
Young Foreign Language Learners' Interactions during Task-Based Paired Assessments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Butler, Yuko Goto; Zeng, Wei
2014-01-01
Despite the popularity of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in foreign language (FL) education at elementary school, it remains unclear how young learners' FL abilities can best be evaluated with tasks. The present study seeks to understand developmental differences in interactions among elementary-school students during task-based language…
Preparing English Language Learners for Complex Reading
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Silva, Janice; Delleman, Paul; Phesia, Andria
2013-01-01
Although the Common Core state standards' goal of ensuring that every student leaves high school prepared to meet the demands of college and career is laudable, it's daunting for teachers who serve English language learners. The authors, educators at a private bilingual school in Mexico, describe how they used short excerpts of longer works giving…
Young Dual Language Learners' Emergent Writing Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gillanders, Cristina; Franco, Ximena; Seidel, Kent; Castro, Dina C.; Méndez, Lucía I.
2017-01-01
This study examined how early writing develops in Spanish-English-speaking children of Mexican and Central American descent who are dual language learners (DLLs) in the United States. The emergent writing skills in Spanish and English of 140 preschoolers in a multisite study were assessed using name- and word-writing tasks during the children's…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dooly, Melinda; Masats, Dolors
2015-01-01
This state-of-the-art review provides a critical overview of research publications in Spain in the last ten years in three areas of teaching and learning foreign languages (especially English): context and language integrated learning (CLIL), young language learners (YLL), and technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). These three domains have…
Assessing English Language Learners' Opportunity to Learn Mathematics: Issues and Limitations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Abedi, Jamal; Herman, Joan
2010-01-01
Background/Context: English language learner (ELL) students are lagging behind because of the extra challenges they face relative to their peers in acquiring academic English language proficiency, and the added burden of learning content in a language in which they are not proficient. The mandated inclusion of ELL students in the nation's…
Adult Learners' Week in Australia.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cross, John
2002-01-01
Promotional materials and activities for Australia's Adult Learners Week, which are shaped by a variety of stakeholders , include media strategies and a website. Activities are evaluated using a market research company and website and telephone hotline statistics. (SK)
An Assessment of the Adult Learners' Needs at Gateway Community-Technical College.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Luna, Wilson
A study was conducted to assess the needs of adult learners at Gateway Community-Technical College (GCTC), in North Haven, Connecticut. An extended literature review resulted the choice of the three-part Adult Learner Needs Assessment Survey (ALNAS). In spring 1993, the ALNAS was administered to adult learners in classes at GCTC, resulting in 400…
When It Hurts (and Helps) to Try: The Role of Effort in Language Learning
Finn, Amy S.; Lee, Taraz; Kraus, Allison; Hudson Kam, Carla L.
2014-01-01
Compared to children, adults are bad at learning language. This is counterintuitive; adults outperform children on most measures of cognition, especially those that involve effort (which continue to mature into early adulthood). The present study asks whether these mature effortful abilities interfere with language learning in adults and further, whether interference occurs equally for aspects of language that adults are good (word-segmentation) versus bad (grammar) at learning. Learners were exposed to an artificial language comprised of statistically defined words that belong to phonologically defined categories (grammar). Exposure occurred under passive or effortful conditions. Passive learners were told to listen while effortful learners were instructed to try to 1) learn the words, 2) learn the categories, or 3) learn the category-order. Effortful learners showed an advantage for learning words while passive learners showed an advantage for learning the categories. Effort can therefore hurt the learning of categories. PMID:25047901
When it hurts (and helps) to try: the role of effort in language learning.
Finn, Amy S; Lee, Taraz; Kraus, Allison; Hudson Kam, Carla L
2014-01-01
Compared to children, adults are bad at learning language. This is counterintuitive; adults outperform children on most measures of cognition, especially those that involve effort (which continue to mature into early adulthood). The present study asks whether these mature effortful abilities interfere with language learning in adults and further, whether interference occurs equally for aspects of language that adults are good (word-segmentation) versus bad (grammar) at learning. Learners were exposed to an artificial language comprised of statistically defined words that belong to phonologically defined categories (grammar). Exposure occurred under passive or effortful conditions. Passive learners were told to listen while effortful learners were instructed to try to 1) learn the words, 2) learn the categories, or 3) learn the category-order. Effortful learners showed an advantage for learning words while passive learners showed an advantage for learning the categories. Effort can therefore hurt the learning of categories.
Language Learning Strategies of Multilingual Adults Learning Additional Languages
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dmitrenko, Violetta
2017-01-01
The main goal consisted in identifying and bringing together strategies of multilinguals as a particular learner group. Therefore, research was placed in the intersection of the three fields: language learning strategies (LLS), third language acquisition (TLA), and the didactics of plurilingualism. First, the paper synthesises the major findings…
The Anxiety Factors among Saudi EFL Learners: A Study from English Language Teachers' Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Asif, Fariha
2017-01-01
The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that trigger language anxiety among Saudi learners in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. The factor of anxiety is especially found among learners while developing proficiency in over all communication and speaking skills as felt by the EFL teachers. The study also seeks to answer…
ELL Excel: Using Peer Mentoring to Help English Language Learners Excel in American Classrooms
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Turney, Kristilynn M.
2013-01-01
This action research study describes implementation of a peer mentorship program to improve the performance of English language learners at the research site, a suburban high school in Ohio. With the rapidly increasing number of English language learners at the research site as well as schools across the country and the expectations of No Child…
The Impact of Language Factors on Learner Achievement in Science
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Prinsloo, C. H.; Rogers, S. C.; Harvey, J. C.
2018-01-01
South African learner achievement remains poor, despite large investment in schooling over the last two decades. Literature and research findings offer no single explanation or solution. In this article, the authors explored the relative contribution of specific language factors such as the role of home- and school-language equivalence, cultural…
Extending the Classroom: Digital Micro-Narratives for Novice Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kronenberg, Felix A.
2014-01-01
Digital Storytelling offers many advantages for language learning, especially within a project-based framework. In this article, the use of Digital Micro-Narratives is proposed as particularly useful for second language learners at the novice level. As a sub-genre of Digital Storytelling, Digital Micro-Narratives focus more on frequently updated…
Meaning-Making in Online Language Learner Interactions via Desktop Videoconferencing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Satar, H. Müge
2016-01-01
Online language learning and teaching in multimodal contexts has been identified as one of the key research areas in computer-aided learning (CALL) (Lamy, 2013; White, 2014). This paper aims to explore meaning-making in online language learner interactions via desktop videoconferencing (DVC) and in doing so illustrate multimodal transcription and…
Learner Perceptions and Experiences of Pride in Second Language Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ross, Andrew S.; Stracke, Elke
2016-01-01
Within applied linguistics, understanding of motivation and cognition has benefitted from substantial attention for decades, but the attention received by language learner emotions has not been comparable until recently when interest in emotions and the role they can play in language learning has increased. Emotions are at the core of human…
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Fuentes, Ronald
2016-01-01
In response to growing linguistic diversity, many U.S. universities have implemented language policies that include procedures for English learner (EL) identification. Institutional labels such as "English learner" and "limited English proficiency" are regularly used to identify students who may need English language support;…
Second Language Pre-Service Teachers as Learners: The Language Portfolio Project
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Christiansen, Helen; Laplante, Bernard
2004-01-01
This article reports on a study of pre-service French immersion teachers who were required to compile second language (L2) portfolios as part of their professional development. Documents included a brief biography of the students' lives as speakers and learners of French; an action plan in which students assessed their L2 proficiency and set…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carrejo, David J.; Reinhartz, Judy
2014-01-01
Thirty-five elementary teachers participated in a yearlong professional development (PD) program that was designed to foster a culture of on-going teacher learning to promote the co-development of science and language literacy for English language learners (ELL). An explanatory design methodology was used to determine the degree to which science…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Huang, Shu-Chen
2016-01-01
This study examines university learners' self-assessment and self-feedback on performance as captured in audio files from a foreign language speaking test. The learners' were guided to listen, transcribe and analyse their own speaking samples, as well as propose future actions for improvement. Content of learners' self-feedback was scrutinised…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lesser, Lawrence M.; Wagler, Amy E.; Salazar, Berenice
2016-01-01
English language learners (ELLs) are a rapidly growing part of the student population in many countries. Studies on resources for language learners--especially Spanish-speaking ELLs--have focused on areas such as reading, writing, and mathematics, but not introductory probability and statistics. Semi-structured qualitative interviews investigated…
Contextualizing Attitudes toward Pronunciation: Foreign Language Learners in the United States
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Huensch, Amanda; Thompson, Amy S.
2017-01-01
While previous work has shown a relationship between pronunciation attitudes and pronunciation performance, the connection between language learning motivation and pronunciation attitudes has been underexplored. This study investigated the relationship between 195 foreign language learners' attitudes toward pronunciation, the foreign languages…
Teacher to Teacher: Supporting English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McElroy, Edward J.
2005-01-01
The student population is changing, and teachers need new tools to help their English language learner (ELL) students. ELL students are learning to read, write, and speak English at the same time as they study history, science, math, and all the other subjects taught in our schools. This article describes one tool, the Colorin Colorado website,…
Read-Aloud and the English Language Learner
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Watson, Tanya Elaine
2013-01-01
Reading aloud (read-aloud) is quickly progressing as a useful strategy on the middle school level, yet research has not adequately caught up with is use with special populations such as middle school students and English language learners (ELLs). The purpose of this study was to add to the limited research on the read-aloud instructional strategy…
Second Language Learners' Attitudes towards English Varieties
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhang, Weimin; Hu, Guiling
2008-01-01
This pilot project investigates second language (L2) learners' attitudes towards three varieties of English: American (AmE), British (BrE) and Australian (AuE). A 69-word passage spoken by a female speaker of each variety was used. Participants were 30 Chinese students pursuing Masters or Doctoral degrees in the United States, who listened to each…
Adult Learners: The University of Maryland Approach.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wolvin, Andrew D.
1991-01-01
Discusses the need to approach adult education differently from the teaching of children. Reminds educators that adult learners possess a wealth of experiences and distinctive job-related skills and needs. Describes the University of Maryland's adult education program, which includes a separate campus, courses at military installations, and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Estrada, Karla V.
2013-01-01
As the population of English Language Learners (ELLs) continues to grow in schools, so does the concern for their lack of academic progress and the possible inequitable representation of this culturally and linguistically diverse population in special education (Artiles, Rueda, Salazar, & Higareda, 2005; Guiberson, 2009; Mac Swan &…
Target Language Variation and Second-Language Acquisition: Learning English in New York City.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eisenstein, Miriam R.
1986-01-01
Investigates the role of dialect variation in the acquisition of American English by adult second language learners. The study revealed that dialect differences present problems for learners and cause variable intelligibility and negative learner attitude toward some varieties of English and its speakers. This attitude could negatively affect a…
Can Cloze Tests Really Improve Second Language Learners' Reading Comprehension Skills?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ren, Guanxin
2011-01-01
Cloze testing is a widely-used procedure to test learners' reading comprehension in learning a language, but little is known if it can really improve learners' reading comprehension skills. This paper attempts to seek answers to this question by comparing the cloze test scores of two groups of students (Experimental versus Control) undertaking…
Which Aspects of the English Language Do Distance Learners Find Difficult?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Teoh, George Boon Sai; Lin, Agnes Liau Wei; Belaja, Kathy
2016-01-01
This study reports the findings of a research carried out on distance learners at the School of Distance Education (SDE), University Sains Malaysia (USM). The study was explorative in nature with the purpose identifying the aspects of the English language which distance learners found difficult to learn. A quantitative survey questionnaire design…
Educational Needs and Learning Conditions of Adult Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Davie, Lynn; And Others
A review of research in the past ten years documents adult learners' perceptions of their educational needs and their patterns of participation in adult educational activities. The populations studied include older adults, women, immigrants, native Canadians, undereducated adults, and handicapped adults. Each population is studied separately with…
Beliefs on Learning and Teaching Language Components: The Case of Iranian EAP and EFL Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Parsi, Gholamreza
2017-01-01
The present study intended to investigate the possible difference between EAP and EFL learners' beliefs concerning learning and teaching of language components, namely, vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. Furthermore, this study examined the association between EAP and EFL learners' beliefs and their language components' development. To this…
English Language Learners and Automated Scoring of Essays: Critical Considerations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weigle, Sara Cushing
2013-01-01
This article presents considerations for using automated scoring systems to evaluate second language writing. A distinction is made between English language learners in English-medium educational systems and those studying English in their own countries for a variety of purposes, and between learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in a second…
Technology Integration by General Education Teachers of English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Anglin, Marie Simone
2017-01-01
There is a growing population of English language learners (ELLs) in elementary schools across the United States, and a current academic achievement gap between ELLs and non-ELLs. Researchers have found that integration of Web 2.0 tools has benefitted ELLs in language learning settings, outside of the general classroom. The research problem…
Improving Comprehension and Assessment of English Language Learners Using MMIO
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carrier, Karen A.
2006-01-01
Many mainstream content teachers are encountering, for the first time, K-12 students who are in the process of learning English as a second language (English language learners or ELLs), and this new population presents a significant challenge. Teachers are already familiar with many of the techniques available to help their ELLs comprehend…
Examining the Role of Time and Language Type in Reading Development for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Betts, Joseph; Bolt, Sara; Decker, Dawn; Muyskens, Paul; Marston, Doug
2009-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine the development of English reading achievement among English Language Learners (ELLs) and to determine whether the time that an ELL's family was in the United States and the type of native language spoken affected their reading development. Participants were 300 third-grade ELLs from two different native…
The Adult Learner: From a Narrative Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Barnett, Jennifer A.
2013-01-01
Each year there seems to be an increase in the number of mature students enrolled in my Bachelor of Education (BEd) classes. These mature learners experience stress. As there is a need to better comprehend the experiences of the adult learner enrolled in a one-year intensive tertiary education programme, I enrolled in university as a student, and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eslami, Zohreh R.; Kung, Wan-Tsai
2016-01-01
The purpose of this study was to explore the occurrence of incidental focus-on-form and its effect on subsequent second language (L2) production of learners of different dyads in an online task-based language learning context. The participants included Taiwanese learners of English as a foreign language at different proficiency levels, and native…
The Garbage Crisis: Environmental Issues for Adult ESL Learners.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Heffernan, Helen
This module on the garbage crisis is for intermediate and advanced learners of English as a Second Language. It seeks to inform learners about this issue and to give them an opportunity to direct their concerns about the environment into positive action. The guide uses the problem-posing methodology of Paulo Freire. This methodology has three…
Investigating Digital Native Female Learners' Attitudes towards Paperless Language Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grigoryan, Tsoghik
2018-01-01
This study is an investigation of paperless language learning in the context of the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of this study was to examine Emirati level 1 English language learners' attitudes towards the iPad use as a means of language learning. It was done through a cross-sectional survey questionnaire, wholly composed of fixed-choice…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Greaney, Leonard V.
2016-01-01
This qualitative study investigated the reasons why educators initiate referrals of ELLs for special education services in a sample of three educational organizations near a major city in a mid-Atlantic state. This study addressed how and why educator perception influenced the referral process and identification of English language learners into…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Madonsela, S.
2015-01-01
The capacity to use language is unique from one individual to another. This could also depend on the individual's exposure to a language. This article aims to contribute to the growing area of research on language anxiety by exploring the extent to which language anxiety affects learners' performance in learning in multilingual classrooms,…
The Experience of Adult Learners in Academic Service Learning Courses
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Finley, Amy E.
2017-01-01
Adult learners represent a significant, and growing, portion of enrollment at higher education institutions. Despite their growing enrollment, adult learners are not retained at nearly the rate of their "traditional" peers, leaving colleges and universities with the need to identify programs and services that specifically address the…
Learner's Use of First Language in EFL Collaborative Learning: A Sociocultural View
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yaghobian, Farideh; Samuel, Moses; Mahmoudi, Marzieh
2017-01-01
This study investigates the functions served by learners' first language (L1) in classroom interaction among Iranian learners of English (L2). The study aims to determine how learners' L1 serves them in their L2 learning. It adopts a qualitative approach. The study involved the participation of eleven Grade 9 learners in one Iranian high school in…
Mixed Ability Teaching: Meeting Learners' Needs. Netword 3: Teaching Languages to Adults.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ainslie, Susan
This guide, designed for teachers of second languages to adults, discusses instruction for student groups of mixed abilities. The first chapter examines the factors that determine mixed ability, including: student motivation, interests, and needs; linguistic ability; general educational background; learning style; age; external pressures and time…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carlo, María S.; Barr, Christopher D.; August, Diane; Calderón, Margarita; Artzi, Lauren
2014-01-01
This three-year longitudinal study investigated the role of language of instruction in moderating the relationships between initial levels of English oral language proficiency and Spanish reading comprehension and growth in English reading comprehension. The study followed Spanish-speaking English language learners in English-only literacy…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wijayanto, Agus; Prasetyarini, Aryati; Hikmat, Mauly Halwat
2017-01-01
A growing body of literature has investigated impoliteness in many domains. Nevertheless, little research has examined impoliteness done by foreign language learners. Impoliteness used in interlanguage complaints by English as a foreign language learners was observed. The effects of interlocutors' different status levels and social distance on the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maerten-Rivera, Jaime; Ahn, Soyeon; Lanier, Kimberly; Diaz, Jennifer; Lee, Okhee
2016-01-01
This study was part of the Promoting Science among English Language Learners (P-SELL) efficacy study, a research and development project that implemented a curricular and professional development intervention to improve science achievement of English Language Learners (ELLs) in urban elementary schools. The study used a cluster randomized control…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Panahi, Ali
2012-01-01
In most settings, task-based language teaching and testing have been dissociated from each other. That is why this study came to rethink of the learners' views towards awareness and implementation of task-based language teaching through IELTS listening tasks. To these objectives, after sketching instrumentation, the learners were divided into…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Freberg, Miranda E.
2014-01-01
The purpose of the study was to investigate how English language proficiency is related to teacher judgments of students' academic and interpersonal competence. It was hypothesized that English Language Learner (ELL) students would generally be perceived as having weaker academic and interpersonal skills than their non-ELL counterparts regardless…
Urban Elementary Teachers' Perspectives on Teaching Science to English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Okhee; Maerten-Rivera, Jaime; Buxton, Cory; Penfield, Randall; Secada, Walter G.
2009-01-01
This descriptive study examined urban elementary school teachers' perceptions of their science content knowledge, science teaching practices, and support for language development of English language learners. Also examined were teachers' perceptions of organizational supports and barriers associated with teaching science to nonmainstream students.…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Park, Yujeong; Gurel, Sungur; Oh, Jihyun; Bettini, Elizabeth A; Leite, Walter
2015-01-01
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Head Start on early literacy skills relevant to school readiness of English language learners compared to their peers. The comparisons of literacy outcomes were conducted between English language learners and non-English language learners when both groups participated and were not in Head…
Teaching English Language Learners in the Content Areas
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Janzen, Joy
2008-01-01
This review examines current research on teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) in four content area subjects: History, math, English, and science. The following topics are examined in each content area: The linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural features of academic literacy and how this literacy can be taught; general investigations of…
School Reform, Standards Testing and English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laguardia, Armando; Goldman, Paul
2007-01-01
This paper reports findings from interviews conducted in two states in the American Northwest, Oregon and Washington, to explore how standards-based educational reform affects English language learners (ELLs) and the educational professionals who serve them. This paper focuses on two sets of multifaceted tensions: (1) organizational tensions that…
English Language Learners Utilizing the Accelerated Reader Program
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gomez, Frank, II
2009-01-01
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact (positive, negative, or neutral) of Accelerated Readers (AR), a standard based intervention, on the academic achievement of English Language Learners at Carolina Herrera Elementary School. Carolina Herrera Elementary School, was analyzed using these specific lenses: (1) curriculum and…
Innovations in Educational Equity for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tung, Rosann
2013-01-01
This issue of "Voices in Urban Education" examines different aspects of asset-based education for English Language Learners (ELLs). Rather than write about ELL education as a problem, dilemma, achievement gap, or crisis, these innovative practitioners, scholars, and policy analysts shift the paradigm, reminding and urging us to embrace…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rothwell, Julia
2015-01-01
This article explores one teacher/researcher's development of a drama-language unit and the learners' responses to it. The work is underpinned by a model of intercultural language learning which also acknowledges the pluricultural and plurilingual contexts in which foreign languages are taught in Australia. As part of a…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Murphy, Audrey Figueroa
2014-01-01
The effects of "transitional-bilingual" and "dual-language" educational models on proficiency in students' home language (Spanish) were examined in a study of English language learners in the first and second grades in a large urban elementary school. In each grade, students were taught with either a transitional-bilingual…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Namsook
2011-01-01
In the highest of need for a transformative new pedagogy with adolescent English Language Learners, I designed and conducted this qualitative case study to answer the questions on the in-depth meaning of innovative teaching practices in new times. Grounded in the sociocultural perspectives, and in accordance with the qualitative case study…
Developing Language Awareness for Teachers of Emergent Bilingual Learners Using Dialogic Inquiry
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wallen, Matthew; Kelly-Holmes, Helen
2017-01-01
This study endeavoured to awaken mainstream teachers' awareness of language, specifically related to teaching emergent bilingual children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL) in the Republic of Ireland. Because EAL learners spend the majority of the day in the mainstream classroom, mainstream teachers' language awareness may…
Giannakopoulou, Anastasia; Brown, Helen; Clayards, Meghan; Wonnacott, Elizabeth
2017-01-01
High talker variability (i.e., multiple voices in the input) has been found effective in training nonnative phonetic contrasts in adults. A small number of studies suggest that children also benefit from high-variability phonetic training with some evidence that they show greater learning (more plasticity) than adults given matched input, although results are mixed. However, no study has directly compared the effectiveness of high versus low talker variability in children. Native Greek-speaking eight-year-olds ( N = 52), and adults ( N = 41) were exposed to the English /i/-/ɪ/ contrast in 10 training sessions through a computerized word-learning game. Pre- and post-training tests examined discrimination of the contrast as well as lexical learning. Participants were randomly assigned to high (four talkers) or low (one talker) variability training conditions. Both age groups improved during training, and both improved more while trained with a single talker. Results of a three-interval oddity discrimination test did not show the predicted benefit of high-variability training in either age group. Instead, children showed an effect in the reverse direction-i.e., reliably greater improvements in discrimination following single talker training, even for untrained generalization items, although the result is qualified by (accidental) differences between participant groups at pre-test. Adults showed a numeric advantage for high-variability but were inconsistent with respect to voice and word novelty. In addition, no effect of variability was found for lexical learning. There was no evidence of greater plasticity for phonetic learning in child learners. This paper adds to the handful of studies demonstrating that, like adults, child learners can improve their discrimination of a phonetic contrast via computerized training. There was no evidence of a benefit of training with multiple talkers, either for discrimination or word learning. The results also do not support the
Demographic Characteristics of Successful English Language Learners in Rural Communities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Murley, Colleen A.
2017-01-01
As the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) continues to grow in our country, schools are looking for ways to better identify and to help those who need English as a Second Language (ESL) services (Mossaad, 2016). ELLs present a unique challenge to school districts as some perceive that the federal guidelines are vague, but require school…
Adult Learners' Emotions in Online Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zembylas, Michalinos
2008-01-01
The aim of the research study reported in this article was to investigate how adult learners talk about their emotions in the context of a year-long online course, the first online course these adults take, as part of a distance education program. The theoretical and methodological approach focused on formulating an account of how emotion…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lindahl, Kristen Marie
2013-01-01
This study investigates the construct of Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) in a group of preservice mainstream K-12 teachers who are developing skills to work with English Language Learners (ELLs) in United States (US) public school contexts. Specifically, the study seeks to explore how preservice teachers' participation in directed university…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Harper, Sarah N.; Pelletier, Janette
2010-01-01
This study evaluated parents' communication, involvement and knowledge of their children's abilities in reading and mathematics among parents who spoke English as a first language (EL1) and those who were English language learners (ELL). Forty-two kindergarten-aged children, their parents and their teachers participated in the study. Results…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wolf, Mikyung Kim; Wang, Yuan; Huang, Becky H.; Blood, Ian
2014-01-01
This study reports on a critical review of the language demands contained in the Common Core State Standards for English language arts (CCSS-ELA) with the aim of deriving important implications for the instruction of English language learners. The language demands of the CCSS-ELA were compared with those of existing English language arts (ELA) and…
Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K.
2016-01-01
We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language (d = −0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading comprehension deficit (d = −2.47). Second-language learners also had weaker oral language skills compared to native-speaking children regardless of comprehension status (d = −0.84). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the finding that second-language learners who are poor at reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have deficits in oral language but the deficit is not sufficient to explain their deficit in reading comprehension. PMID:28461711
Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K
2017-05-01
We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language ( d = -0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading comprehension deficit ( d = -2.47). Second-language learners also had weaker oral language skills compared to native-speaking children regardless of comprehension status ( d = -0.84). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the finding that second-language learners who are poor at reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have deficits in oral language but the deficit is not sufficient to explain their deficit in reading comprehension.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smiley-Blanton, Regina
2010-01-01
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that all public school students, including English language learners, achieve proficiency in reading, math, and science by 2014 as measured on state assessments. English language learners enrolled in public schools for the first time receive a 1-year deferment from these state assessments in subjects…
Learning a Third Language: What Learner Strategies Do Bilingual Students Bring?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Grenfell, Michael; Harris, Vee
2015-01-01
This article seeks to develop the research agenda of multilingualism and multicompetence by bringing together three research fields and their related methodologies: bilingualism, third language acquisition and language learner strategies. After a brief introduction to each area, it describes a study to explore whether bilingual adolescent students…
The Dimensionality of Spanish in Young Spanish-English Dual-Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2015
2015-01-01
Purpose: This study examined the latent dimensionality of Spanish in young Spanish-English dual-language learners (DLLs). Method: Two hundred eighty-six children participated. In their prekindergarten year, children completed norm-referenced and experimental language measures in Spanish requiring different levels of cognitive processing in both…
Hu, Xiaochen; Ackermann, Hermann; Martin, Jason A; Erb, Michael; Winkler, Susanne; Reiterer, Susanne M
2013-12-01
Individual differences in second language (L2) aptitude have been assumed to depend upon a variety of cognitive and personality factors. Especially, the cognitive factor phonological working memory has been conceptualised as language learning device. However, strong associations between phonological working memory and L2 aptitude have been previously found in early-stage learners only, not in advanced learners. The current study aimed at investigating the behavioural and neurobiological predictors of advanced L2 learning. Our behavioural results showed that phonetic coding ability and empathy, but not phonological working memory, predict L2 pronunciation aptitude in advanced learners. Second, functional neuroimaging revealed this behavioural trait to be correlated with hemodynamic responses of the cerebral network of speech motor control and auditory-perceptual areas. We suggest that the acquisition of L2 pronunciation aptitude is a dynamic process, requiring a variety of neural resources at different processing stages over time. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Standards Policies to Support Young Dual Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rendon, Thomas; Harjusola-Webb, Sanna; Gatmaitan, Michelle
2014-01-01
In response to increasing numbers of young dual language learners (DLL) in American early childhood programs, teachers and administrators have made many and varied attempts to address the unique needs of this population. Educational success for DLLs comes through skilled educators who address relevant content through high-quality programs and…
Technology-Based Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
White, Erin L.; Gillard, Sharlett
2011-01-01
There is a growing need to implement an alternative and viable solution in U.S. K-12 schools that will address the ever-growing gap that the rapidly growing English language learner (ELL) population presents. This article examines various technology-based solutions, and their potential impact. The systematic implementation of these…
A Project for Everyone: English Language Learners and Technology in Content-Area Classrooms.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Egbert, Joy
2002-01-01
Discussion of student participation in classroom projects when learning English as a second language highlights conditions that support language and content learning; approaches that can facilitate language and content learning; and what technology and other resources support English language learners in content-area classrooms. Uses a project on…
Transformative Vocational Education: Bridging Transitions of Underserved Urban Adult Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Adkisson, Anthony C.; Monaghan, Catherine H.
2014-01-01
How our culture thinks about particular events as linear, normal, and expected does not always fit with the experiences of every learner, particularly underserved urban adult learners. As adult educators in this context, are there ways we might improve or change our pedagogy of instruction by developing a better understanding of transitional life…
The Language of Adult Immigrants: Agency in the Making
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Elizabeth R.
2014-01-01
This book is the first to explore the constitution of language learner agency by drawing on performativity theory, an approach that remains on the periphery of second language research. Though many scholars have drawn on poststructuralism to theorize learner identity in non-essentialist terms, most have treated agency as an essential feature that…
Dominant Language Transfer in Adult Second Language Learners and Heritage Speakers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Montrul, Silvina
2010-01-01
The effects of language transfer have been amply documented in second language (L2) acquisition and, to a lesser extent, in the language contact/loss literature (Cook, 2003). In both cases, the stronger and often dominant language encroaches into the structure of the less dominant language in systematic ways. But are transfer effects in these two…
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Kim, Ahyoung Alicia; Kondo, Akira; Castro, Mariana
2016-01-01
Due to the increase in the number of preschool-aged dual language learners (DLLs), there is a need to understand their language development and how to better support them. Although DLLs' language development has traditionally been studied from a structuralist perspective, few have examined their language use from a functional approach, which…
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Pellerin, Martine
2014-01-01
This article examines how the use of mobile technologies (iPods and tablets) in language classrooms contributes to redesigning task-based approaches for young language learners. The article is based on a collaborative action research (CAR) project in Early French Immersion classrooms in the province of Alberta, Canada. The data collection included…
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Paquot, Magali
2017-01-01
This study investigated French and Spanish EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' preferred use of three-word lexical bundles with discourse or stance-oriented function with a view to exploring the role of first language (L1) frequency effects in foreign language acquisition. Word combinations were extracted from learner performance data…
Flipping the Classroom for English Language Learners to Foster Active Learning
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Hung, Hsiu-Ting
2015-01-01
This paper describes a structured attempt to integrate flip teaching into language classrooms using a WebQuest active learning strategy. The purpose of this study is to examine the possible impacts of flipping the classroom on English language learners' academic performance, learning attitudes, and participation levels. Adopting a…
Developing an English Mobile Learning Attitude Scale for Adult Learners
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Liu, Tzu-Ying
2017-01-01
In recent years, with the rapid development of mobile devices, mobile learning (m-learning) has becoming another popular topic. There is a strong need for both researchers and educators to be aware of adult learners' attitudes toward English mobile learning, yet relevant studies on mobile learning to promote English learning for adult learners are…
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De Oliveira, Luciana C.; Olesova, Larisa
2013-01-01
This study examined asynchronous online discussions in the online course "English Language Development" to identify themes related to participants' learning about the language and literacy development of English Language Learners when they facilitated online discussions to determine whether the participants developed sufficient…
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Haas, Eric; Huang, Min
2010-01-01
Across Arizona and the United States, there is widespread interest in how to successfully educate the growing number of English language learner students in K-12 schools. Research suggests that a school may face challenges in effectively teaching its English language learner students--and closing the achievement gap with native English…
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Batalova, Jeanne; McHugh, Margie
2010-01-01
While English Language Learner (ELL) students in the United States speak more than 150 languages, Spanish is by far the most common home or first language, but is not the top language spoken by ELLs in every state. This fact sheet, based on analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey, documents the top languages spoken…
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Huerta, Margarita; Irby, Beverly J.; Lara-Alecio, Rafael; Tong, Fuhui
2016-01-01
Despite research interest in testing the effects of literacy-infused science interventions in different contexts, research exploring the relationship, if any, between academic language and conceptual understanding is scant. What little research exists does not include English language learners (ELLs) and/or economically disadvantaged (ED) student…
Accessing Second Language Learners' Understanding of Temporal Morphology
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Collins, Laura
2005-01-01
The purpose of this study was to investigate how retrospective verbal reports can contribute to our understanding of the factors influencing the interlanguage development of tense and grammatical aspect. The goal was to gain insights into (1) the mental representations second language learners hold of tense and grammatical aspect, and (2) the…
English Language Learners' Pathways to Four-Year Colleges
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Kanno, Yasuko; Cromley, Jennifer G.
2015-01-01
Background/Context: English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the K-12 student population in the United States, yet they encounter substantial problems entering higher education. The gap between ELLs and non-ELLs is particularly acute for four-year college access. Research has been largely silent on ELLs' college…
Using State Assessments for Teaching English Language Learners
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Luster, John
2012-01-01
Populations of minority students the United States have increased steadily over the past few decades to 42 percent of public school enrollment (Echevarria, 2011). English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing population of students enrolled in public schools across the United States. Nationally, if an ELL speaks English with difficulty,…
MAT@USC Candidates and Latino English Language Learners
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Lomeli, Cynthia Leticia
2012-01-01
The purpose of this study was to further understand the perceptions of MAT@USC teacher candidates and how their perceptions and previous experiences affect the educational experiences of Latino English language learners. Three questions were developed to guide this study: (1) What are the perceptions of MAT@USC candidates in selected courses…
Teaching English Language Learners: Strategies for Overcoming Barriers
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Helfrich, Sara R.; Bosh, Amy J.
2011-01-01
The number of English language learners (ELLs) in today's classrooms is increasing. In this article, the authors identify four perceived barriers beginning and veteran teachers face in teaching literacy to ELLs: the lack of understanding of the role of literacy in other cultures, the teacher's inability to differentiate instruction to meet the…
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Altunay, Dilek
2013-01-01
This study investigates the noncompulsory language learning activities performed by a group of distance EFL learners in the Turkish Open Education System. Performance of these activities has been considered as an indicator of their learner autonomy. The data were collected through an online questionnaire and interviews. The study shows that in…
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Lee, Okhee; Llosa, Lorena; Jiang, Feng; Haas, Alison; O'Connor, Corey; Van Booven, Christopher D.
2016-01-01
As part of a three-year curricular and professional development intervention focused on English language learners (ELLs), this study examined the intervention's effect on teachers' science knowledge and instructional practices after one year of implementation. The P-SELL (Promoting Science Among English Language Learners) intervention comprised…
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Tung, Rosann; Diez, Virginia; Gagnon, Laurie; Uriarte, Miren; Stazesky, Pamela
2011-01-01
This study is part of a collaborative project entitled "Identifying Success in Schools and Programs for English Language Learners in Boston Public Schools". The companion to this report, entitled "Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools", provides a…
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Ash, Andrea C.; Rice, Mabel L.; Redmond, Sean M.
2014-01-01
Purpose: The primary goal of this study was to explore the effect of language context on the socially withdrawn behaviors of school-age-children who are English language learners (ELLs) from middle- to high-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. This is one of the 1st studies to address the frequently confused concepts of shyness and…
Making the Connection: Some People, Programs and Ideas Highlighted by Adult Learners Week 2001.
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Cross, John; Della, Jennie
This document profiles selected people, programs, and ideas highlighted by Australia's Adult Learners Week 2001 and begins with these papers: "Adult Learners Week: A National Celebration" (Ned Dennis); "A Message from the Adult Learners Week Patron" (Peter Hollingworth); "A Message of Support from the Prime Minister of…
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August, Diane; Branum-Martin, Lee; Cardenas-Hagan, Elsa; Francis, David J.
2009-01-01
The goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention--Quality English and Science Teaching (QuEST)--designed to develop the science knowledge and academic language of middle grades English language learners studying science in their second language and their English-proficient classmates. Ten sixth-grade science teachers in 5…
The Impact of Self-Assessment on Language Learners' Writing Skill
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mazloomi, Siamak; Khabiri, Mona
2018-01-01
The present study investigates the impact of self-assessment (SA) training applied as a writing task and a dynamic assessment on English language learners' writing ability and explores the changes in their language proficiency level. This quasi-experimental research on two homogenised essay writing classes of 60 Iranian university students at…
Developing Pedagogical Practices for English-Language Learners: A Design-Based Approach
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Iddings, Ana Christina DaSilva; Rose, Brian Christopher
2012-01-01
This study draws on the application of sociocultural theory to second-language learning and teaching to examine the impact of a design-based research approach on teacher development and literacy instruction to English-language learners (ELLs). Design-based research methodology was employed to derive theoretical suppositions relating to the process…
English Language Learners and Reading Instruction: A Review of the Literature
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Snyder, Elizabeth; Witmer, Sara E.; Schmitt, Heather
2017-01-01
The growing English language learner (ELL) population in the United States warrants an examination of reading intervention effectiveness with this population. The reading achievement of ELLs is of particular concern due to the importance of reading skills and the innate language barriers that exist for ELLs. This article reviews existing…