Vocabulary learning is an incremental process. Vocabulary knowledge, especially for second-language learners, may develop across a lifetime. Teachers with experience in providing feedback on their students' vocabulary use in writing or speech might have noticed that it is sometimes difficult to pinpoint one aspect of word knowledge. The reason is…

Dialogic reading (DR) is an intervention that aims to further students' expressive language development (Flynn, 2011; Towson et al., 2017). Specifically, DR occurs in small groups to afford students the opportunity to engage in active discussion and uses the same book for multiple readings and retellings. Because multiple research studies have…

Proposes a heuristic to generate specific and vivid phrasing and to draw on the right hemisphere of the brain for the substance of the essay. Describes stages of process as DRAW (Delineate, Ruminate, Analogize, and Write). Emphasizes creative description and expressive language rather than generation of ideas. (JG)

This paper suggests classroom activities to develop awareness of language and the sociolinguistic aspects of language proficiency and to help eliminate language prejudice. The exercises are presented in seven categories: (1) examination of connotative and denotative language, names and nicknames; (2) dialects and slang and the status attached to…

A study of advanced English learners' use or avoidance of English idioms is described. The investigation looked at whether the subjects would attempt to use English idioms in a translation task containing idioms, or would instead use non-idiomatic synonyms or paraphrase. It also looked at which idioms are used and which are avoided: those that are…

Communication is essential in each and every sphere of life, and is considered the fundamental social process because human beings interact with each other through communication in social settings. Classrooms have their own social settings in which teachers and students interact. During interaction, the main purpose of the teacher is to…

Noting that knowledge of grammar rules does not ensure correct usage in one's own writing, describes an approach used in a summer workshop to promote awareness of appropriate idiom where 35 highly motivated black students produced 'Snow White' using their own script, half in standard dialect and half in black dialect. (JG)

"Malik Goes to School: Examining the Language Skills of African American Students From Preschool-5th Grade" synthesizes a decade of research by the authors, Holly Craig and Julie Washington, on the oral language and literacy skills of African American children from preschool to fifth grade. Their research has characterized significant influences…