One way to support young children's factual learning is through shared book reading (reading books with a knowledgeable other). Many books that teach factual content are narrative in structure, in which factual content is embedded within a fictional storyline. However, there are gaps in our understanding of factors influencing children's factual…

Knowledge development, application, and refinement are essential parts of students' reading. One way to observe how students use their knowledge as they read is through talk. Studies routinely indicate that though reading is a social endeavor, teachers spend most of the allotted instructional time talking or using discourse patterns that do not…

According to an aptitude-treatment interaction experiment (Lehmann et al., "Metacognition and Learning, 11," 89-105, 2016, N = 47, published in "Metacognition and Learning"), perceptually disfluent texts facilitated retention and comprehension performance (but not transfer performance) only for learners with higher working…

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) has significantly reshaped our understanding of second language learning and teaching across the micro, meso, and macro levels for several decades since its systematic introduction by Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008). This study conducts a comprehensive review of empirical research on second language learning…

Many adolescent readers experience difficulties comprehending informational text, which may result from underlying difficulties with foundational skills (e.g., word recognition and fluency), knowledge demands (e.g., background, text structure, and vocabulary), and/or reading motivation. Supplemental interventions for adolescents targeting only…

English is a demanding language for EFL students especially ones without access to additional support like tutorials, extra classes, and opportunities to use English in their daily lives. Scaffolding the writing process for students and making automatic use of genre knowledge would help them improve their English writing performance. Little is…

Reading comprehension is critical and challenging for the English learning process. EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners often do not understand the meaning of the text due to the lack of an authentic learning context. This easily leads learners to read literally without deeply understanding. To address this issue, an article-structure…

The employment of genre-based pedagogy and Task-Based Language Teaching in second language education is representative of a paradigmatic shift towards a focus on meaning-making. Despite this shift, second language acquisition (SLA) research continues to predominantly rely on complexity, accuracy, and fluency metrics to assess learner production…

This study evaluated the feasibility of the Knowledge, Language, and Inquiry (K.L.I.) intervention, designed to support Grades 3-5 multilingual students classified as English learners (ML-ELs) in building content knowledge, language skills, and reading comprehension through inquiry-based small-group instruction. Feasibility was examined across…