Responding to concerning reports regarding common world language classroom practices failing to meet a communicative standard (Burke, 2011; 2014), acknowledging the critical shortage of teachers in the United States, and reacting to the call by Madel (2020) to leverage teacher leadership to promote pedagogical development within the field, this…

Approximately ten percent of learners have some sort of learning disability. This means that all English language instructors will encounter students with learning disabilities and could encounter students with learning disabilities in each class. Research has shown that different countries have varying degrees of infrastructure for identifying…

The forces of globalization and the development of English as a lingua franca have made many scholars and practitioners highlight the urgent need for foreign language literacy. The Norman M. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center (MWC) at Dickinson College addresses that need by offering peer writing tutoring in eleven languages. This profile explains…

Language learning occurring in authentic contexts has been shown to be more effective. Virtual worlds provide simulated contexts that have the necessary elements of authentic contexts for language learning, and as a result, many studies have adopted virtual worlds as a useful platform for language learning. However, few studies so far have…

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the foreign language learning of students with LLDs by conducting a comprehensive investigation of the performance of three students in middle school foreign language classes in a suburban school district in southwestern Pennsylvania. More specifically, this study documents…

Responding to the need for foreign language fluency in ever-globalizing business and cultural spheres, the federal government and foreign language institutions in an eleven-member task force collaboratively published a set of nationally recognized, foundational standards for foreign language teaching. Rather than rely on teacher-centered…

Involving two or more academic subjects, interdisciplinary studies aim to blend together broad perspectives, knowledge, skills, and epistemology in an educational setting. By focusing on topics or questions too broad for a single discipline to cover, these studies strive to draw connections between seemingly different fields. Cases on…

A number of universities offer fully web-based language courses. Many others are considering this option. Yet it remains unclear whether web-based courses can be as comprehensively effective as classroom-based courses. And, if so, what might an effective web-based language course look like? This dissertation considers the German Online at PSU…

A study of data on 6,846 adult literacy education students in Pennsylvania gathered information on student characteristics, instructional settings, teaching methods, and program and policy needs. Results indicate that about 34% of the students were Hispanic, 31% were Indochinese, and 21% were from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.…

Pennsylvania's guide to help school districts develop programs for limited English proficient (LEP) students outlines considerations in using two different approaches, bilingual education and English as a second language (ESL) instruction, at the elementary and secondary levels. The issues addressed include appropriate instructional methods,…

Most successes in intelligent tutoring systems have come in well-defined domains like algebra or physics. We investigate how to support students in acquiring ill-defined skills of intercultural competence using an online environment that employs clips of feature films from a target culture. To test the effectiveness of a set of attention-focusing…

These ten case studies of the Program for Persons of Limited English-Speaking Ability (PLESA) report different approaches to providing training and employment assistance to unemployed persons of limited English-speaking ability. (A summary report of forty-seven projects is available separately. See Note.) The first four describe projects conducted…

With the advent of new technologies, more convenient and effective ways of learning are being adopted. However, despite the growing advancements there remains a lack of literature in applications of using these technology teaching approaches. This book offers in-depth analysis of new technologies in blended learning that promote creativity,…

This study was designed to include a segment of phonemic awareness in a multi-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom as learning progress seemed to be inhibited in part by a lack of understanding of the structure of the English language. A survey was developed and administered to measure student progress to establish a baseline.…

This project was conducted to determine whether using videotapes, designed for the purpose of teaching English pronunciation, would improve the pronunciation of English as a second language learners at the Lebanon Adult Education Center in Pennsylvania. The videotapes used were entitled "Perfect English Pronunciation." Learners were…