The assessment of language endangerment requires accurate estimates of speaker populations, including information about the proficiency of different groups within those populations. Typically, this information is based on self-assessments, a methodology whose reliability is open to question. We outline an approach that seeks to improve the…

Grounded in constructivist theories of reading and informed by the contemporary theories of identity, this study explored how three Korean adult speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL) constructed meaning of the novel "The Catcher in the Rye", and how their identities mediated this process. Sources of data included think aloud…

Provides a comparative study of two different cultures of learning--the Korean and the British. Data are case studies of teaching and learning at the mainstream beginner level: English in Korea and French in Britain. Focuses on how the notion of communicative is interpreted, the idea of "good language learner," and whole-class…

Reports on a study of barriers to success in learning English as a second language (ESL). The study incorporates data gathered from case studies of two Korean children (aged five and seven years), from the results of writing and reading tests of English administered to academically successful Korean high school students, and from the language…