The aim of the Regional Dossier series is to provide concise descriptions of regional or minority languages in education, mainly in Europe but also in other parts of the world. Friulian is a Romance language, traditionally recognised as part of the Rhaeto-Romance sub-family. It is spoken in Friûl (in Friulian)/Friuli (in Italian), a territory…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise, description and basic statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe. Latgalian is a Baltic regional language originating in the region of Latgale (Latgalian: Latgola) in Eastern Latvia. It is mostly spoken in Latgale, but also in families and small communities of people…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise description of the European minority language, Cornish, in education. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects such as the number of schools, teachers,…

It is clear that a proper understanding of what academic English is and how to use it is crucial for success in college, and yet students face multiple obstacles in acquiring this new "code", not least that their professors often cannot agree amongst themselves on a definition and a set of rules. "Understanding Language Use in the…

Code Choice in the Language Classroom argues that the foreign language classroom is and should be regarded as a multilingual community of practice rather than as a perpetually deficient imitator of an exclusive second-language environment. From a sociocultural and ecological perspective, Levine guides the reader through a theoretical, empirical,…

To help educators make informed decisions about English language learners (ELLs), this Connecting Research to Practice brief provides an overview of key research findings, highlights federal policies related to ELLs, outlines district-level and school-level action opportunities, and lists resources that offer more information. English language…

School success in the 21st century requires proficiency with expository discourse--the use and understanding of informative language in spoken and written modalities. This occurs, for example, when high school students read their textbooks and listen to their teachers' lectures, and later are asked to demonstrate their knowledge of this complex…

The study of the history of the English language can help students become aware of major issues in several academic fields, including history, literature, political science, anthropology, communication, economics, the Arts, and, of course, languages and linguistics. Even though instructors may not have an especially broad background in the…

Modern primary teachers must adapt literacy programmes and ensure efficient learning for all. They must also support children with language and literacy difficulties, children learning English as an additional language and possibly teach a modern foreign language. To do this effectively, they need to understand the applied linguistics research…

Research on second language acquisition (SLA) and research on foreign language learning (FLL), often regarded as different and separate fields of inquiry, are compared in a brief review of literature. Perceptions about the scopes and characteristics of the research are examined. Concerns about the relationship between SLA research and theory and…

The International Society for the History of French as a Foreign or Second Language (SIHFLES) had a fruitful meeting in 1990, planning a substantial and diversified program of activities that illustrates the dynamism of the organization. One topic of considerable debate was the role of research in the association's mission. (MSE)

Research results should not be taken at face value; some research is not well designed, and readers must be able to assess whether the research carried out actually supports the results or may be explained otherwise. Research reports are usually divided into introduction or literature review, methods, results, and discussion and conclusions. Basic…

These two articles represent both a compilation of more than 100 dissertations completed in U.S. universities in 1991 and an unannotated bibliography that updates and expands previous versions published in "Unterrichtspraxis" in 1973 and 1985. (approximately 400 references) (Author/LB)

Describes how linguistic analysis can change the computer from a generator of data that can be used to develop a critical analysis to a tool that provides a means to explore the processes and inputs that generate different interpretations of literary works. Illustrates this concept by analyzing a Shakespearean sonnet. (CFR)

This paper presents empirical results from an analysis of English and German conversational fillers produced by bilinguals. They reveal that even accomplished bilinguals do not display an overall native-like realization of conversational fillers in their second language (L2). Along with the findings of L2 studies showing that the comprehension and…