This article seeks to reframe how early childhood educators think about their role in play by answering these questions: What really matters in play? How should we spend our time and energy planning, implementing, and building our expertise around play in early childhood teaching and learning? The answers reside in 5 big ideas from play research…

Through a strong Montessori orientation to the parameters of spoken language, Joen Bettmann makes the case for "materializing" spoken knowledge using the stimulation of real objects and real situations that promote mature discussion around the sensorial aspect of the prepared environment. She lists specific materials in the classroom…

This publication presents the main structural aspects regarding access to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services and their quality in 40 European education and training systems. It examines whether and from what age countries provide a guarantee to a place in ECEC -- the main means to ensure access. It also covers several essential…

In this article I intend to analyse two of the research projects I carried out among the Roma from a critical intercultural perspective. I shall discuss some of the processes referring to the educational policy of teaching Romani mother tongue in school, considering not only the direct beneficiaries of this policy, the students, but also the…

The Montessori early childhood classroom provides a seamless web of language experiences. As Montessori teachers, they are mindful of the many ways Practical Life, Sensorial, Geography, Science, and Mathematics lessons contribute to and support Language Arts. Within the Language Arts curriculum itself, there are multiple stages of learning. The…

This article presents an overview of action research conducted in an EFL university context, regarding primarily the relationship between individual possible self-images, socially constructed possible self-images, and language-learning motivation. The study used three cycles of action research over the course of one 15-week university semester,…

With the rapid onset of globalization and increasing demand from business, government, and schools for fluency in another language, the author decided to learn Spanish. Driven by a desire to acquire functional language abilities in Spanish, he has embarked on this "better late than never" opportunity to learn the language, and in this…

This article describes collaboration between three university professors and six preschool teachers who used photo-narration and the Language Experience Approach to support the language development of young children. For more than a century, educators have used children's personal experiences as a basis for language and literacy instruction. The…

Published research shows that English speakers gain literacy skills up to the 7-year level more effectively when taught using a language experience approach rather than a word reading approach (reading common words plus phonic reading). It is suggested that this is because of the almost unique nature of English phonology, that is the strengthening…

Research using an intensive single-session training to increase use of Socratic (open-ended) questions and to lengthen turn-taking talk with low-income preschoolers showed that immediate posttraining gains were not sustained in classrooms 3 months later. Suggestions are given for trainers and for teachers that can boost teacher ability to…

As English tends to be regarded as a component of basic education, most European countries, Spain amongst them, are issuing legislation to establish the content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach in educational settings. The article presents instances of the implementation of CLIL in the area of teacher training which stem from a…

This article describes two educational settings in Nigeria where teachers adapted a language experience approach for reading and writing instruction. The first setting is a professional development workshop for public school teachers of students in grades 1-6. The second setting includes two groups of students with special needs: a grade 6 class…

Educators have moved on from older models of technology-based education that focused on the attributes and basic uses of the hardware and software available to them. Now they are finding the necessary creative and innovative ways to harness technology's power for school and community educational improvement. In this column, the authors tell four…

"Remix" means to take cultural artifacts and combine and manipulate them into new kinds of creative blends. In this sense, remix is as old as human cultures, and human cultures are themselves products of remixing. Since the late 1980s, however--originating with highly contrived forms of music remix by dancehall DJs--remix practices have been…

This paper will compare the uses of selected formal and informal assessments of English language learners (ELLs) in the Language Experience class [TRANSLANGEXP7(&8)-008] at Kimball Middle School, Illinois School District U-46, Elgin, Illinois, during school year 2007- 2008. See figure 1 (page 14) for a graphic display of these assessments…