There is a strong international demand for official certification of French competence. A range of tests are available to meet this goal. Among the recognized tests available for this purpose is the "DELF" ("Diplôme d'études en langue française"). The "DELF" has been awarded the Association of Language Testers in…

Captioning is commonly used to scaffold video viewing for second language learners, with the captioning affording the learners access to authentic videos that would ordinarily be out of their reach. Ostensibly the videos are mainly shown to help improve the learners' listening abilities. However, there is the view that the learners largely tend to…

The use of video games as an educational tool initially causes a higher degree of motivation in students. However, the inclusion of educational activities throughout the game can cause this initial interest to be lost. A good way to maintain motivation is to use a good story that is used as guiding thread with which to contextualize the other…

In recent years, robots have increasingly been implemented as tutors in both first- and second-language education. The field of robot-assisted language learning (RALL) is developing rapidly. Studies have been published targeting different languages, age groups, and aspects of language and using different robots and methodologies. The present…

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have made progress in increasing primary school enrollment and completion among the very poor. However, challenges in improving reading persist. This study contributes to the evidence base on what works to improve early-grade reading skills by evaluating an early reading program implemented in two…

Reading ability is profoundly important, for individuals and for the societies of which they are a part. Research indicates that we should be successfully teaching 95% of children to read, yet, in reality, high rates of reading failure are common in western, industrialized nations. In large part, this reflects a failure to translate into practice…

In his campaign for Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio positioned himself as the candidate most determined to break with the legacy of the outgoing Michael Bloomberg administration. Voters responded enthusiastically, handing de Blasio a nearly 50-point margin of victory in the November 2013 election. De Blasio, a Democrat, interpreted the win…

The goal of a Comprehensive K-3 Reading Policy is to establish intensive reading intervention for K- 3 students who are at risk of reading failure to help ensure they read on grade level by the end of third grade. The policy also requires third grade students to demonstrate sufficient reading skills for promotion to fourth grade. Retention can…

In this article, we review the skills that have been found to be related to good story comprehension in novice readers with normal hearing and describe the relative weight each plays. The relationship between effective story comprehension and lower level skills (such as syntactic awareness and vocabulary knowledge) is considered, and the casual…

Teachers play a crucial role in helping students develop the skills needed for success in school, career, and life. These skills--which are a focus in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)--include higher-order thinking and complex literacy skills, such as reading, writing, and citing evidence from texts. Professional development (PD) can…

This report questions how skills are distributed across the millennial population, focusing on the size and demographic characteristics of U.S. millennials with low literacy and numeracy skills, and the resulting impact on social and economic outcomes. The authors do this in part by examining the issue of "disconnected youth," a term…

This article proposes to extend the revised transactional theory of reading that I introduced to JBW readers in 2012. That revised theory, building on Rosenblatt's distinction between efferent and aesthetic reading, described a third reading stance I named "deferent" to designate the tendency of struggling student readers to defer their…

For many ESL/EFL learners, reading is their main learning goal and may be the most important of the four language skills in the second language. For many ESL/EFL teachers, the issue of promoting proficient reading is important, and they look for additional or alternative methods to achieve this goal. However, when discussing reading as a primary…

The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing-Second Edition (CTOPP-2; Wagner, Torgesen, Rashotte, & Pearson, 2013) is a norm-referenced test that measures phonological processing skills related to reading for individuals aged 4 to 24. According to its authors, the CTOPP-2 may be used to identify individuals who are markedly below their…

The Commission on Education and Employment Opportunities for Young People (Youth Commission) aims to find ways to improve education and employment opportunities for England's 16-24-year olds. Previous reports have analysed how challenges for this population vary across England, and how demographic and economic changes will alter the context for…