This study examines the writing skills of students in grades 1 to 5 of an Italian-English two-way immersion program. Narrative writing samples were collected in both languages and scored for content, organization, grammar, mechanics, vocabulary, text length, and overall total score. The results show that writing skills improved as a function of…

L2 learners' problems with English articles have been linked to learners' L1 and their access to universal semantic features (e.g., definiteness and specificity). Studies suggest that L2 adults rely on their L1 knowledge, while child L2 learners rely more on their access to semantic universals. The present study investigates whether child L2…

As dual language immersion (DLI) programs experience unprecedented growth, the need for school administrators that understand DLI structures and philosophy, in order to methodically initiate them and effectively sustain them, becomes critical. In this study, DLI refers to educational programs that provide literacy and academic content instruction…

In this article, we report two studies that compared the development of English and French language and literacy skills in French immersion students identified as native English speakers (EL1s) and English learners (ELs). In study 1, 81 EL1s and 147 ELs were tested in the fall and spring terms of grade 1. The EL1s and ELs had similar outcomes and…

The present study investigated the contribution of morphological and cognate awareness to the development of English and French vocabulary knowledge among young minority and majority language children who were enrolled in a French immersion program. Participating children (n = 75) were assessed in English and French on measures of morphological…

This article investigates the educational trajectories of young multilingual learners in Germany. Drawing on previous ethnographic research in a primary bilingual German-Italian Two-Way-Immersion classroom, this study examines the continuity and fragmentation of multilingual learning as they occur in the transition from primary to secondary…

In her article entitled, "Theoretical Reflections: Intercultural Framework / Model" Darla Deardorff provides the Pyramid Model of Cultural Competency. At the bottom of the pyramid she places three "Requisite Attitudes," which support the remaining three blocks above ("Knowledge & Comprehension/Skills,"…

Two-way immersion (TWI) programs in the US are not reaching their minority language learning potential. While English home language (EHL) students develop functional proficiency, their minority language (e.g., Spanish) remains grammatically inaccurate. Spanish home language (SHL) students may also develop non-native-like aspects. Scholars suggest…

Cognate awareness is the ability to recognize the cognate relationship between words in two etymologically related languages. The current study examined the development of cognate awareness and its contribution to French (second language) reading comprehension among Canadian French immersion children. Eighty-one students were tested at the end of…

We investigated whether children who were learning to read simultaneously in English and French activate phonological representations from only the language in which they are reading or from both of their languages. Children in French Immersion programs in Grade 3 were asked to name aloud cognates, interlingual homographs, interlingual homophones,…

The Texas Education Code (§ 29.051) requires school districts to provide every language minority student with the opportunity to participate in either a bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) program. This evaluation report summarizes the performance of students who participated in the district's Dual Language Bilingual Program. Included…

This study investigated the effect of mother tongue instruction and gender on second language acquisition using a causal-comparative quantitative research design. The two distinguishing groups compared were (i) learners that were taught in their mother tongue (Afrikaans) and (ii) learners that were not taught in their mother tongue but in English,…

Considerable research documents students' outcomes in dual language (DL) programs, but there is little examination of students' perceptions of bilingualism and its impact on students' cognitive functioning and social relationships, especially with comparative studies across different target languages and student backgrounds. This study, which…

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of the integration of global experiences on in-service teachers' international perspectives in mathematics classroom teaching through offering a graduate course "Global Perspectives in Mathematics Teaching" in the form of the East Meets West Program. This program engages teachers in an…

Elementary Spanish language immersion programs have become more popular in the educational field in the United States to support the academic achievement of minority students. The final goal of immersion programs is to develop proficiency in the home language and dominant language, identified as first language (L1) and second language (L2), to…