This study was undertaken to discover how fourth-and fifth-grade teachers implemented the systematic Focused English Language Development (FELD) program with English Language Learners (ELL) students. ELL students are not reaching proficiency at a higher rate because of the gap in teachers' understanding of effective teaching practices and…

Two-way immersion (TWI) programs in the U.S. integrate learners with different home languages and varied proficiencies in Spanish and English. Although both English home language (EHL) and Spanish home language (SHL) TWI students succeed academically in English, they often experience incomplete acquisition (Montrul 2011. "Morphological Errors…

Despite the proclaimed mono-cultural and mono-linguistic profile, in reality, diversity lies at the core of classrooms. This paper outlines the literature on diversity in young learners' classrooms followed by student and teacher reflections on diversity issues in the EFL context. Sixty-two primary school students studying at the 4th and 5th grade…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) constitute worthwhile spaces in which to study teacher participation in the reflective practices that have potential to shift their teaching. This qualitative case study details the interactions between dual-language and ELL teachers in a grade-level PLC as they met together to confer over video-clips of…

This qualitative case study investigated 4 Korean elementary level English language learners' (ELLs) cultural identities when they read online texts at home and school. The participants were fourth- or fifth-grade students. The data consisted of observations, interviews, field notes, reflective journals, and the ELLs' verbal reports at home and…

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…

This study aimed to identify the approaches employed by teachers in teaching Contemporary Children's Literature Program to upper primary school. Using classroom observations and interview as research instruments, this paper evaluates the approaches of five ESL teachers teaching Year 5 students and examines the various challenges faced by them in…

This study analyzed 24 pre-service elementary school English teachers' design and delivery of remedial education to the fifth and sixth graders in the collaboration between the university pre-service teacher education program and the local elementary school in a city in northwest Taiwan. The pre-service teachers were encouraged by the elementary…

This paper reports an action research study aimed at understanding how to sensitize young English language learners towards caring for the environment. The pedagogical intervention in a 5th grade class consisted in the use of creative writing strategies to express learners' ideas. Three stages were followed: "recognizing facts,"…

I will describe a program that I developed to motivate grade five elementary school learners of English in Singapore to put more time and effort into learning English by enhancing their vision of their Ideal second language (L2) self and making their goals for learning English more clear and specific. The Ideal L2 self is the representation of the…

In this article, the author explores the idea that reading proficiency in a second language involves comprehending the second culture and using it to interpret the world view of the second language. Using cognitive theory, the author examined the relevance of prior knowledge of Chinese language and idioms to understanding text written in Chinese.…

Research investigating affective dimensions in reading has long been plagued by vaguely defined constructs and, consequently, by an array of potentially problematic instruments designed to measure them. This mixed-methods study investigated the relationship among three popular group-administered instruments intended to tap affective constructs in…

THE PROBLEM: This study investigated students' perceptions of the English Village Program at the Fong Shan Elementary School in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan. The main objectives of this research were to discover the fifth graders' motivation and attitudes toward (a) the simulated theme classrooms, (b) the native English-speaking teacher's instruction,…

This paper describes diverse language learners' use of dialogue journaling in an elementary school setting. The author, a teacher researcher, conducted a qualitative research study with eight participants, ranging from fourth to sixth grade; all were learners adding English to their language repertoire. Through an in-depth analysis of student…

This article examines why students participated in British Columbia's first intensive French (IF) program between 2004 and 2008 and what they achieved as a result, with a particular focus on the effect on the French and English language proficiency of English as additional language (EAL) students. Qualitative case studies found that students and…