Title III of Public Law 107-110 (No Child Left Behind; NCLB) provided for creation of assessments of English language learners (ELLs) and established, through the Enhanced Assessment Grant program, a platform from which four consortia of states developed ELL tests aligned to rigorous statewide content standards. Those four tests (ACCESS for ELLs,…

"Decoding"--converting the written symbols (or graphemes) of an alphabetical writing system into the sounds (or phonemes) they represent, using knowledge of the language's symbol/sound correspondences--has been argued to be an important but neglected skill in the teaching of second language (L2) French in English secondary schools.…

This empirical study was undertaken to test the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer and Hulstijn, 2001) by examining the impact of three tasks on vocabulary acquisition. It was designed to test and develop the involvement load hypothesis by examining the impact of different reading tasks on the L2 vocabulary acquisition. The results show that…

Based on a mixed methods research design that included an examination of the impact of summer, case study analyses, and survey findings, English learners appear to have an advantage over their non-English learner peers in resisting summer loss and developing social competence. This study examined the effect of summer vacation on the oral reading…

This research investigates the effectiveness of the Instrumental Enrichment Approach on the enhancement of the reading comprehension skills of learners with English Language Learning Difficulties. It aims at identifying the reading comprehension skills required for preparatory stage English language learners, re-develop and teach sample materials…

With the number of alternative pathways now available for entry into Australian universities, the number of international students is steadily increasing. This article reports on the undergraduate results of a teaching project at the University of Canberra, Australia, and explored whether the introduction of a discipline-based reading program into…

Having the skills and strategies to comprehend and respond to information on the Internet plays a crucial role in students' success in a digital information age. Defined as the deliberate conscious control of one's own cognitive actions, metacognitive reading strategies can help readers overcome problems they encounter and ultimately achieve…

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between working memory capacity and L2 reading comprehension of both linear texts and hypertexts. Three different instruments were used to measure comprehension (recall, comprehension questions and perception of contradictions) and the Reading Span Test (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980) was…

Reading in a foreign or second language is often a laborious process, often caused by underdeveloped word recognition skills, among other things, of second and foreign language readers. Developing fluency in L2/FL reading has become an important pedagogical issue in L2 settings and one major component of reading fluency is fast and accurate word…

This report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP), an independent nonprofit organization, examines progress in raising achievement for English language learners. It also describes the factors that make it difficult to accurately assess what ELLs know and can do. The data for this analysis were collected by CEP with technical support from the…

This article reports on a large-scale study that aims to validate the theory of strategic competence proposed by Bachman and Palmer (1996) through the use of structural equation modeling (SEM). The present study examines the relationship of test-takers' long-term strategic knowledge (i.e., trait strategies) and actual strategy use (i.e., state…

The number of English language learners has grown in the Northeast & Islands Region over the past decade. While the total student population shrank 3.5 percent between 2001/02 and 2009/10, the population of English language learner students grew 7.6 percent and now constitutes 6.1 percent of students in the region, up from 5.5 percent in…

Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading. Eighteen of the districts participating in the 2011 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) participated in earlier assessment years, while three districts…

To facilitate the interpretation of test scores from the redesigned TOEIC® (listening and reading) test as a measure of English language proficiency, we administered a self-assessment inventory to TOEIC examinees in Japan and Korea that gathered perceptions of their ability to perform a variety of everyday English language tasks. TOEIC scores…

The purpose of this action research paper is to disseminate the results of a 2-month study which focuses on how a student's first language (L1) reading comprehension skills affect the same skills in their second language (L2). The subjects of the study are sixth grade girls, ranging in age from 11 to 13 years old. They attend a private bilingual…