Concerns among educators continue to grow with the increased enrollment of Second Language Learners (SLL) in classrooms throughout the United States. This influx has stressed the boundaries of current methods of literacy instruction, which are not designed to meet the needs of these at-risk students. Literacy instructional methods need to be remediated through early intervention, followed by effective literacy instruction that is designed to meet the specific needs of SLL. Effective literacy instruction overcomes differences in culture and background by using meaning-based instruction coupled with engaging and varied contexts. This study evaluated the effectiveness of incorporating meaning-based instructional activities into a two-way bilingual kindergarten classroom. The instruction, Systematic and Engaging Early Literary Instruction (SEEL), is designed to explicitly instruct at-risk children in the acquisition of early reading skills. Specifically, the study assessed the effectiveness of SEEL instruction by comparing a classroom of children who received SEEL instruction with a classroom of children receiving other supplemental literacy supports.

At the beginning of each term, a handful of students who are linguistically unable to function in an English-speaking classroom appear at the doors of intensive English language programs across the globe. The English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University (BYU) is no exception. In the recent past, five to twelve students have arrived each semester inadequately prepared for the lowest level class available. When placed in that level (Level One), these so-called "Level Zero" students have had trouble progressing and have also delayed the progress of the entire class. Without intervention, these students can continue to lag behind and pull down the level of the class throughout their time at the ELC. Finding or creating a solution to this ongoing problem was the purpose of this project. The solution presented here is to develop and implement a new curriculum designed specifically for these students. This course of action presents its own challenges, such as ensuring cost-effectiveness, providing adequate staffing, and finding or creating appropriate course materials. Each of these challenges has been addressed. Cost effectiveness and adequate staffing are ensured by utilizing unpaid interns from the BYU undergraduate TESOL minor program as teachers, and paying only one experienced teacher who functions as a supervisor and a teacher as needed. Course materials, some only recently developed, were chosen for the All Skills Class, the Vocabulary Class, the Reading Class, and the Lab Class. These classes currently constitute the Foundations Prep Course. The need for this curriculum was reiterated during a needs analysis conducted Winter Semester of 2009 by the students of the BYU Linguistics 677 (Curriculum Development) class. The Foundations Prep curriculum was then developed by the author during the summer of 2009 and implemented by her the following semester at the ELC. It is again being utilized there Winter Semester 2010. Institutional and financial feasibility, progress of students, reactions of members of the Executive Council, of the Foundations Prep Teacher/Supervisor, and of the interns, have all been examined to aid in considering the efficacy of continuing this program into the future.

The current study examines the effect of repeated reading aloud upon speaking fluency. Because there is little evidence in the literature that the practice of repeated reading aloud can have a positive effect upon speaking fluency, the primary goal of this study was to investigate this relationship further. For the purposes of the study, speaking fluency was defined as fluidity and smoothness of speech with little pausing and hesitation. It is measured by evaluating the following fluency features: speech rate, number of pauses, length of pauses, phonation/time ratio, and articulation rate. The repeated measures experimental design of the study involved current and former Brigham Young University students learning Russian as a foreign language. They were divided into two groups: control and experimental. The participants in the experimental group performed repeated reading aloud activities daily, while those in the control group read the same passages silently. All participants took weekly speaking tests consisting of simple speaking prompts. The final post-test included both reading aloud and speaking tests. The speech samples collected from the tests were evaluated using computer-based analysis as well as scores from three raters who are native speakers of the Russian language. The statistical analysis and comparison of these scores revealed mixed results. The rater scores did not exhibit any statistically significant difference between the groups, which could be attributed to overall low inter-rater reliability and short duration of the experiment. On the other hand, the computer-generated scores for mean length of pauses, phonation/time ratio, and speech rate of the experimental group were better than those of the control group. This difference proved to be statistically significant based on the results of one-way and repeated measures ANOVA analyses. Unfortunately because of the high attrition rate and short duration of the study, these results cannot be generalized. Therefore further research is necessary to confirm or reject these findings

Technology is changing education. Just 30 years ago, instructors were using slow, inefficient technology such as projectors and reels of film, whereas today they have instant access to video from anywhere in the world. This capability has the potential to change the way that language is being taught and learned. Instead of students relying solely on their teacher and textbook for linguistic input, they have access to the Internet which holds a seemingly endless amount of information. This study was inspired by the belief that it is possible to maximize the potential benefit from that availability by implementing the theory that people learn language best when they have access to comprehensible input (Buri, 2012; Crossley, Allen, & McNamara, 2012; Krashen, 1985; Shintani, 2012; Zarei & Rashvand 2011). It also implements the belief of some second-language acquisitions theorists that subtitled video provides language learners with more comprehensible input than non-subtitled video alone (Borrás & Lafayette, 1994; Chun & Plass, 1996; Danan, 2004; Di Carlo, 1994). Thus, this study used interactive subtitled video to investigate the effects of three word definition types on participants' vocabulary comprehension and involved the selection of 120 Russian (L2)words of equal difficulty that were randomly sorted into one of four groups -- three treatments and a control group. Each treatment group contained 30 Russian words with a different type of definition in English (L1): dictionary definitions, which provided the viewers with the definition they would find in the bilingual dictionary; glosses which provided the viewers with the exact meaning of the word only as it pertains to the given context; and annotations which provided an explanation to clarify a word's use in different contexts or its non-traditional uses. Participants totaled 53 men and women ages 18-30 from 4 countries, US, Canada, Germany, and Sweden, who were advanced L2 learners of Russian. To control for the possible effects of a pretest, some of the subjects took a vocabulary pretest, and then all subjects watched a film in Russian with Russian subtitles, which was immediately followed by a vocabulary posttest. Results showed that annotations were most conducive to vocabulary gains, followed by glosses, dictionary definitions, and no definition, respectively. Although this was not the case for all participants, this outcome did hold for the majority, and several possible reasons for this outcome are discussed.

The present study was designed to understand the retrospective account of the learning experience of four successful learners of Russian who made substantial oral gains as measured by the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) during a semester study abroad (SA) program in Moscow, Russia. Each participant made as much as two sublevels' improvement on the ACTFL scale, even those who began with Advanced level proficiency. Specifically, the study examines what students believe, how they exercise their agency, cope with constraints, and take advantage of affordances in out-of-class contexts. The qualitative data includes semi-structured interviews while quantitative data consists of pre- and post-program OPI scores. This research addresses the question of second language learning in a foreign language immersion program through thick description and through cross-case analyses. Findings were interpreted in relation to van Lier's theory of the ecology of language learning (2004) and the notion of affordances which suggests that if learners are proactive and outgoing (or initiate interactions) they will perceive language affordances as valuable and will use them. This theoretical approach provides a means to understand how most students were able to improve in oral performance while lacking meaningful contact with native speakers (NSs) or struggling to make friends with them. Regardless of the difficulties encountered during their time in Russia, students exercised their agency through participating in more self-initiated non-interactive activities without being directed by others. Each of the students perceived the meaning of his or her learning experience in a different way, demonstrating how the SA experience is highly individualized. This study argues that regardless of students' individual differences, they have one key principle in common: autonomous behavior. Further research is needed to investigate what fosters learners' autonomy and contributes to learners' self-efficacy.

In Sweden, there are three subjects that are mandatory to pass to be qualified for further studies (gymnasium) after year 9 of elementary school: English, Mathematics and Swedish. Sweden has a long tradition of teaching English as a foreign language in schools, from a very young age. However, municipalities and schools are given the freedom in Sweden to decide when to start teaching English, between age 7-10, which means that there could be a great difference between schools and different parts of the country. It also means that there are different reasons and discussions behind when and why students should start learning. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what reasons and discussions lie behind different schools’ decision of when to start teaching English. The head teachers and one teacher from three different types of schools were interviewed to find what their views were. The results look at whether the decision was based on research, if teachers were involved in the decision, whether they viewed positive or negative effects of an early language start, if there are any practical issues with an early start and whether or not different age starts affects an equal school for all. The four interviewees answered quite similarly to the questions with only some exceptions. The decision at all schools was to start English language instruction from year 1, in a playful manner with games, songs and rhymes. The general feeling at all schools seems to be that the earlier language instruction starts, the better. This assumption has not been based on any specific research, but rather something, that is considered a ‘universal truth’

The purpose of this degree paper is to look at some adolescents’ use of English inconversations outside of school. Adolescents in today’s society come into contact with theEnglish language in various different ways and one of these can be through oral interactionwith others.By using a mixed-method approach consisting of a questionnaire and interviews thisqualitative study provides an insight into some adolescents’ extramural Englishinteractions. The goal is to find out why some students at a school in the south of Swedenchoose to speak English in settings where there is no apparent reason for them to do so. Theaim is also to see what the conversations look like and what attitudes the students havetowards English. It was found that the main reason is because the students think it is morefun to speak English than Swedish. They claimed that they can express themselves better inEnglish and that it sounds better to speak English. The conversations occur spontaneouslyand errors are corrected. Two groups of students were interviewed and their answersdiffered, because their attitudes towards English differed. The students, who engaged themost in extramural English conversations, were well aware of the usefulness of English.

Syftet med undersökningen var att undersöka klassrumsinteraktionen i två sjundeklasser med elever med blandade språkbakgrunder. Undersökningen innehåller ett undervisningsförsök där eleverna i smågrupper skulle omsätta innehållet i en faktatext till en bild. Genom observationer, bandinspelningar och intervjuer undersöktes kommunikationen i smågrupperna. Bilder samlades in och analyserades.Det visade sig att klassruminteraktionen mestadels var monologisk men med en strävan från lärarens sida att få eleverna mer delaktiga. Kommunikationsmönstret skilde sig åt mellan grupperna, några diskuterade mycket medan andra ritade under tystnad. Bilderna föreställde oftast gubbar som utförde aktiviteter i naturen.Mina slutsatser var att man borde fostra eleverna in i ett dialogiskt förhållningssätt till den naturvetenskapliga diskursen och andra elevers yttringar. Det är också viktigt hur man utformar gruppuppgifterna så att eleverna måste kommunicera med varandra för att lösa uppgiften. Bildskapandet ger eleverna ytterligare ett sätt att uttrycka sig på och kan fungera som ett stöd när de ska förklara saker för varandra. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the interaction and communication in two seventh grade classrooms. The pupils had different linguistic backgrounds and the study had a focus on the development of Swedish as a second language.During a biology lesson the pupils where formed in mixed groups. They where given a text about the legal right of access to private land and open country. Together they should draw a picture that would explain to tourists what the law was about.In the study different methods where used; observations of the classroom and of the small groups, tape recording of small group talk and interviews with the teacher and the pupils as well as picture analysis.The study showed that the interaction in the classroom was dominated by the teachers voice. This had an effect on the communication in some of the small groups were the pupils did not listen to each other. But in other groups the pupils had a more democratic communication. It is of great importance how the teacher forms the tasks in order to get the pupils to communicate and listen to each other.

This study examined explicit and systematic reading instruction for Hispanic, limited English, lower SES students in a southwest Florida school district. Additionally, collective teacher efficacy was assessed to determine if differences existed between a Reading First and a non-Reading First school. A total of 68 students participated in the study and were divided equally between a Reading First and non-Reading First school. While the Reading First school concentrated resources on grades 2 and 3, all students received some degree of Reading First strategies. Available reading measures for analyses at the time of the study included the Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE), the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Results from two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) did not reveal significant differences between the two groups on a pre and posttest administration of the GRADE. When the two groups were combined, repeated measures ANOVA indicated a significant difference between pre and post administrations of the GRADE with the posttest being significantly higher. Grades 4 and 5 showed significant gains between pre and posttest while grades 2 and 3 did not. It was hypothesized that as students' English proficiency improved, reading instruction became more meaningful and thus positively influenced the posttest. Both the GRADE and the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency test were significantly correlated with the FCAT. Regression analyses revealed that both were significant predictors individually and combined of the FCAT reading score. Collective teacher efficacy was assessed with the short-form of the Collective Teacher Efficacy Scale (CTES). A total of 38 Reading First teachers and 30 non-Reading First teachers completed the CTES and a brief biographical questionnaire. Results indicated significantly higher collective teacher efficacy in the non-Reading First school. Findings did not support the hypothesis that the intensity of the Reading First program and the teacher training required would result in significantly higher collective efficacy. Differences in level of teacher education, experience, and years teaching in a school were speculated as potential variables influencing the level of collective efficacy. Implications from this study were discussed along with recommendations for future research.

Vocabulary in a second language is an indispensable building block of all comprehension (Folse, 2006; Nation, 2006). Teachers in content area classes such as science, math, and social studies frequently teach content specific vocabulary, but are not aware of the obstacles that can occur when students do not know the basic words. Word lists such as the General Service List (GSL) were created to assist students and teachers (West, 1953). The GSL does not adequately take into account the high level of polysemy of many common English words, nor has it been updated by genre to reflect specific content domains encountered by secondary science students in today's high stakes classes such as chemistry. This study examines how many words of the first 1000 words of the GSL occurred in the secondary chemistry textbooks sampled, how often the first 1000 words of the GSL were polysemous, and specifically which multiple meanings occurred. A discussion of results includes word tables that list multiple meanings present, example phrases that illustrate the context surrounding the target words, suggestions for a GSL that is genre specific to secondary chemistry textbooks and that is ranked by meaning as well as type, and implications for both vocabulary materials and classroom instruction for ELLs in secondary chemistry classes. Findings are essential to second language (L2) researchers, materials developers, publishers, and teachers.