English-as-a-Second-Language Reading Instruction in the United States: A Research Review

1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Oral Reading ◽  
The United States ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Research Review ◽  
Esl Reading ◽  
Discourse Patterns

The purpose of this review is to characterize research and portray findings on English-as-a-second-language (ESL) reading instruction in the United States. The spectrum of research on ESL reading instruction in the United States might best be characterized as having considerable breadth, but little depth. However, some tentative themes emerged. Among the most important statements that could be made were the following. First, some broad classroom parameters were discerned: Students may work mainly in small groups, stressing word recognition and oral reading; typical instructional discourse patterns may be incompatible with common home-discourse patterns; and teachers may work with lower ESL groups in different ways and stress lower level skills even more as compared to higher ESL groups. Second, research contributed little clarification on issues surrounding the role and timing of native-language reading instruction and ESL reading instruction for ESL reading achievement. Third, instruction targeting specific student knowledge, such as vocabulary knowledge, background knowledge, and text-structure knowledge, was generally effective. Fourth, there was a paucity of information about important issues related to ESL reading in teacher materials.

Guide to Academic Libraries in the United States for Students of English as a Second Language

1981 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Barbara Brock ◽  
Patricia Byrd ◽  
Carol A. Drum ◽  
Barbara Jean Wittkopf
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
The United States

A Photo-Narrative of the Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Identities of a Refugee Adolescent

2019 ◽  
pp. 233-250
Author(s):  
Alex P. Davies
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Summer School ◽  
First Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Refugee Camp ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
School Year

One's linguistic discourse is directly linked to his or her identity construction. The author conducted a qualitative study that investigated the sociolinguistic and sociocultural identities, both current and imagined, of a newly arrived adolescent of refugee status, named Yerodin, through a photo-narrative approach. Yerodin was unique in that he was 11 years old when he arrived to the United States but did not have any prior formalized schooling. Therefore, he was illiterate in both his first language of Swahili and second language of English. This study took place during a summer school program that sought to develop Yerodin and his siblings' literacy skills before the upcoming school year. Findings illustrated Yerodin's current identity as one who appreciated his experiences in the refugee camp prior to resettlement and as an English learner. Furthermore, Yerodin realized that English, his second language, and academics were key to accessing his desired communities of identity, including aspects of American culture and friendships with “American peers.”

The Closing of the Constitution

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (03) ◽  
pp. 861-866
Author(s):  
Kevin Arlyck
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
American Constitution ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Federalist Papers ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

Anyone who picks up a recent volume of the United States Reports or a prominent legal journal will be sure to find judges and lawyers debating, in agonizing detail, the meaning of a particular word or phrase in the Constitution. Marshaling late-eighteenth century dictionaries and legal treatises, records of debates from the drafting and ratifying conventions, and well-thumbed copies of the Federalist Papers, modern constitutional interlocutors will scrutinize text, structure, and history to discern an inherent logic. Above all, although disputants will endlessly contest what a particular provision means, they largely agree on what the Constitution itself is: as Jonathan Gienapp puts it in The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era, “an artifact circumscribed in time and space,” the “fixed Constitution” that we have been collectively dissecting since the late 1780s (10).

Objective Psychological Measurement and Alcoholism: Survey of the Literature 1973

1978 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilma J. Knox
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Test Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Problem Area ◽  
Psychological Test ◽  
Research Review ◽  
Psychological Measurement ◽  
Review Articles

The literature published during 1973 on alcoholics in the United States was examined for objective psychological test data or behavioral measurements. Information was grouped according to problem area and included tests employed, significant findings, critical comments, and inferences for therapy and research. Review articles of 1973 are listed in an appendix.

Second-language learners and taboo words in American English

English Today ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma A. Register
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
The United States ◽  
Taboo Words

A review of the problems learners of English can have with actual and borderline taboo usages in the United States

Teachers’ Declared Intentions to Shift Practice to Incorporate Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theories

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Markham ◽  
Mary Rice ◽  
Behnaz Darban ◽  
Tsung-Han Weng
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
English Learners ◽  
The United States ◽  
Domestic Students ◽  
Contested Terrain ◽  
Intentions To Change

While the number of English Learners (ELs) in the United States is steadily growing in most states, teacher preparation for working with ELs is far from universal. It fact, it is contested terrain as to whether information about topics like Second Language Acquisition (SLA) are helpful generally, and if so, what theories teachers are willing to adopt. The purpose of this study was to learn whether teachers in an SLA theory course would declare intentions to change their notions about SLA and express them as desire to shift practice. We also wondered if there were differences in pre-service versus in-service and international versus domestic students. The results confirmed that the participants were willing to change their initial theories because of participating in a second language acquisition course that presented information about SLA theories at a Completely Different or Somewhat Different level by the end of the course.

ACADEMIC WORDS AND GENDER

1998 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Scarcella ◽  
Cheryl Zimmerman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Length Of Residence ◽  
Sat Scores ◽  
Educational Backgrounds ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

This paper seeks to resolve certain questions pertaining to the relationship between gender and second language vocabulary knowledge. One question we examine is whether female and male ESL students at the University of California at Irvine differ significantly in their knowledge of academic vocabulary in English as measured by scores on the Test of Academic Lexicon (TAL). One hundred ninety-two freshman university ESL students participated in the study. A t test, used to investigate differences in the TAL scores of males and females, reveals that the males performed better on the TAL than the females (t = 3.32, p = .001). Analyses of covariance were used to examine questions pertaining to the effect of gender on the TAL, controlling for the possible effects of the students' verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, length of residence in the United States, and age of arrival in the United States. In all cases, gender remains significantly related to the results of the TAL when controlling for the other variable: for verbal SAT scores, F(1,181) = 5.86, p < .05; for length of residence, F(1,187) = 9.64, p < .01; and for age of arrival in the United States, F(1,185) = 10.22, p < .005. Neither the present study nor the gender literature reviewed suggests that gender itself causes differences in the TAL scores. In analyzing the results, we consider possible explanations for the males' better TAL scores related to reading habits, interactional styles, educational backgrounds, and cultures.

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