Calls to integrate media literacy into K-12 language classrooms appear to have gone largely unheeded. However, media literacy skills are seen as crucial for 21st-century learners. This article answers the calls for a focus on media literacy in the language classroom by addressing both why and how systematic attention might be brought to this issue…

Elementary school English teachers in Taiwan face classes of students with differing levels of English proficiency, to the point where about one-third of the students may have never learned English before, and another third may already have read Harry Potter in English. A successful teacher recognizes that diversity may affect learning and works…

After introducing new curriculum guidelines during education reform, the Taiwan Ministry of Education has taken the lead in integrating a communicative approach into the new English language curriculum. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is viewed as a realisation of communicative language teaching and is one of the most popular English language…

The purpose of this article is to describe the Quality Educators Academy (QEA), a year-long training for K-8 classroom teachers that was funded by a NC ESEA Title II-A Improving Teacher Quality (NC QUEST) Grant. Key features of the project as well as the design and content of the training contributed to success in recruiting, retaining, and…

Because English language teachers should take into account the social-psychological situation of the students they teach, they must be sensitive to the effects of traumatic stress among learners. Refugee and immigrant children are frequently survivors of trauma, along with their peers in crisis-torn English as a foreign language settings around…

This article contributes to the literature on nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) teachers by providing specific ways in which they can use their nonnative status in the classroom and in their professional work in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Drawing on the author's own experiences as an English learner, she…

Message boards provide an opportunity for students, teachers, and parents to write (or draw) about a story from their lives on a large or small chalkboard. Oral language is then used to describe the written message during a structured circle time. (It is a variation of the traditional show-and-tell except that the focus is on the communication of…

The author, a teacher educator, explains that because of a lack of training in language studies, many teachers do not view language as linguists do. She identifies three misconceptions (and the implications they have for English language learners) that still persist in education: Standard English is the best and most correct form of English,…

Educators are concerned with providing support in the classroom for all students. This is particularly true with students who are learning English as a second or additional language. In the past 10 years, even teachers in remote and rural areas of the United States have felt the impact of immigration and sought professional development for working…

Three tips for the classroom include the use of literature circles, integrating reading and writing through literature response; and teaching critical challenges via dramatic arts. (Author/VWL)

Examines issues related to teaching in culturally diverse classrooms. Provides proactive strategies teachers and administrators can use that begin the process of sharing cultural differences and working toward creating mutually agreeable solutions. (Author/VWL)

Two language teachers offer guidance to help other English-as-a-Second-/Foreign-Language educators incorporate pronunciation activities into oral communication courses as well as other instructional settings. (Author/VWL)

The tips discussed here center around favor asking and English as a Second Language, a collaborative writing activity, e-mail assignments nd online correction, and facilitating full-time employment in TESOL (Author/VWL)

Offers a technique for helping English-as-a-Second-Language students to remember to speak English during group work. (Author/VWL)

Provides a lesson plan for teaching phrasal verbs to English-as-a-Second-Language students that involves authentic texts in English and is most suitable for intermediate and advanced learning levels. Magazine and newspaper articles on topics relevant to a given class will provide interesting reading material containing up-to-date language.…