In 2011, Oklahoma City University (OCU) opened its Community English School. This school implemented a project-based curriculum that was designed to accommodate English language learners from various proficiency levels and with varying amounts of time to invest in learning a new language. The school was staffed completely by students in OCU's…

English as a second language (ESL) writing teachers face distinct challenges as they try to help students write in the language that is appropriate and natural to the native-English-speaking audience. It is disheartening when the writings of even advanced-level second language students often contain many awkward sentences and non-English-like…

Although English as a second language (ESL) programs are common in the United States, there is surprisingly little research documenting the existing structures and mentoring strategies they use. This lack of research could be partly due to ESL programs' widely varying internal structures (Larson, 1990) and the fact that they are often marginalized…

This article examines the nature of a sustained staff development program for teachers serving English learners in elementary schools. It begins by exploring the need for learners to have optimum language and content development, and indicates that many U.S. grade-level and content area teachers have not been prepared to meet that need. Focusing…

"As Kroll (1993), among others, has pointed out, reading has traditionally been seen as a skill to be taught separately from writing, as well as something students are somehow expected to already know about when they reach the writing course, Teaching reading in a writing course may seem like an odd idea, if not an entirely unnecessary one. It may…

A good deal of attention has been focused on the need to prepare teachers to work with the increasing number of English language learners (ELLs) in today's classrooms. Many would argue that this preparation should be provided at the preservice level so that new teachers are ready to meet the demands of all learners, but in particular ELLs.…

This article reports on an exploratory study of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' attitudes, beliefs, and professional knowledge about teaching EFL (TEFL) in a preschool setting in China. The investigation is structured on a two-dimensional grid based on Calderhead's (1996) categorisation of teachers' attitudes and beliefs and…

The authors report on an exploratory pilot project implemented in a large city on the U.S.-Mexico border. The project focuses on a curricular design in a secondary school where beginning-level English as a second language students are taught English language arts in Spanish. The researchers sought to determine whether these students made greater…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether licensed in-service teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) in K-12 schools are more knowledgeable in the area of applied linguistics than their nonlicensed counterparts, and whether the ESOL-licensed teachers who have taken courses toward their licensure are more knowledgeable in…

This article describes the effects of participation and collaboration in an in-service professional development project for secondary content area teachers referred to as "turnaround training." The participating teachers were experienced, skilled practitioners in their content areas (math, science, social studies, or English language arts) who…

Developing assessments within a program can create more useful measures of our students' language. This includes rating scales used in performance assessments such as writing or speaking tests. This article describes the process of development, use, and revision of a writing placement scale by teachers in an intensive English language program. To…

This study discusses a method to promote raising critical consciousness in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom via creative writing activities by having students write journals and/or personal letters from the perspective of individuals from outside groups that have been marginalized or vilified in the students' dominant culture.…

Using Blogger, a free Google-powered weblog-generating website, English as a second language (ESL) instructors can create motivating and empowering learning opportunities for students. Instructors can generate their own blogs, including not only a class blog that builds a community-learning setting online, but also a teacher's homepage to…

This study explored the perceptions of adult English language learners about audience response systems (clickers) as tools to facilitate communication. According to second language acquisition theory, learners' receptive capabilities in the early stages of second language acquisition surpass expressive capabilities, often rendering them silent in…

To help in-service English teachers improve their teaching practices and pupils' learning opportunities through an enquiry-oriented and cooperative approach, the author carried out collaborative action research during a practicum in a teacher education course at a university in Hong Kong. This article describes how the collaborative research…