Describes a case study of a second-language student's writing process and development over the course of two years. Provides both a qualitative and quantitative perspective to second-language writing development. Presents a rationale for analyzing errors and syntactic maturity to better understand strategies employed by students when writing in a…

The escalating cost of higher education is causing many to question the value of continuing education beyond high school. To determine whether higher education is worth the investment, it is useful to examine what is known about the value of higher education and the rates of return on investment to both the individual and society. There is…

This study examines the ways in which college students in Japan overcame sensitivity to external evaluation and increased their willingness to communicate in English. It is not uncommon for university students in Japan, who are otherwise proficient speakers of English and motivated to learn, fail to exhibit English competency in real communication…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association in 2010 as part of a widespread standards-based reform movement in the United States. The education marketplace has responded with CCSS-aligned products, including standardised tests, professional development…

Author traces the changing role of two year colleges in the American Educational system and tells how they will continue to grow in their influence. (GB)

The topic of this newsletter is Student Transitions Project Research Question #2: What is the nature and distribution of the transition of students from the kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) education system into B.C. public post-secondary institutions over a multi-year period? (For secondary school graduates of 2001/02 to 2003/04 and post-secondary…

The vocabulary knowledge of 166 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Taiwan was measured annually over a five year period using a bilingual version of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Nation, 1983, 1990; Schmitt, Schmitt, and Clapham, 2001). The five years of data collection involved English language instruction in high school and…

Dr. Jon Quistgaard, president of Bemidji State University (BSU), is unhappy with the way the national media has portrayed the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota, the nearby city of Bemidji and American Indian life in general. That such coverage is even a matter of discussion is the result of a tragedy: On March 21, Jeffrey Weise, a…

South African higher education institutions, in line with international practice and as a result of the "social turn", are progressing towards mainstream academic literacy support for students. This shift has a political dimension in South Africa where, historically, disadvantage has had racial dimensions, in its departure from…

This report concludes the first series of reports on the "Challenge to Lead" goals. It includes an action agenda, "From Goals to Results ... Making It Happen," that can help states make progress toward their goals. This report also summarizes the conclusions and recommendations from the earlier. The first 11 reports chronicle a remarkable record…

Two-year colleges support a great diversity of learning objectives including: courses of study that articulate with and transfer to four-year colleges and universities, technical education and other career-oriented programs, developmental education for students underprepared to begin college work, and additional course work for students who have…

Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC) is a multi-site action-research project, focused on teaching and learning in pre-collegiate mathematics and English language arts courses at 11 California community colleges. In this report, the author discusses the data gathered over the course of the SPECC project and reflects…

This study aimed to study cognitive learning styles of EFL students, compare language learning styles among students categorized by their background, and investigate the relationship between English background knowledge and language learning styles. The samples were 210 undergraduate students enrolled in Fundamental English course at Bangkok…

This study investigated contemporary Japanese college students' attitudes towards Japan English (JE) and American English (AE) through a verbal guise test (VGT) as well as a questionnaire. Forty-four Japanese college students listened to four Japanese and four North Americans reading a text in English, rated them in terms of…

Along with the global spread of English and the wide recognition of World Englishes, a whole breadth of studies have been conducted to explore the attitudes of learners toward different varieties of English. In China, however, only two pioneering studies have examined this issue. To address this gap, this study investigated the attitudes of…