ESOL

This research highlights the challenge of providing digital literacy instruction
in a second language to adult learners who may have had limited formal
education. Animating the work is the view that success in classroom learning is linked to proficiency with linguistic structures constituting the academic language of a context (Schleppegrell, 2004) and that instructional strategies and resources mediate learning (Vygotsky, 1987). Two questions guided the study: what are the linguistic structures evident in classroom discourse on basic computer skills; and what instructional strategies promote proficiency of this academic language? The goal of the analysis was to develop an awareness of the linguistic features defining the ‘field’ of the context (Schleppegrell, 2004) and then to identify  interactions whereby teachers made them accessible to learners. Findings support the strategy of explicit vocabulary introduction preceding or provided in correspondence with computer skill instruction, and provision of ample opportunities to practice and deepen knowledge of skills and vocabulary to a conceptual level.

Second language learning involves affective factors such as interactions with the dominant linguistic and cultural group, and related problems of self-concept, identity, and self-esteem. Substantial attention has not been paid to these categories in the field of earlier studies of second language acquisition. In recent years however, there has been increasing research on the relationship between second language learning and the question of identity. The lives of immigrant women, particularly of ethnic minority, may be complicated not only by gendered and systematic inequalities but also cultural conflicts which makes them struggle to define and redefine their identity. It is important to raise awareness of perceptions of immigrant women learning and speaking the language of the host community as their experiences intersect with race, gender and class, and contribute to their identity formations. Drawing on the poststructuralist notion of identity as “multiple, changing, and a site o...

In the United Kingdom (UK) there are two ways for applicants to fulfil the requirement to show their knowledge of English language and life in the UK: they can take a computer-based citizenship test or attend an English class which includes citizenship teaching. This article describes the background to the test and the struggle to ensure that applicants with lower levels of English would not be excluded. It focuses particularly on citizenship classes and the tension between the framing by politicians of the test as an entitlement for migrants which ensures access to their full set of rights, and the experience of the testing regime by those affected by it.

This article reviews the role of integrative motivation among overseas learners learning English at New College Lanarkshire, a further education college based in Scotland. The article discusses the role of integrative motivation in second language (L2) learning and examines the nature of the relationship between integrative motivation and L2 learning. The study engages students of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) who have various levels of English and represent diverse backgrounds through online questionnaires. The responses received from the learners pertaining to their integrative motivation provide valuable insight into not only their academic needs, but also their career related and social needs.

Abstract : 1. What are we doing when we do grammar ? / 2. So what is grammar?/ 3. Where do the rules in book grammars come from ? / 4. So is grammar just about the links between words ? / 5.Language grammar always happens at the same time as lots of other things in your brain / 6. What should grammar teachers teach ? / 7. Do students learn useful language control from studying grammar books? / 8. Can teachers teach grammar? / 9. How can language teachers be most useful? / 10. Do grammar mistakes matter? / 11. Is accuracy more important than fluency?

This is the outline of a seminar on grammar teaching given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, on 13 May 2008. Thor May has been teaching language and linguistics since 1976.

This paper introduces the policies and programmes implemented in the UK between 2001 and 2017 to support the integration of migrants. It considers in particular three key reports, 'What works in community cohesion', 'Integration and Opportunity' and 'Integration Not Demonisation' and the ways these have influenced government policy and public perceptions of integration, including government support for ESOL provision for migrants. There is particular reference to the situation relating to migrant women, as this overview of policy and programme will provide the background for Nafisah Graham-Brown's research study on newly arrived migrant women and the development of their social relationships. (Graham-Brown, forthcoming).

This workshop introduces “Reflect for ESOL”, a curriculum that promotes social change, community involvement, and group decision-making.  The presenter will share activities she used with refugee background adults from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Participants will adapt approaches to teach English and literacy in their local contexts.

As we know, teachers working in the field of ESOL have had numerous changes imposed upon their working conditions over the last ten years or more. Since austerity measures began in 2010, some of the most alarming consequences of the funding crisis have surrounded the increasingly precarious nature of teacher working conditions along with a growing deficit in opportunities for teacher education and professional development. Utilising the results of two online surveys conducted in 2019, this article aims to give voice to ESOL teachers and makes suggestions as to where efforts might best be directed to effect desperately needed change.

Understanding what motivates adults to learn a foreign language and the effects that summative exams have on their motivation is of interest and importance to teachers around the world. However, research on the motivation of students learning English in the United Kingdom is sparse and the impact of low-stakes exams in this context is unclear from present research. This article aims to investigate what motivates intermediate level (B1/B1+), adult students to join an ESOL course and whether the compulsory summative exam at the end of the course has any effect, positive or negative, on their decision to continue learning. Quantitative data was collected through student questionnaires and exam results, which was combined with qualitative data obtained through semi-structured student and teacher interviews. The results seem to show that the students' initial motivation at this level is mainly extrinsic, with the desire to integrate into British society taking priority over the need to pass an exam. These motivational factors appear to have an effect on how high stakes the students view the summative exam along with the consequences they experience in the classroom. Moreover, this research suggests that the role of the teacher throughout this process is pivotal in maintaining the students' motivation and controlling their perception of the exams. The research closes with an evaluation of the findings and recommendations for expanding on this study within similar contexts.

BALAV was inspired first by the presence of English & Spanish technical vocabulary in Texas secondary textbooks. Technical and formal English is descended from Latin and French--relatives of Spanish. Informal English is descended from German. Marzano and Pickering's model of vocabulary development is utilized. Hispanic achievement drops sharply between 4th and 11th grade; bilingual instruction is usually banned after 5th grade, regardless when the newcomers reached the US

An acceptable IELTS/PTE/TOEFL score is needed by students to get higher education in universities and by professionals to migrate for work and citizenships. IELTS Counselor prepares them to get the best possible scores, both in General and Academic modules of the exam.

This is a book about the role of language in the integration of migrants. The writers of the chapters are all engaged in the education of migrants as teachers, researchers or policymakers in a wide variety of contexts and they provide us with a rich and thought-provoking array of perspectives from teachers and learners on language issues in migration and integration. Through them we hear directly from learners, migrants who have arrived in a new country and are now striving to master the host language. We learn much from them about the place of language and language learning in their new lives.

Previous research (e.g. Waring 2011) has illustrated that learner initiatives have the potential to generate learning opportunities in second language (L2) classrooms. Despite a small body of recent research (e.g. Sert 2015) indicating that teacher’s responses to learner initiatives play a significant role in facilitating learning opportunities in teacher-student interactions, more work is needed to understand the resources teachers draw upon in their responses. This study contributes to this by examining how a teacher employs what we term ‘embodied enactments’ as a pedagogical tool to contingently respond to learner initiatives. Using Conversation Analysis, we examine a single case taken from a corpus of video data collected in a beginner-level adult English for Speakers of Other Languages classroom in the United States. The findings reveal that the teacher contingently and multimodally enacts imaginary contexts which help students to understand how the target vocabulary and phrases can be used in everyday life. In doing this, the teacher and students are bridging the gap between classroom discourse and language use outside of the classroom, and provides interactional space for promoting L2 learning.

These are notes on English stress, rhythm and intonation.

Part A is for students and Part B is for teachers.

The treatment here is “technical”, as by a linguist, but in very plain language. Even with poor formal English, L2 speakers who “sound right” will gain social acceptance, and this in turn will greatly accelerate their learning.

Firstly the concept of “the music of a language” is introduced. It is noted that languages are on a scale of “syllable timed” to “stress timed” (though this is not a simple matter). English is a stress-timed language. Both word stress and sentence stress are essential in English. However, proper word liaison and elision marks native speakers from non-native speakers. Some advice is given on how to practice privately and in a classroom. The importance of teacher talk as a model is noted.

Translanguaging has become a "hot topic" in the field of teaching and learning English as a new language; however, experienced ESL teachers have long recognized that culturally and linguistically diverse students bring unique strengths to language learning classrooms. One of those strengths is their ability to use what they already know about language to help them navigate a new linguistic system. This article shares a practical perspective on the theory of translanguaging and demonstrates how translanguaging practices may be used in classrooms to foster English language development across the language domains.

The paper is a half-day workshop that introduces elementary pre-service teachers to working with English language learners in their classes. Activities include (1) a discussion of potential contributions culturally and linguistically diverse students can make to the classroom, (2) an exploration of conceptualizing students' diverse needs, (3) practical suggestions for meeting the needs, (4) a jigsaw activity on WIDA's new Guiding Principles on Language Development, (5) a practical dissemination activity on federal mandates for educating limited English proficient students. The accompanying Powerpoint is available upon request; contact AndreaBHellman@missouristate.edu.

The scope of this article is Prescriptive Grammar.
Any English user may need a quick reference concerning conditionals in general. However, many users have an incorrect idea that, when we use past perfect in the if clause, it is ALWAYS incorrect to use “would or would not + base form of verb” in the main clause.
Therefore, the objective of this article is:
1. to define CONDITIONAL (IF) sentences in general and their BASICs; and
2. to correct the incorrect idea that, when we use past perfect in the if clause, it is ALWAYS incorrect to use “would or would not + base form of verb” in the main clause. We use this pattern in MIXED CONDITIONAL.
Whether we use “would/wouldn’t + have + past participle” or “would/wouldn’t + base form of verb” depends on whether the event is a Third Conditional or Mixed Conditional event.

Abstract
Nowadays authentic reading matter is extensively used in the teaching of English for academic purposes. However choosing and deploying such materials is not as straightforward as it might at first seem. In this paper, the pros and cons of authentic materials are assessed and difficulties in their deployment are discussed, together with suggestions for their successful utilisation.

This book is about the teaching of English to migrants and refugees. It is written from the perspective of those who work with and teach this diverse group of adults and children. Migrants and refugees come from very different geographical areas and have left their home countries for very different reasons. They may have come to the UK to join a spouse, to seek job opportunities or to flee violence and persecution. They will have had very different experiences of education: some will have had no formal schooling and others will have studied to a high level and hold relevant academic and professional qualifications. Some will join settled  communities, while others will be living in isolation.

This literature review on teachers' beliefs about English language learners (ELLs) in mainstream classrooms is organized into three sections: (a) inservice teachers' existing beliefs, (b) predictors of inservice teachers' beliefs, and (c) the connection between inservice teachers' beliefs and practices. This body of literature points to a clear need for increased professional development for mainstream teachers because, currently, teacher education possesses a “poverty of language learning.” According to the research included in this review, a relation exists between beliefs and practices in relation to teaching ELLs in mainstream classrooms. Certain factors, such as training in teaching ELLs, years of teaching experience, and exposure to language diversity, have been identified as predictors of mainstream teachers' beliefs about English to speakers of other languages students. It is important for teachers who hold deficit beliefs toward ELLs to adopt a new set of beliefs for successful inclusion of ELLs.

This article discusses the creation of the STEP-T for ELLs program for teacher professional development.  It focuses on the collaboration that took place between university academics and local teachers and how that collaboration ensured the professional development program was designed to be relevant and effective.

This dissertation examined the educational outcomes of high school English learner (EL) students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) to evaluate theories that explain their educational resilience. School system data and survey results from 165 high school ELs were analyzed to determine the degree to which ELs' homeland schooling had influenced their academic outcomes in the U.S. Educational outcomes included English proficiency attainment and gains as well as scores on standardized tests of algebra, biology, and English language arts. Limited formal schooling (LFS) was operationalized with three indicators for students on arrival in the U.S.: (1) gaps in years of schooling relative to grade, (2) low self-reported first language schooling, and (3) beginner-level English proficiency. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the relationships between the LFS indicators and the educational outcomes as well as the degree to which school-based protective factors and personal risk factors had influenced the relationships. Protective factors included perceived pedagogical caring, social integration with non-immigrant peers, ESOL classes, out-of-school help, and extra-curricular activities. Risk factors included high social distance, past traumatic experiences, a lack of authoritative parental support, separations from loved ones, and hours spent working in employment. This study also examined the role students' academic self-concept played in mediating and moderating the influence of protective and risk factors in the resiliency process. The findings showed that SLIFE had lower achievement on the standardized tests, but that it was largely due to having lower English proficiency at the time of the test. Lower English proficiency at the time of the test was mainly attributed to arriving with lower English proficiency and lower first language literacy. ESOL classes appeared to help students acquire English faster. After controlling for differences in English proficiency, students' perceptions of social distance appeared to predict their academic achievement on standardized tests better than their academic self-concept and the other protective or risk factors. This study contributes to our understanding of risk and resilience among SLIFE and may help inform interventions to support them better.

Intertextuality in its broadest sense—the relationship between two texts—is a pervasive feature of academic writing, as manifested by features such as citations to earlier texts and the sets of features such as structure and organisation which are shared by texts in a given genre and/or academic discipline.

Many of the intertextual features of academic writing, such as the choice of reporting verb and verb form, have been thoroughly researched and described (e.g., Charles, 2006; Shaw, 1992). Much is also know about a specific, highly problematic form of intertextuality: plagiarism (e.g., Pecorari & Shaw, 2012). However, less attention has been given to the ways in which novice academic writers become aware of conventional intertextual practices, and less still to the transferability of this feature to writing in the workplace.

This paper will present the results of a corpus-based investigation of intertextuality in two domains: the leisure-time reading which lower-division undergraduates do, and a common workplace genre.  By triangulating the results from these two corpora with existing findings about the intertextual features of academic texts it will be possible to describe the extent to which these features overlap with, or diverge from, each other.  This will thus provide an indication of the features which can reasonably be expected to transfer from one domain to another, and which cannot, and should therefore be the subject of explicit instruction in the English for Specific Academic Purposes classroom.

References
Charles, M. (2006). The Construction of Stance in Reporting Clauses: A Cross-disciplinary Study of Theses. Applied Linguistics, 27, 492–518.
Pecorari, D. & Shaw, P. (2012). Types of student intertextuality and faculty attitudes. Journal of Second Language Writing, 21, 149–164.
Shaw, P. (1992). Reasons for the correlation of voice, tense and sentence function in reporting verbs. Applied Linguistics, 13, 302–319.

It is a heavily debated issue: To define language, which one is the controlling authority between the Descriptive Grammar (DG) and Prescriptive Grammar (PG)?

Observing those debates, it seems like the debaters make it unnecessarily complex. I think the logic in favor of the DG is pretty straightforward. And the objective of this paper is to explain in simple manner the reason that the DG is the dominating authority.

The PG is just a guideline that is unrelated to or merely coincides with the time of use. And it is the DG that defines exactly what the language is. In other words, simple is that, to evaluate a linguistic item for its current validity, we must inquire how the native speakers naturally (meaning popularly and consistently) use it at the time of the inquiry.

A small body of recent research on vocabulary explanations (VEs) in second language (L2) classrooms (e.g. Mortensen, 2011; Waring et al., 2013) has attempted to provide the sequential descriptions of the key elements of VEs and investigate how teachers draw on their linguistic and semiotic resources to construct the VE sequences (e.g. Smotrova and Lantolf, 2013). Nevertheless, more work is needed in order to allow educators to better understand how VEs are provided in L2 classrooms. In particular, there is a shortage of studies (e.g. Tai and Brandt, 2018) illustrating the nature of VEs in beginning-level English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classrooms, where learners all share different first languages (L1s) and have limited English proficiency. Moreover, the shared linguistic resources between the teacher and learners are typically limited in beginning-level ESOL classrooms. To date, there is no longitudinal study which will allow for tracking the impact of VEs on contributing to learners' conceptual understandings of the meanings of target vocabulary items. The vast majority of the studies, which identified learners' display of understanding of L2 word meanings in classroom interactions, were based on one-off analyses of the classroom discourse (e.g. Waring et al., 2013). This prevents educators and researchers from observing the learner's change of conceptual understandings over time. This MSc dissertation contributes to the identified research gaps by employing Conversation Analysis (CA) to 1) investigate the nature of VEs in a beginning-level ESOL classroom and 2) conduct a 4-month longitudinal analysis to explore the potential for employing CA as the methodological tool for tracking learners' development of the conceptual understandings of the meanings of particular vocabulary items which are previously explained. The classroom data is taken from a corpus of video-data collected in a beginning-level adult ESOL classroom in the United States. The key findings demonstrate that other than verbal 3 resources, teacher's use of embodied resources in explaining vocabulary items in the classroom plays an important role in facilitating the learners' understandings of the meanings of different vocabulary items. The learner's use of gestures allows her to externalise her understandings of the L2 word meanings and also allows teachers to evaluate the learner's current knowledge states. These findings also suggest that CA provides some, albeit incomplete, evidence of the learner's developing conceptual understandings of L2 word meanings and it allows researchers to investigate how these developmental changes occur in each interactional context of L2 vocabulary use.

This is the first of two full day workshops to introduce elementary pre-service teachers to differentiated instruction with English language learners. The approach of the session is collaborative and problem-based with the following activities: (1) role playing critical incidents to activate participants’ prior knowledge, (2) team-based problem solving of a real situation, (3) condensed lecture-discussion segments on identified need to know concepts, (4) a simulated job task of intake assessment and language objective planning, (5) a lesson plan modification task. For the accompanying presentation slides contact AndreaBHellman@missouristate.edu.

Among many teachers, students, and users, there exist two fundamentally confused issues that are as follows:
1. What is the standard version of English? and
2. How do I determine whether a language item is standard (correct)?
The instant article answers those two questions.

The standard version of English is its “koiné language” version that includes all versions that are:
1. naturally intelligible; and
2. acceptable under “simultaneously existing” or “current” descriptive or prescriptive grammars.

The procedure to determine the correctness of a language item is a two-step process, as follows:
1. First, we must determine whether it is correct under either DG or PG and, in doing so, the DG overrides. Where the item passes this test, we move on to the next step.
2. In case of a situation in which a specific context is given, we have to see whether it suits in the given context. On the other hand, if no context is given, we must evaluate whether it is suitable in any imaginable context.

This chapter reports on a quantitative study that examined the English learning of 146 US high school English learner (EL) students with a focus on 15 recently resettled ethnic Chin refugees from Myanmar. The goals were to understand how students' educational backgrounds influenced their learning of English and to identify the most useful variables for understanding the challenges facing recently resettled refugees and students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). The study had three main findings: (1) The Chin students learned English much more slowly than other groups; (2) Most of the Chin students could be identified as SLIFE, but very few had low first language (L1) literacy; (3) Some of the variables used to identify students as SLlFE were associated with slower English learning, but were not very strong or reliable predictors due to high variability. These findings suggest that there must be other important reasons why some students learn English more slowly than others, and that students characterized as SLIFE may not have all the same characteristics and needs. This study broadens our understanding of SLIFE and provides insights for school systems considering how to best serve recently resettled refugees.

RaPAL Journal Autumn 2007
In this study I investigate a new problem associated with the presence of speakers of English as a second language in ESOL classes in Ireland.  ESOL tutors, coordinators, and learners from countries where English is not used as a lingua franca, are specifically opposed to the attendance of students from Nigeria at ESOL classes, basing this perspective on the alleged disruption of classrooms due to alleged increased noise level, different turn-taking strategies and lexicogrammatical deviations.  The specific question I will address here is whether the impact of Nigerian speakers of English is as problematical and negative as tutors and non-Nigerian learners suggest.

For nearly three decades, researchers of young English language learners (ELLs) have suggested that a reason for low ELL graduation rates in U.S. high schools is their failure to master academic language in English. The instigation of the Common Core promoted the notion that reading for information should cut across all content areas. In Florida, as mandated in the Florida Consent Decree, elementary teachers, as well as secondary English Language Arts teachers or Reading coaches, are charged with assisting ELLs in the acquisition of linguistically complex language promoting critical thinking. Thus, any curriculum design akin to the Common Core implies that content area teachers--including those of Math, Science, and Social Studies--should similarly engage in ELLs' linguistic needs.

Meanwhile, corpus linguists have amassed word corpora unveiling specific academic vocabulary, suggesting that mastery of 2570 word families can help ELLs work with college texts. This pilot study investigates the degree to which such lexical items appear in a small corpus represented by 52 elementary and secondary textbooks. Results show that Social Studies texts seemingly supply students with the greatest quantity of academic vocabulary. It further indicates that the bulk of difficult vocabulary appears in secondary grades, offering further detail with respect to deepening linguistic obstacles ELLs face in school. Results suggest that 1) instructors of all major subjects should engage in far deeper professional development with respect to ELLs?literacy development and 2) any exclusive burden on Language Arts instructors is questionable.