The CATESOL Journal

Academic reading at college and university poses a real challenge for international students with English as a second language. Often the main hurdles are a lack of language proficiency, critical-reading skills, or background knowledge. Also, unfamiliarity with cultural and academic conventions plays a role. Even with intensive English-language training, reading success remains elusive without the support and participation of faculty, especially at the critical prereading stage. This article examines the obstacles that negatively affect student reading and elaborates on the importance of faculty intervention by incorporating effective prereading strategies in their classrooms. Specifically, 3 activity menus are provided that contain a selection of strategies to help with activating prior knowledge, analyzing text features, and developing vocabulary

Written corrective feedback has been a long-standing practice among second language writing instructors, yet the efficacy of this practice for long-term development of students’ writing remains uncertain. In th field of writing research, error correction in second language writing continues to be a topic of much controversy. While numerous studies have investigated the long-term effect of written corrective feedback, no consensus has been reached. Challenging the deep-rooted conviction that instructors’ correction is beneficial, this article (a) argues that the role of a writing instructor is not to serve as an editor but to help students to become autonomous self-editors of their own work, and (b) proposes an alternative approach that is designed to develop students’ self-editing skills. Through effective scaffolding and strategy training, writing instructors can develop in second language writers a habit of mind to critically read and edit their own work.

Teachers of English as a second or foreign language often state that they lack an understanding of how to teach vocabulary in a principled, evidence-based way sensitive to students’ needs. Vocabulary teaching is typically unsystematic, not adequately supported by curricula and teaching materials, and shaped by beliefs based in opinion or myth. A large amount of research on L2 vocabulary learning and processing is now available, and most of this work is on English vocabulary. The present article synthesizes this body of knowledge to achieve the following: (a) establish how many words learners need to know for different purposes; (b) discuss the scientific evidence for commonly held beliefs about vocabulary teaching; (c) recommend sound, research-informed teaching practices; and (d) refer the audience to a range of freely available high-quality tools that can facilitate lexical instruction in English.

Assessing English learners (ELs) in US schools is challenging because many widely used assessments have not been designed with ELs in mind. Yet if teachers are sensitive to how ELs may perform differently from native speakers on such assessments, these assessments reveal useful information about ELs’ language and literacy skills. This mixedmethod study compared adolescent ELs’ performance on the Qualitative Reading Inventory-5 (QRI-5), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4 (PPVT-4), and Words Their Way Elementary Spelling Inventory (ESI) to existing data from English-proficient examinees’ performance to explore how ELs’ performance may differ. The observed differences suggest that linguistic aspects of the QRI-5, PPVT-4, and ESI, including syntax, phonology, orthography, and especially vocabulary, played a role in ELs’ performance and indicate that ELs may benefit from linguistic modification or first-language support during test administration. The process used in this analysis also demonstrates how teachers can examine test data alongside test scores as they interpret ELs’ results.

This article recounts some of the motivations, hurdles, and successes the Cuyamaca ESL Department in San Diego encountered while transforming its curriculum to an accelerated model. The college discovered that the new program, while challenging, increased the success and rate of passing among its language learners and improved the quality of their writing in ways even the implementers did not expect. The concerns, philosophy, and results behind Cuyamaca’s move away from traditional ESL classes are examined.

Many students, especially English language learners (ELLs), struggle when they write. This study examined the various writing strategies 3 Spanish-speaking bilingual student teachers used to help their elementary school ELL students write. This was a case study that looked at how these student teachers used their primary language, among other writing methods, to help their ELLs access writing strategies so these students could write effective English compositions. The authors used the interviews of student teachers, their lesson plans, and reflective journals to identify the instructional methods these student teachers used with their students. These methods included strategies such as helping their ELL students write their ideas in Spanish and English and using Spanish and English cognates to build students’ word banks. The knowledge from this study is important because it showed how ELLs may benefit when their teachers use the students’ primary language to help them write English compositions.

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to better understand undergraduate students’ perceptions of international teaching assistants (ITAs) at a major research institution. Data collected through surveying a sample of 436 undergraduate students from different colleges and at different class levels were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Undergraduate students’ perceptions of ITAs were derived through qualitative analysis of the open-ended survey data, which resulted in themes both established in previous research (e.g., language) and original ideas. For example, one perception identified was the connection of language to pedagogic difficulties, while another perception focused on the interactive construct of communication. Further, students who indicated that they did not have problems with ITAs were less likely to articulate perceptions that were relational, whereas students who did report having a problem with ITAs articulated perceptions that involved an interaction (communication and language as a barrier interfering with pedagogic performance of ITAs).

This article describes the process of teaching English as a second language to members of an underprivileged local community. This initiative was developed as a result of a collaboration between a community center and a university. Three 1st-year TESOL master’s candidates volunteered to design and teach curriculum to immigrant community members on a weekly basis to meet their needs in ESL and in areas such as health, education, community, housing, leadership, and autonomy. The class consisted of Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking senior citizens who were community leaders, and who needed the language, skills, and knowledge to be more effective in their leadership roles. A key goal was to create empowerment opportunities for these students to become changemakers and to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities. In addition to improving their English, student outcomes included finding their voices in their 2nd language through discussions and through oral and written work, developing a sense of unity among class members, and gaining confidence to take action for the common good.

Critical language teacher education (Hawkins & Norton, 2009) describes an approach to TESOL teacher preparation that explicitly attends to the structures of schooling and society that privilege some groups over others. More than presenting methods or theories of TESOL in isolation, the intention of a critical approach is to foster awareness of local policies and practices in relation to possible teacher action for equity—essential for those in the position of welcoming and supporting English learners in US schools. This article explores how this approach was enacted in a domestic travel course for ESL teachers focused on the education of students of refugee backgrounds, an area underdeveloped in teacher education. Implications for TESOL teacher preparation in general, and for TESOL teacher professional learning about refugees specifically, are discussed.