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As global migrations of both teachers and students have increased, so has the need to re-learn English in response to local parlances. Thus, the use of formal and informal language styles, the masking of accents, and the understanding of the differential use of certain specific words, expressions, and the like become critical for teachers and students. For international, cross-cultural educators who also face pedagogical culture shock, issues related to the differences in teaching and learning styles, curriculum, and assessment must also be addressed. Concomitantly, therefore, the identities of international educators become reconstituted into academic cosmopolites. Using data collected from 55 student evaluations as supporting evidence, this paper contends that international educators undergo personality differentiation in response to local forces, including socio-linguistic pressures. The hybridization of migrant academicians' native states with cross-cultural forces precipitates new permutations of international, transmuted identities, brewed in the crucible of educational cross-culturalisms.

In this article, the author presents a case study of one charter school that challenges the meaning of a public school education for diverse students from a different perspective. Embedded in the rhetoric of change and reform, charter schools have become a logical alternative to public education for discontented parents, teachers, community activists, corporations and the like whose visions of what schooling should be differs dramatically from what already exists.

In response to the current climate of accountability, many districts have turned to scripted reading programs as the solution to literacy instruction in schools with populations of students with high needs. While scripted programs may be beneficial for some students, they often limit a teacher’s ability to create active learning environments to facilitate the second language learning and literacy skills in English Learners (ELs). Specifically, this paper critically examines three aspects of scripted programs that include whole group instruction, repetition, and pacing guides to understand how ELs experience these lessons. Additionally, it describes how one first-grade teacher in a highly diverse urban school has been able to embed strategies that work for ELs within a classroom guided by scripts.

To increase male motivation to learn additional languages studies have suggested teaching males in single-sex second and foreign language classes (Carr & Pauwels, 2006; Chambers, 2005). Despite the reported benefits of this unique arrangement, a review of literature found no related research conducted in Canada or the United States. To address this lack of research, a study was conducted in the spring of 2008 to investigate the impact of single-sex instruction on student motivation to learn Spanish. Using Gardner's model of second language motivation (1985), 57 high-school students studying Spanish in either single-sex or coeducational classes completed a pre and post questionnaire to gauge their motivation to learn the language. Follow-up interviews were also conducted with both students and teachers. Results indicated that while both sexes enjoyed some educational advantages from the single-sex environment, the benefits appeared to be greater for the males than the females. (Contains 4 footnotes and 1 table.)

In this study, we explored dimensions of a teacher?s experience with formal language study, time spent abroad, and levels of bilingualism as factors that relate to their personal teaching efficacy beliefs using a purposeful sample of teachers from North and South Carolina working with English Language Learners in the mainstream classroom. Our statistical results from independent sample t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) support the need for all educators working in diverse classrooms to commit to long-term formal foreign language study.

In this chapter, we explore ways junior faculty navigate the shifting expectations of a university transitioning from research intensive to research extensive status. The experiences of the participants show that finding a balance between the demands of research, teaching, and service create differences among perceptions, expectations, and realities that add increasing pressures. The challenges involved in such a transition are raised as an illumination of the issues for informational and policy considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male disinterest in second language (L2) programs has in recent years been well documented. In an attempt to explain the lack of male participation recent studies have suggested that traditional teacher-centered second and foreign language classrooms deprive males of the internal control they crave. Using data from a large-scale study by Kissau (2006), in this article researchers attempt to determine if gender differences exist in perceptions of control in the L2 classroom and further, if perceptions of control appear to be an important factor in whether or not students pursue L2 studies. Approximately 500 students studying French as a second language in Grade 9 completed a questionnaire. The data were then explored in interviews with students and teachers. Results suggest that control is an important factor in the decision to study French and that boys perceive themselves to have less control in the L2 classroom than do girls. Suggestions for how such gender differences can be addressed are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]