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This study examined the effectiveness of teaching methods used with a second language reading and writing unit. This investigation addressed discrepancies between assessment scores in the four communicative language skill areas of students in beginning-level Spanish classes at a suburban middle school. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore how literacy-based practices that included teaching strategies used with reading, teaching use of the writing process with a writing assignment, and teacher employment of written recasts affect second language achievement. The theoretical base of the study consisted of second language theories and hypotheses that explained how second language learning occurs. The academic achievement of the students exposed to the literacy-based teaching methods was compared with the achievement of students not exposed to literacy-based teaching methods. A purposive convenience sample consisted of 116 students between the ages of 12 and 14 years enrolled in beginning-level Spanish classes. An independent-measures and repeated-measures t tests were used to assess among- and between-group differences from pretest, posttest, and delayed-posttest data collections. The between-groups analysis revealed a statistically-significant result in favor of the experimental group between the pretest and the posttest (t(114), p = 0.04, d = 0.36), and between the pretest and the delayed posttest (t(114), p = 0.03, d = 0.51). The findings led to a recommendation for further use and study of the methods, with additional assessment tools. The results inform instructional practices that increase students' opportunities to be exposed to comprehensible language, thus affecting positive social change.

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert