Research suggests that English as a second language (ESL) students take upwards of 5 years to acquire a level of proficiency in academic language that is comparable to their English-speaking peers. They are likely to be denied full access to school knowledge unless teachers help to bring about student content knowledge learning and second language acquisition simultaneously.This article reports on an experiment that was designed to discover the effect of graphic representation of knowledge structures (Mohan, 1986) on intermediate (seventh grade) ESL students' comprehension of content knowledge and acquisition of a second language for academic purposes. This experiment, part of a larger study conducted in an elementary school in Vancouver (Tang, 1989), is based on a pretest-posttest nonequivalent-control group quasi-experimental design. A pretest and a posttest were administered on 45 seventhgrade ESL students. Findings suggested that a teacher-provided tree graph, representing a text passage of the knowledge structure of classification and used as a teaching strategy to present knowledge to seventh-grade ESL students, facilitated comprehension and immediate recall. Moreover, students in the graphic group agreed that using graphics to present knowledge facilitated learning.

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This article reports on a study that addresses the concerns of ESL teachers about their students' use of pocket bilingual electronic dictionaries (EDs). The purpose is to communicate to content and language teachers: (a) the features of the ED, (b) the uses secondary level ESL students make of the pocket ED as a tool for learning English, (c) the effectiveness of the ED in helping ESL students' comprehension and production of English, (d) students' perception of the usefulness of the ED, and (e) the strengths and weaknesses of the ED as perceived by ESL teachers. The findings indicate that not only do a large number of Chinese ESL students own EDs, but they also make consistent use of them during reading comprehension and writing classes. Examples are given of the students' successful and unsuccessful attempts using the ED, and recommendations are made for ESL teachers to teach dictionary skills.

The purpose of this article is to propose the use of key visuals as a technique to prepare students to read content text. Based on a specific Language and Content conceptual framework (Mohan 1986), the use of key visuals as a pre-reading strategy acknowledges the role of schema theory in the reading process. This paper describes the strategy; discusses procedures for the construction and implementation of key visuals in content classrooms with examples from the Vancouver School Board Language and Content Project; and, reports briefly the results of an evaluation study which provide tangible evidence of the facilitative effect of key visuals on reading comprehension.

This article reports an ethnographic study of two multicultural seventh grade classes. It was designed to explore the role and value of graphic representation of knowledge structures in ESL student learning, based on a specific definition and categorization of knowledge structures (Mohan 1986). Findings revealed that students were exposed to, and interacted with, a quantity of graphics in curriculum and instruction. However, whether, and how, students used graphics to facilitate learning depended to a large extent on the guidance they received. Without teacher guidance, students could not successfully extract information from graphics, or use graphics to represent knowledge, or recognize graphics as an alternative way of communicating knowledge. They perceived the function of graphics to be decorative, and their general attitude towards graphics was negative. With explicit teacher guidance, however, students were more likely to take advantage of graphic representation of knowledge structures to facilitate learning.

This paper describes a study of the mutual support and cooperation between an English as a second language (ESL) teacher and a content teacher in designing and conducting a unit in a secondary school in Vancouver. The unit was based on Mohan's (1986) Knowledge Framework, a conceptual framework which systematically integrates language and content and served as a common metaphor for the collaborating teachers. The participants of the study were an ESL teacher, a computer studies teacher, and eleven recent immigrant students. Research techniques included classroom observation; examination of documents including the unit plan, assignments both electronic and hard copies; and discussions with the students and teachers. Results showed that the Knowledge Framework is a powerful tool for effecting teacher collaboration and for enabling ESL students to systematically learn academic English, read a novel, acquire computer literacy, develop thinking skills, and socialize into the English-speaking classroom.

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