Current Issue: Volume 19, Issue 3 (2026) Fall 2026 Issue

Making Language Visible and Creating Space for Participation

The Autumn 2026 issue of the Journal of English Learner Education examines how educators can make the language demands of learning more accessible while creating opportunities for English learners to participate with confidence. Across different educational settings, the authors examine how educators can clarify academic expectations and connect language instruction with learners’ interests and goals.

The issue opens with “Making the Implicit Explicit” by Luciana C. de Oliveira (Virginia Commonwealth University), who presents a language-based framework for multilingual literacy development. Integrating genre-based pedagogy with the Teaching and Learning Cycle and the mode continuum, she describes how teachers can support learners’ movement from everyday interaction toward disciplinary academic language. She emphasizes that teachers can make disciplinary language explicit while maintaining academic expectations for English learners.

In “Math Language Acquisition,” Crystal L. Gammon (Brenau University) and Jillian Skelton (University of Alabama) examine how elementary teachers support English learners with the vocabulary and language needed to understand and solve mathematical word problems. The authors describe language demands that can prevent students from demonstrating mathematical understanding. They also examine how teachers’ preparation and opportunities to collaborate influence the support that they provide.

In “Unlocking Affixes,” Patricia George-Hunter (CUNY Kingsborough Community College) examines instruction in Greek and Latin roots and affixes within a community college ESL course. Students practiced analyzing word parts in vocabulary related to their academic majors and career goals. Participants reported that learning these strategies increased their motivation to study unfamiliar terminology and their confidence in reading texts within their chosen fields.

The issue then turns from preparation for academic and professional communication to opportunities to put that preparation into practice. In “A Franco-American University Collaboration,” Nadia Yassine-Diab (University of Toulouse, France), Christina Torres (University of Central Florida), and Aimee Schoonmaker (University of Central Florida) describe a sustained partnership in which French university students participate in mock job interviews with U.S. TESOL students. The collaboration serves complementary purposes: French students practice professional communication, while future English language educators gain experience assessing oral proficiency and preparing detailed feedback. The authors explain how an international partnership can connect coursework with professional responsibilities.

In “Performing English,” Angel M. Morales (CUNY Hostos Community College) closes the issue by placing learners’ own voices at the center of his research. Through a verbatim ethnodrama developed from interviews with community college ESL students and their instructors, he presents participants’ experiences within paired acting and language courses. Readers can engage with students’ accounts of learning English and expressing themselves through performance in the script, included in the article’s appendix.

Throughout this issue, the authors examine how explicit language instruction and opportunities to practice can help English learners participate more confidently in their coursework and prepare for professional settings. Explicit instruction can help learners understand how academic language works. Learners also need opportunities to use English to explain what they know and share their experiences. Teachers can build these opportunities into subject-area lessons and activities that prepare students for work beyond the classroom.

I thank our contributing authors and reviewers for their work on this issue and our readers for continuing to connect scholarship with educational practice. We welcome submissions for forthcoming issues that advance understanding of English learners’ experiences and the instruction that supports their academic success.

Laura E. Monroe, PhD
Principal Editor

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