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This Forum provides a range of voices on the Language Gap, as our aim is to shed light on the need for more critical dialogue to accompany the proliferation of political initiatives, policymaking, educational programs, and media coverage. We highlight some relevant background on the Language Gap and describe some of the research used to support the concept. The diverse slate of Forum contributions that we have assembled approach the Language Gap topic from a range of linguistic anthropological perspectives—theoretical, empirical, political, ethnographic, personal, and experiential. Based on an acknowledgment of the need to improve educational access for economically and culturally diverse students, the subsequent discussions provide a range of perspectives designed to move away from denouncing and altering home language skills as a panacea for academic woes and social inequity. Linguistic anthropology's focus on language learning ecologies, and the sophistication therein, provides a novel perspective on the Language Gap. The contributions included below problematize existing ideologies, demonstrate the wealth of resources within various communities, and propose new directions for school practices and policymaking in an effort to bridge the \"language gap\" toward a more inclusive and discerning view of linguistic practices across diverse groups.

From the \"verbal deprivation\" and \"restricted codes\" of the 1960s to contemporary \"language gap\" discourses, deficit models of children's language have been posited to explain social ills ranging from school failure to intergenerational poverty. However, researchers from a range of disciplines have problematized such models on the basis of the power of language to reflect, articulate, produce, and reproduce structural inequality. This review considers how the discursive construction of language, poverty, and child development contributes to deficit-based research agendas and the resulting interventions aimed at remediating language use in homes and schools. We suggest that an anthropolitical language socialization approach deconstructs ideologies of linguistic (in)competence and more accurately traces how children across cultures and social contexts develop communicative resources, cultural knowledge, and social practices in the face of political and economic adversity; it also helps articulate alternative ways of respecting and building on difference.

Language teachers in grades 4-6 seek diverse ways to work with pupils and various text types to promote reading comprehension skills, written and oral expression, vocabulary and idioms, and understanding of linguistic components. They use textbooks and lesson plans, including different text types, stories, and poems. However, language teachers often struggle to integrate current, relevant, and age-appropriate social issues. Teachers strive to enrich pupils' knowledge and develop their independent critical thinking, engaging in respectful discussions, expressing opinions, listening to others, and formulating social values. This can be done by arousing curiosity and interest and increasing motivation for independent exploratory learning.Developed by the author and implemented in this research, \"\"Promoting language skills and reducing gaps through learning based on current newspaper articles,\"\" teacher training program presents a unique way to reach these goals simply, accessibly, and creatively, based on age-appropriate topical newspaper articles to boost learners' language skills and narrow gaps that widened during the Corona period among primary school pupils. The program seeks to equip language teachers with practical work tools, thus allowing them to choose current articles and use them in planning and leading meaningful language lessons. Its uniqueness lies in a teacher's ability to choose a recent newspaper article and build a relevant lesson plan rather than adhere to given texts and activities. Doctoral research will accompany the program, examining its contribution to teachers' ability to plan lessons independently and increase their sense of language teaching self-efficacy.

Purpose – This paper aims to outline the misguided underpinnings of the “word gap” concept promoted by Hart and Risley (1995). This concept posits that a “30 million word gap” between children of poverty and those from affluent households accounts for widespread academic disparities. Based on this premise, there has been a recent surge in educational programs that are based on a deficit view toward the language patterns of families from economically impoverished backgrounds. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a discussion piece to debunk the “word gap” concept. Findings – Describing the language patterns of families in poverty as inferior is linguistically false and culturally insensitive. The aim of this paper is to explain why this is and suggest alternative approaches for supporting students who live in poverty. Originality/value – This paper is an original look at the so-called “language gap” and suggests strategies for helping students who might otherwise struggle to reach their potential.

The language barrier and the lack of reliable information were identified as major practical obstacles of European patient mobility. Patients are highly concerned about the ability to communicate with their doctors when obtaining healthcare in a country where they do not speak the local language, as well as they find it complicated to gather all the necessary information about an unfamiliar healthcare system or about their cross-border healthcare entitlements conferred on them by the Union legislation. In a multilingual and patient-friendly European Union these issues must be tackled in order to ensure effective healthcare and to enforce patients' right to cross-border healthcare. This article investigates the current legal tools within the European Union on language gap in patient-provider communication and access to information on cross-border healthcare entitlements. Moreover, it offers some possible solutions for the future.

The importance of English as a foreign language EFL in Libya has increased significantly throughout the years and the language has become essential in all disciplines. However, one of the essential challenges that needs to be explored is the lack of speaking competence of the Libyan students. There has been little research, which adopts an experimental design to determine the causal effects of certain teaching methods, particularly the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach on Libyan students’ English speaking performance. Against this backdrop, this research sets out to assess the effects of selected Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) activities (i.e., Information gap and Language games) on Libyan first-year secondary school students’ English speaking performance. Using a sample of 124 students from a public secondary school in Sabratha, Libya, and adopting the quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test non-equivalent groups design (NEGD), first year classes were randomly assigned as three experimental groups (i.e., Experimental Language Game group (G1), Experimental Language Game and Information Gap group (G2), and Experimental Information Gap group (G3)) and one Control group (G4). Treatments were given to the experimental groups and paired sample t-test results reveal significant differences between the groups’ in the post-test English language speaking scores. While an ANOVA test, comparing the scores between the four groups reveals a substantial difference between Information Gap group and the control group through a post-hoc test. It is therefore concluded that implementing communicative activities based on the principles of CLT in the Libyan English language classroom helps to enhance students’ English speaking performance.

In the Malaysian National Preschool Standards-based Curriculum context, preschool teachers are being asked to use English as a medium of instruction for part of their teaching activities. However, there have been criticisms that low English language proficiencies among these teachers may have hindered their ability to provide meaningful educational experiences for the children in their care. Yet, little is understood about the language proficiency of these teachers in their own context. An explanatory mixed methods design has been used in the present study with data collected in two phases. In the quantitative phase, a survey is used to investigate 204 preschool teachers’ current levels of English proficiency, the levels they think necessary for using it effectively, and the gap between the two levels. The qualitative phase uses semi-structured interviews with 12 preschool teachers. The preschool teachers believe that high or advanced language proficiency would be needed for its effective use. However, in the interviews, they also consider empathy for the children, a passion for teaching, the ability to make the class fun and interesting as equally important. There is also a lot of ‘language switching’ between English, the Malay language and the mother tongue to meet the requirements of the day’s lesson. Although preschool teachers in general showed positive stances about the decision to use English for part of the instructional time, they also suggest that some form of benchmarks that address the kinds or levels of English language proficiency needed for its effective use would be useful.

La enseñanza y el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas es una prioridad para la mayor parte de las políticas educativas internacionales. No es posible concebir el siglo XXI desprovisto del acceso a la información que se produce masivamente en inglés en los diversos campos de la ciencia, la cultura y la sociedad. Este trabajo analiza en profundidad el concepto de “brecha lingüística”, así como los factores que la ocasionan y las estrategias para superarla desde la competencia digital. La interrelación de estos tres aspectos nos conducirá a la descripción de un proyecto de investigación titulado “LinguApp: Asegurando el acceso al aprendizaje universal e inclusivo de segundas lenguas” (PRY208/17), financiado por la Fundación Pública Andaluza Centro de Estudios Andaluces. El objetivo principal de dicho proyecto es diseñar una webapp,de acceso libre y gratuito, que dé acceso a recursos formativos específicamente seleccionados por expertos y evaluados ex profesopara el aprendizaje de idiomas (español e inglés), garantizándose su calidad y adecuándose a los objetivos específicos de cada usuario. Las conclusiones de este trabajo nos conducen a corroborar que el aprendizaje autónomo de lenguas solo se entiende hoy día bajo el paraguas de la competencia digital debidamente guiada y acompañada por expertos.

Over the last decade, open educational resources (OER) initiatives have created new possibilities for knowledge-sharing practices. This research examines how, where, and when OER are attracting attention in the higher education sector and explores to what extent the OER discussion has moved beyond the English-speaking world. This study analysed English, Spanish, and Portuguese OER queries over a long-term period (2007-2011). The data retrieval was conducted using four online platforms: two academic journal databases (Web of Knowledge and Scopus), one video-sharing Web site (YouTube), and one document-sharing Web site (Scribd). The number (more than 32,860) of search results collected indicate an increasing interest in online OER discussion across languages, particularly outside academic journal databases. Additionally, a widening ‘language gap’ between OER discussions in English and other languages was identified in several platforms. This research reports some of the cultural and language challenges caused by the expansion of the OER discussion and highlights relevant findings in this field.

Over the last decade, open educational resources (OER) initiatives have created new possibilities for knowledge-sharing practices. This research examines how, where, and when OER are attracting attention in the higher education sector and explores to what extent the OER discussion has moved beyond the English-speaking world. This study analysed English, Spanish, and Portuguese OER queries over a long-term period (2007-2011). The data retrieval was conducted using four online platforms: two academic journal databases (Web of Knowledge and Scopus), one video-sharing Web site (YouTube), and one document-sharing Web site (Scribd). The number (more than 32,860) of search results collected indicate an increasing interest in online OER discussion across languages, particularly outside academic journal databases. Additionally, a widening ‘language gap’ between OER discussions in English and other languages was identified in several platforms. This research reports some of the cultural and language challenges caused by the expansion of the OER discussion and highlights relevant findings in this field.