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English (Second Language)

• "The Place I Will Always Remember": Drawing on Experiences through the Quilt Project
  Discusses a quilt project in which ninth-grade English-as-a-Second-Language students wrote, drew, and talked about what they knew, remembered, and felt on the topic "Where I Came From," creating an anthology and a quilt. Describes how students' speaking practice, written language abilities, and self-confidence improved.
• "Water as Rough as an Elephant's Foot..." Learning Geography through Poetry Writing at KS2
  Describes how bilingual fourth and fifth graders at one London elementary school learned geography by writing poetry. This effort involved: engaging with the topic, consolidating knowledge and understanding, and extending knowledge and understanding.
• A Two-Way Bilingual Program: Promise, Practice, and Precautions
  In spite of political pressure, bilingualism is emerging as a strategy for improving the academic achievement of all students. Two-way bilingual or dual-language programs integrate language-minority and language-majority students for instruction in two languages.
• Adult ESL: Politics, Pedagogy, and Participation in Classroom and Community Programs
  The collection of essays on the politics of adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction includes Adult Education,Community Programs English (Second Language),Information Technology,Literacy Education.
• Adult ESL: Politics, Pedagogy, and Participation in Classroom and Community Programs
  The collection of essays on the politics of adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction are onAdult Education Community Programs,information Technology,Politics of Education etc.
• Adult Learning, Generativity and "Successful" Aging in Multicultural Perspective: A Hmong American Educational Biography
  This document examines the themes of adult learning, generativity, and successful aging against the backdrop of the biography of a Hmong refugee who immigrated to the United States in 1988 at the age of 35, began studying English as a second language (ESL), and continues to study ESL in adult education classes while six of his seven children attend public schools.
• An Agenda for Research on Text Material in Primary Science for Second Language Learners of English in Developing Countries
  Reviews evidence related to the readability and comprehensibility of material in primary school science textbooks, which shows that texts are often too difficult for children, particularly in developing countries where pupils are learning through English as the medium of instruction. (69 references) (Author/CK).
• Asian Heritage Pupils, PE and Language
  Investigated whether physical education (PE) classes could contribute to verbal skill development among limited English speaking Asian students. Surveys and interviews conducted at inner city English schools indicated that many PE teachers already planned lessons with such learning in mind, and relevant policies were well-developed.
• Black English in a Place Called Waterloo
  For many black students, the school language differs significantly from the home language, but preservice education rarely examines this issue. This article examines implications for teaching children who use two different forms of language to navigate the demands of their contrasting sociolinguistic speech communities, discussing: how teacher attitudes and knowledge affect practice; dual language demands; ebonics; and language as power.
• Book Browse: A Creative Approach to Meaningful Language Learning
  Describes one elementary teacher's use of the Book Browse literacy activity, which allows Spanish-speaking students to examine books informally in pairs or small groups. Book Browse provides a highly social situation where multiple conversations can occur among these children who need exposure to expressive language as they develop skills in both Spanish and English.
• Breaking the Cultural Cycle: Reframing Pedagogy and Literacy in a Community Context as Intervention Measures for Aboriginal Alienation
  This paper presents an alternative view to the pedagogical needs relating to literacy for Aboriginal students. The question posed is how to utilize this knowledge to lessen the impact of perceived failure in early schooling of entrenched non-attendance patterns for Aboriginal students of compulsory school attending ages.
• Building an International Student Teaching Program: A California/Mexico Experience
  This paper describes the first year of an international student teaching project conducted in Mexicali, Mexico, which was successful in helping U.S. participants develop cultural understanding and critical teaching skills needed to work with English learners.
• CALL Environments: Research, Practice, and Critical Issues
  This is a collection of essays on computer-assisted language learning (CALL).
• Children's Literature in Adult Education
  Investigates the possible role of children's literature in the education of adult learners of English. Shows that children's literature can be effective in teaching linguistic skills such as pronunciation practice and improving language acquisition.
• Creating Florida's Multilingual Global Work Force: Educational Policies and Practices for Students Learning English as a New Language
  A selection of essays address issues in the education of students of English as a Second Language in Florida, focusing on the development of the state's labor force among this multilingual, multicultural population.
• Crisis in the Heartland: Addressing Unexpected Challenges in Rural Education
  Recent increases in cultural and linguistic diversity in Kansas have raised three challenges for educators, especially rural educators: geographic isolation, capacity building, and professional development. Describes innovative, nontraditional programs developed by Kansas State University to help educators meet these challenges, including distance education, collaborative site-specific adaptations of curriculum and instruction, and cross-cultural sensitivity training.
• Diverse Learners in the Classroom: Innovative Literacy Practices for ESL Learners
  Discusses briefly issues related to bilingual education and making English the official United States language. Describes an innovative and successful bilingual education program in a public school district in Oregon.
• Earphone English
  Describes Earphone English, a student club sponsored through a partnership between Berkeley High School and the Berkeley Public Library that offers students whose primary language is not English to practice their spoken and aural English skills. Discusses the audiobooks used in the program and the importance of multicultural content and age appropriateness.
• English as a Second Language: An Educational Overview for Multicultural and Bilingual West African Students
  This paper describes cultural and educational characteristics of West African countries that may have implications for West Africans studying and learning English in the United States. Countries discussed include Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Benin, Niger, Gambia, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, and Mali.
• ESL Policy and Practice: A Linguistic Human Rights Perspective
  Finds that the reading performance of English-as-a-second-language students and English language learners immersed in regular education classes in a large urban school district was far below grade-level performance, across all categories of measurement; but that the performance of English language learners who had successfully exited from bilingual classes was consistently within or above the average range of performance. (SR).
• Ethnic Minorities and Achievement: The Fog Clears. Part I (Pre-16 Compulsory Education)
  Quantified ethnic elementary school student underachievement data in the compulsory subjects of mathematics, science, and English, with a focus on Black and African Caribbean students. Negative influences to academic achievement in the school environment, including student-teacher relationships and lack of parental involvement, are discussed.
• Exploring Linguistic Diversity through World Englishes
  Presents the rationale and basic concepts for teaching about World Englishes. Describes a sample instructional unit based on the pilot project the authors conducted in a public high school in North Carolina, in which they provided instruction in linguistic diversity once a week for seven weeks.
• Formal vs. Non-Formal Vernacular Education: The Education Reform in Papua New Guinea
  Discusses a community-based nonformal education movement in Papua New Guinea to use hundreds of the country's languages to teach initial literacy in local preschool and adult education programs. The article describes this movement, the proposed government reform of the English-only formal education system and the ensuing conflicts.
• Home Literacy Experiences and Their Relationship to Bilingual Preschoolers' Developing English Literacy Abilities: An Initial Investigation
  Forty-three Puerto Rican mother-child dyads in Head Start programs, grouped according to whether the children had learned Spanish and English from birth (n=28) or Spanish from birth and English in Head Start (n=15) participated in a study of home literacy experiences and emerging English literacy abilities. Results found that literacy development would benefit from increased exposure to literacy materials and events.
• Hong Kong Students' Attitudes Towards Cantonese, Putonghua, and English After the Change of Sovereignty
  Examined the attitudes of Hong Kong secondary school students toward English, Cantonese, and Putonghua. Compared the language attitudes of two main groups of Hong Kong students, middle class elite and working class low achievers.
• Immigrant Mothers Redefine Access to ESL Classes: Contradiction and Ambivalence
  Argues that access to English-as-a-Second-Language classes is a complex issue, perhaps more personal and less amenable to solution than previously assumed. Examples are drawn from five individual life-history interviews with 19 non-English-speaking immigrant mothers of school children.
• Impact of Two-Way Immersion on Students' Attitudes toward School and College. ERIC Digest
  This digest reports on a study that examined the impact of participation in a two-way immersion program on the language and achievement outcomes of former program participants and on their current schooling path and college plans.
• Implementing Standards with English Language Learners: Initial Findings from Four Middle Schools
  This document aims to help teachers make the transition to standards-based teaching and learning. It describes the first phase of a 3-year applied research project on professional development for teaching to high standards in culturally and linguistically diverse middle schools.
• Joining the Canadian Tribe: Building a Pluralistic Community in a B.C. School
  Immigrants often comprise most of the student body in urban Canadian schools. An elementary school in suburban Vancouver (British Columbia) provides sheltered classes and bilingual student partners for beginning English language learners.
• Language Barriers and Teaching Music
  Maintains that every public school student deserves an opportunity to study a musical instrument. Asserts that a limited command of English should not prevent a student from being accepted into instrumental music class or hinder that student's progress.
• Language Policy and Pedagogy: Essays in Honor of A. Ronald Walton
  This edited volume brings together 14 diverse articles dealing with various aspects of language policy and pedagogy.
• Learning Style Preferences of Asian American (Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese) Students in Secondary Schools
  Investigates for perceptual learning style preferences (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile) and preferences for group and individual leaning of Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Vietnamese secondary education students. Comparison analysis reveals diverse learning style preferences between Anglo and Asian American students and also between diverse Asian American groups.
• Many Voices: A Journal of New Settlers and Multicultural Education Issues. Volumes 6-12.
  The seven issues of this New Zealand journal contain brief articles on a variety of immigrant and multicultural education issues.
• Many Voices: A Journal of New Settlers and Multicultural Education Issues. Volumes 6-12.
  The seven issues of this New Zealand journal contain brief articles on a variety of immigrant and multicultural education issues. Topics include: the role of English language instruction in creating opportunities; Pacific Islander university students; lecture listening and note-taking techniques; the language of geography examinations; audiotape libraries; supporting native language use in child care centers; implications of world English for English language teaching.
• Meeting the Special Needs of Dual Language Learners with Disabilities: Integrating Data Based Instruction and the Standards for Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages
  This paper on meeting the needs of students with disabilities who are learning English as a second language suggests integrating principles from the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Standards and Data Based Instruction (DBI). The power of combining intentional language teaching with an action research process is illustrated by four case studies conducted by special education interns in a multicultural setting.
• Multicultural Education in the United States and Japan
  This paper compares multicultural education in U.S. and Japanese schools, analyzing multicultural education from the ethnic perspective.
• Multicultural Education: Common Problems Experienced by Various Cultures
  The United States today is a pluralistic society, and a multicultural curriculum is a necessary component of the overall school curriculum. Multicultural education should address the culturally and the linguistically diverse student.
• Nonnative English Speakers: Language Bigotry in English Mainstream Classrooms
  Examines and discusses ways in which both subtle and blatant bigotry toward nonnative speakers of English is present in departments of English. Illustrates how unfounded and inaccurate beliefs about English language proficiency create a hostile climate for a new population of students.
• Opening Borders
  The guide is designed to familiarize adult basic education (ABE) English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers with the obstacles faced by adult students from other culture in the adult education classroom. An overview of these challenges and an outline of suggested teaching strategies and cultural activities are presented as a basis for developing a multicultural ABE/ESL curriculum.
• Preparing Special Educators To Meet the Needs of Students Who Are Learning English as a Second Language and Are Visually Impaired: A Monograph
  This monograph describes a personnel preparation program that prepared 32 Colorado special education graduates to meet the needs of students who are learning English as a second language and are visually impaired. Graduates took a course that was specially designed to expose students to relevant literature on federal mandates for the education of students from linguistically diverse communities, teaching methodology appropriate for students with limited proficiency and academic achievement, working with families from diverse cultures, using translators, and the teaching of the Spanish braille code.
• Preparing Special Educators To Meet the Needs of Students Who Are Learning English as a Second Language and Are Visually Impaired: A Monograph
  This monograph describes a personnel preparation program that prepared 32 Colorado special education graduates to meet the needs of students who are learning English as a second language and are visually impaired.
• Preparing the Way for Student Cognitive Development
  Discusses challenges teachers face with the growing diversity in student populations, examining how teachers can help facilitate diverse students' cognitive development. Examines: stages of cognitive development, multiculturalism, helping students move from one developmental level to another, cultural socialization, field dependence and independence, the Toulmin Model for fostering student cognitive development, cognitive flexibility theory, and knowing students' skill levels.
• Preserving Home Languages and Cultures in the Classroom: Challenges and Opportunities
  Decades of research document the powerful academic and socio-affective benefits of a strong home language base and affirmation of home language and culture as a valuable resource. This article explores the implicit challenges, daily realities, opportunities, and practical implications of incorporating language and culture into classrooms as they relate to culturally and linguistically diverse language learners.
• Reform in Teacher Education through the CLAD/BCLAD Policy
  Analyzes obstacles facing multicultural/bilingual teacher education reform in the context of California's Crosscultural Language and Academic Development (CLAD) or Bilingual Crosscultural Language and Academic Development (BCLAD) programs, which try to translate theoretical frameworks concerned with cultural difference into credentialing policy. This reform effort champions linguistic and cultural diversity but faces formidable obstacles.
• Report on the Binational Conference: In Search of a Border Pedagogy (4th, El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, January 1999).
  This report contains a synopsis of the binational conference and features brief summaries of all the papers presented at the conference.The following questions helped to shape the scope and content of the conference: What is the current condition of bilingualism, particularly in the United States? .
• Report on the Binational Conference: In Search of a Border Pedagogy (4th, El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, January 1999).
  This report contains a synopsis of the binational conference and features brief summaries of all the papers presented at the conference. Over 350 educators, community leaders, and researchers were brought together to discuss the educational extremes found along the border between the United States and Mexico and to investigate instructional approaches that address the unique characteristics of this region.
• Science Learning for ALL: Celebrating Cultural Diversity. An NSTA Press Journals Collection
  This publication includes 17 of the best articles from recent additions of The Science Teacher, the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) journal for secondary educators. The articles are written by science educators who offer ideas and strategies for bringing multicultural education into the classroom and providing opportunities for all students to learn science.
• Staff Training for Alexandria Head Start in ESL Methodology
  The project described here evaluated the extent to which the Alexandria (Virginia) Head Start program addresses the needs of preschool English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and provided teachers with training to enhance their students' language development.
• Teaching and Learning in Multicultural Schools: An Integrated Approach. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 13
  The book outlines approaches and strategies that schools and teachers can adopt to provide educational experiences meeting the needs of all learners in culturally diverse schools and classrooms, especially those in areas in which new immigrants settle. Chapter one provides an overview of the sources of cultural diversity and describes some public policies that directly affect many classrooms' cultural composition.
• Teaching and Learning in Multicultural Schools: An Integrated Approach. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 13
  The book outlines approaches and strategies that schools and teachers can adopt to provide educational experiences meeting the needs of all learners in culturally diverse schools and classrooms, especially those in areas in which new immigrants settle.
• Teaching Multicultural Classes. 2nd Revised Edition
  The guide is designed to assist teachers in postsecondary education, particularly vocational education, with some students from language backgrounds other than English. It both offers suggestions for classroom organization and interaction and poses questions to stimulate teachers' examination of the processes at work in the learning situation.
• Teaching Short-Term and Long-Term Goal-Setting to ESL Students for Educational, Personal, and Career Application. Action Research Monograph
  Because an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teacher in Pennsylvania observed from the intake questionnaires completed by her students that many ESL students lack short- and long-term goal-setting skills, she undertook an action research project to help ESL students develop the short- and long-term goal-setting skills needed for educational, personal, and career application.
• Ten Common Fallacies about Bilingual Education. ERIC Digest
  Although a growing body of research points to the potential benefits of bilingual education, there are a number of commonly held beliefs that run counter to research findings. Based on current research, this digest clarifies some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding language use and bilingual education in the United States.
• The "Tesoros" Literacy Project: Treasuring Students' Lives (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes a project in a southeast Michigan high school in which Latino English-as-a-Second-Language students worked collaboratively for 10 weeks with at-risk working-class Anglo counterparts from an 11th-grade American literature class. Describes reading and writing activities that centered around the notion that students should search for and value the treasures of their own experience.
• The Attitudes of Bilingual Children to Their Languages
  Examined bilingual Australian elementary students' attitudes toward their first and second languages, noting attitudes they attributed to significant others in various contexts and investigating the impact of demographic and educational factors. Interviews indicated that children held significantly different attitudes toward first and second languages which differed across contexts.
• The Attitudes of Bilingual Children to Their Languages
  Examined bilingual Australian elementary students' attitudes toward their first and second languages, noting attitudes they attributed to significant others in various contexts and investigating the impact of demographic and educational factors. Interviews indicated that children held significantly different attitudes toward first and second languages which differed across contexts.
• The Care and Education of Young Bilinguals: An Introduction for Professionals
  This book is a comprehensive introduction for all professionals working with bilingual children. For speech therapists, physicians, psychologists, counselors, teachers, special needs personnel, and many others, this book addresses the most important issues at a practical level.
• The Culturally Diverse Classroom: A Guide for ESL and Mainstream Teachers
  This handbook is for teachers and administrators involved with international students in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and mainstream settings. It is intended to raise awareness of the new American classroom.
• The Educational Systems of Schools in Bulgaria, Romania, and Delgado Community College. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Abroad 1996 (Bulgaria and Romania)
  This paper examines the educational systems of Bulgaria and Romania, as compared to the educational environment in an English as a Second Language (ESL) department at Delgado Community College (Louisiana). The document interweaves vignettes of personal experiences gained while in those two countries with those as an instructor in the United States.
• The Family Tree: Nurturing Language Growth through "All the Parts of Me."
  Describes a month-long project in an eighth-grade English classroom in which students (from many countries, many of them immigrants) read an array of bicultural literature, and each researched, wrote, and compiled a many-faceted Family Tree notebook. Shows how students can achieve both their own cultural authenticity and English language competence without loss of personal voice.
• The Language and Literacy Spectrum, 1996. A Journal of the New York State Reading Association
  Sharing concerns and interests of New York State educators in the improvement of literacy, this annual journal raises educational issues such as current thoughts about literacy instruction, educators' roles, literacy in its many forms, college-community literacy partnerships, and recommended reading materials.
• The Linguistic Minority Parents' Perceptions of Bilingual Education
  A study examined linguistic minority parents' views on bilingual education, motivated by recurrent controversy surrounding public school provision of bilingual education for language minority students. Multiple-choice questionnaires in English and Spanish were answered by 299 Latino parents whose children were enrolled in bilingual education classes at six elementary and four middle schools in the Los Angeles (California) area.
• The Relationship between Ethnolingusitic Identity and English Language Achievement for Native Russian Speakers and Native Hebrew Speakers in Israel
  Investigated the relationship among identity, affective variables, and achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants were 135 native Hebrew speakers and 53 native Russian speakers studying advanced EFL at an Israeli university.
• The Role of ESL in a Dual Language Program
  Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago, a highly acclaimed Spanish-English dual-language elementary school, established pull-out English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes to provide extra English instruction, primarily for new immigrants. Describes the school's founding and development, students, innovative bilingual staff, multicultural education, parent and community involvement, classroom setting, ESL approaches and activities, and administrative problems.
• Thematic Literature and Curriculum for English Language Learners in Early Childhood Education. ERIC Digest
  The incorporation of age- and language-appropriate thematic literature into the early childhood curriculum can stimulate content-based academic learning for English language learners (ELLs). This systematic approach is particularly beneficial to young ELLs ages 3 through 8, because it provides background knowledge and cultural information along with opportunities to hear, speak, and interact with carefully crafted language in thematic and story contexts.
• Towards a Comprehensive Language Policy: The Language of the School As a Second Language. An Ontario Perspective
  Suggests that Native students entering school in Ontario (Canada) are not treated equally with regard to support for or valuing of their Native language. Overviews research related to second-language instruction and provides policy recommendations for Native-language students, second-language instruction, deaf education, and developing a comprehensive second-language education policy.
• Towards Equal Educational Opportunities for Asylum-Seekers
  Interviewed and surveyed staff, asylum-seeking/refugee English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, and ESOL students who came for other reasons at one British college, examining why the college's ESOL provision featured separate programs for the two groups. Discusses: the consequences of this divide; teacher discourses; alternative pedagogies; labeling of students; integrated provision; and multicultural education.
• Using Multicultural Children's Literature in Adult ESL Classes. ERIC Digest
  This digest focuses on the use of children's literature in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. Because high quality children's literature is characterized by an economy of words, stunning illustrations, captivating and quickly moving plots, and universal themes, carefully chosen books can offer educational benefits for adult ESL learners.
• Using Multicultural Children's Literature in Adult ESL Classes. ERIC Digest
  This digest focuses on the use of children's literature in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. Because high quality children's literature is characterized by an economy of words, stunning illustrations, captivating and quickly moving plots, and universal themes, carefully chosen books can offer educational benefits for adult ESL learners.
• Waking the Sleeping Giant: Engaging and Capitalizing on the Sociocultural Strengths of the Latino Community
  A family literacy program for Salvadoran refugees and other Latinos in Arlington (Virginia) is analyzed from a sociocultural perspective as exemplifying an educational project designed and implemented by grassroots organizations in an increasingly diverse, multicultural/multilingual community. The program addresses the educational needs of poor illiterate families while drawing on parents' culture and extensive life experiences.