Articles and resources listed here are not necessarily endorsed by the
CMMR; they are listed for informational purposes only. If you would like to
submit an item for inclusion on this page please write our webmaster. To
suggest a site to be added to this web site please visit our "Submit a Site"
page.
by the ACLU. The ACLU opposes "English Only" laws because they can abridge the
rights of individuals who are not proficient in English, and because they perpetuate false
stereotypes of immigrants and non-English speakers. This briefing paper elobrates on
these critical issues.
by C. T. Adger. This digest suggests that under-informed about what dialects are, how
they relate to each other, and what functions they fulfill, people have voiced views about
language in society that cannot be scientifically justified.
by T. Alexander Aleinikoff. This essay suggersts that cross-national group loyalties
can neither be wished away or erased. Yet the idea of the American nation is worth
defending against multicultural attack. Herewith some ground rules for a culturally
diverse nation.
by Deirdre A. Almeida. This Digest describes current inadequacies in teaching about
Native Americans, even when teachers are making an effort to portray American Indians
and Alaska Natives respectfully, and suggests ways to avoid common pitfalls. The Digest
provides guidelines for detecting anti-Indian bias in the curriculum and offers a brief
list of Native American-controlled publications and resources.
by S. Alva and A. Padilla. This article reviews factors that Mexican American
students who overcome a number of socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages use to
succeed academically. Why do some Mexican American students do well while others fail
despite sharing similar socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds? The purpose of this
paper is to present a conceptual framework that assigns a central role to the interaction
among sociocultural, personal, and environmental factors in explaining the academic
performance of Mexican American high school students.
by Marjane Ambler. Efforts to fundamentally change American Indian education have
been few. Many universities and colleges include cultural content, calling it Native
American Studies, ethnic studies, or comparative cultures. However, Native American
Studies courses at most colleges and universities must be generic since they attract
students from many tribes. This article highlights many of the obstacles faced by these
students and provides suggested models for overcoming barriers.
by Jorge Amselle. Article which suggests that advocates of official English need to
recapture the focus of the debate over a common language. If they do not, the language
issue will become the hegemony of restrictionists and xenophobes, and will indeed
become the divisive issue that ethnic activists already claim it to be.
by Theodore Andersson. This article focuses attention on bilingual children between
birth and age five and considers their potential desire and ability to learn to read not
only one but often two languages before entering kindergarten or first grade. The main
focus of the study is family reading. This is a particularly rich field of study; for,
whether the family under consideration is a small nuclear or large extended family, the
number and ages of the children, the presence or absence of grandparents or other
relatives, the particular relationships among the family members, and the time
available for reading provide an almost infinite number of variables and possibilities.
by K. Anstrom. This document summarizes, analyzes, and integrates findings from
relevant research pertaining to the education of language minority students in the
content areas. The study focused on the instruction of secondary-level language minority
students in mainstream social studies, science, mathematics and language arts classes.
Specifically, the document focuses on several key questions: What does the relevant
literature pertaining to content area instruction of linguistically and culturally diverse
learners (LCDLs) contribute to the theory and practice of (1) standards for LCDLs? (2)
measures of achievement, proficiency, and/or academic literacy for LCDLs? (3) the
field of promising practices in content area instruction for LCDLs? The report includes
preparation of mainstream teachers to work with language minority students.
by Kris Anstrom and Anneka Kindler. Issues related to the education of language
minority students need to be understood within the context of educational reform as
exemplified in the recent passage of three ground breaking pieces of legislation, the
Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), and the
School-to-Work Opportunities Act. All three pieces of legislation require that new
linkages be formed across old programatic boundaries, between local educational
agencies (LEAs), state education agencies (SEAs), institutions of higher education
(IHEs), and the federal government, and between community-based organizations and the
schools. Knowledge of the issues and legislation on the part of those concerned with the
education of language minority students and their involvement in all levels of the reform
effort will help determine whether language minority students benefit from the reform
movement. The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the issues and
legislation pertinent to the attainment of educational equity and excellence for language
minority students.
by K. Anstrom and S. Lynch. The focus of this report is on the education of
secondary-level English language learners within mainstream science classes. The
intent of this document is to give teachers and teacher educators a better understanding
of how mainstream science instruction can be designed and implemented to enhance
academic achievement for these students. Research for the report included an extensive
search of the NCBE bibliographic database, the ERIC bibliographic database and various
World Wide Web sites for information regarding effective curriculum and instruction,
content standards, student assessment, teacher training and education. In addition, the
national content standards documents for science (National Science Education Standards)
and three other core areas (language arts, math, social studies) were analyzed to
determine whether their theoretical bases were consistent with what educational
research tells us is effective practice for English language learners.
by Carol Ascher. Educators know all too well that they alone cannot solve the social
and economic problems in the U.S. that so severely limit opportunities of African
American males. Nonetheless, many educators and other concerned citizens are
introducing new practices targeted specifically to their unique needs. Efforts are also
being made to decrease the suspension and expulsion rates of black males, to lower their
representation in general tracks and special education programs and raise it in
programs for the gifted and talented, and to improve the recruitment and training of
teachers and counselors in predominatly black schools. This digest article explores
these topics.
by Elsa Roberts Auerbach. Despite widespread opposition to the English Only
movement, support for bilingual education, and advocacy for language rights, many U.S.
ESL educators continue to uphold the notion that English is the only acceptable medium of
communication within the confines of the ESL classroom. Although the exclusive use of
English in teaching ESL has come to be seen as a natural and commonsense practice which
can be justified on pedagogical grounds, this article argues that it is rooted in a
particular ideological perspective, rests on unexamined assumptions, and serves to
reinforce inequities in the broader social order.
by Leonard Baca, Jim Bransford, Chris Nelson, Leroy Ortiz. The University
of Colorado TDI BUENO Project addresses the need for improving and expanding training
programs to increase both the quality and quantity of bilingual/ESL teachers in thirty
IHEs in a twelve state area. This article provides the rationale for the development of the
University of Colorado BUENO TDI Project and discusses findings from the first eighteen
months of the three-year project.
by B. Bertram and J. K. Peyton. Electronic communication networks are in wide
use for college-level language and writing instruction and are being adopted for use in
elementary and secondary school classes. Teachers use network-based approaches to
literacy instruction to support authentic reading and writing, collaboration, student
centered learning, writing across the curriculum, and the creation of classroom writing
communities. A case study of network-based college classrooms identified great diversity
in the ways these goals were realized. Nevertheless, common factors shaped all of the
implementations: institutional goals, practices, and gateposts; theories, personalities,
and established practices of teachers; student characteristics and expectations; features
of the technology; and available resources. These factors suggest that like any innovation,
the introduction of computer technology to promote interaction and learning in
educational settings is a complex process that cannot be divorced from the users or the
setting. The authors suggest this complexity needs to be understood so that perceptions of
and expectations regarding the value of the innovation are neither idealized nor
superficial.
by Ana Bishop. This Issue Brief presents an overview of the latest developments and
trends in technology, along with the current uses they are being put to for educational
purposes, and the ways in which these can best serve education in this country and
abroad. In doing so, it explores the potential benefits of technology not just for bilingual
learners, but also for teacher education, administrative planning and oversight, and even
parent involvement in the scholastic life of bilingual students.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Roger Bordeaux. This Digest examines the use of standardized, nationally normed
testing in assessing the progress of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students.
It describes studies that have shown the inadequacies of these assessment methods as well
as theories that attempted to explain the poor test results of the AI/AN population. The
Digest then describes alternatives to standardized testing, particularly performance
based assessment, recommended by Native and non-Native educators and researchers.
by B. Bower. Unlike people who become bilingual after childhood, those who learn a
second language at an early age rely on the same critical patch of brain tissue when
speaking either tongue, according to a new study. Adult learners of language apparently
recruit nearby groups of brain cells, suggest neuroscientist Joy Hirsch of Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and her colleagues.
by D. M. Brinton, C. A. Holten, and J. M. Goodwin. This article suggests that
dialogue journals can lead novice teachers to a deeper and more personal learning
experience in methodology or practicum courses. In order to discover how TESOL teacher
educators can most effectively respond to the dialogue journal entries of teachers in
preparation, the authors examined the commenting strategies of three teacher educators
using dialogue journals in MA-level methodology and practicum courses.
by Shannon Brownlee. U.S. News artilce in which Ms Brownlee reveals that learning
language, researchers are finding, is an astonishing act of brain computation--and it's
performed by people too young to tie their shoes. Geneticists and linguists recently have
begun to challenge the common-sense assumption that intelligence and language are
inextricably linked, through research on a rare genetic disorder called Williams
syndrome, which can seriously impair cognition while leaving language nearly intact
(box). Increasingly sophisticated technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging are
allowing researchers to watch the brain in action, revealing that language literally
sculpts and reorganizes the connections within it as a child grows.
by Gary Burnett. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education article providing a synopsis
of how technology can be used as a powerful tool in urban classroom settings including
characteristics of good technology programs, various links to articles and successful
programs implementing such techniques, as well as strategies for adapting programs for
schools.
by Gary Burnett. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education article providing overview
of how the Internet is rapidly becoming one of the most important vehicles for educators
and others to communicate and share information. Further, he offers resources and
support to urban K-12 educators, bilingual and language minority students and
educators, and a brief list of urban schools and districts on the Internet.
edited by Miriam Burt. Adult English as a second language (ESL) instruction is the
fastest growing area of adult education. Although much is known about best practices in
adult ESL, there are still unanswered questions about the adult English language learner,
program design, teacher preparation, instruction, and assessment. The answers to these
questions are critical, not only to improve the effectiveness of adult ESL programs, but
also to improve the lives of adult ESL learners. This paper, prepared by the National
Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE) in collaboration with the National
Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) with support from
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL), addresses those
issues.
by Robin Butterfield. This Digest focuses on findings of the U.S. Department of
Education's Indian Nations At Risk (INAR) Task Force (1991) and the White House
Conference on Indian Education (1992) related to Native students who attend public
schools. Task Force and Conference findings--produced in early 1991 and 1992,
respectively--suggest systemic reforms that would (a) foster intercultural harmony in
schools, (b) improve teacher preparation, (c) develop instructional curricula and
strategies that support diverse cultural needs and learning styles, (d) include AI/AN
parents in the educational process, and (e) adopt a new paradigm for evaluation of AI/AN
student progress and success.
by Margarita Calderon. This ERIC Clearinghouse for Urban Education digest presents
recommendations for a staff development program for a multilingual multicultural
teaching staff based on a model that has been tested and shown to be effective.
by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Document that details
the standards for teacher preparation programs preparing teachers for students of
diverse language and cultural background.
Gina Cantoni, Editor. A Center for Excellence in Education Monograph at Northern
Arizona University, Flagstaff that looks at the stabilizing of indigenous languages. This
is a special issue of Northern Arizona University's Center for Excellence in Education
monograph series, Perspectives. A blueprint to revitalize American Indian and Alaska
Native languages.
by Mary T. Cazabon, Elena Nicoladis, and Wallace E. Lambert. Research on
the most effective forms of bilingual education (usually in terms of English
achievement) suggests that two-way programs may be the best. Two-way bilingual
education has been described in a national study as "the program with the highest long
term academic success" (Thomas & Collier, 1997, p. 52). The students' success in these
programs is undoubtedly due to a number of factors. These include opportunities for
linguistic minority students to assume strong peer leadership roles in the classroom, an
emphasis on grade-level academic instruction in both languages, sustained support for
and use of multicultural curricula, and opportunities for non-English-speaking parents
to form close partnerships with the school staff as well as with other parents. The
purpose of the present report is to examine students' development in a two-way
bilingual program by focusing on both their attitudes toward becoming bilingual (and
possibly bicultural) and their school achievement in both languages. Although the
authors do not have data to examine causal links between attitudes and achievement, they
see this study as a first step toward showing the relationship between the two.
by CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) and sponsored by the
Scholastic Network and Council of the Great City Schools,. This study demonstrates that
students with online access perform better. It isolates the impact of online use and
measures its effect on student learning in the classroom. The study compared the work of
500 students in fourth-grade and sixth-grade classes in 7 urban school districts- half
with online access and half without. The results show significantly higher scores on
measurements of information management, communication, and presentation of ideas for
experimental groups with online access than for control groups with no online access. It
offers evidence that using the Internet can help students become independent, critical
thinkers, able to find information, organize and evaluate it, and then effectively express
their new knowledge and ideas in compelling ways.
by Courtney B. Cazden. Controversy continues over the most reasonable conclusions
to draw from the accumulated research evidence on the effectiveness of various program
models for students who are not proficient in English. This paper examines a report
prepared for the U.S. Department of Education on three program models for language
minority children: structured English immersion strategy and early-exit and late-exit
bilingual education.
by the Center for Adolescent Studies at the School of Education.This
electronic issue of Teacher Talk addresses the concerns of preservice teachers regarding
diversity issues. Teacher Talk is published by the Center for Adolescent Studies at the
School of Education, Indiana University. It is a publication for preservice and secondary
education teachers that exists as a series of World Wide Web documents.
by Theresa Hsu Chao. This digest suggests that Chinese heritage community language
schools (referred to here as Chinese language schools) are an integral part of the
Chinese community in cities across the United States. According to a recent study by the
National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools, approximately 82,675
students are taking Chinese in 634 language schools across the country. This article
reviews the process and the schools.
by Carol A. Chapelle. This paper suggests that some design features and evaluation
criteria for multimedia Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) might be developed
on the basis of hypotheses about ideal conditions for second language acquisition (SLA). It
outlines a relevant theory of SLA and enumerates the hypotheses it implies for ideal
conditions such as input saliency, opportunities for interaction, and learner focus on
communication. Implications of each hypothesis for multimedia CALL design and
evaluation are outlined and exemplified.
by R. Chávez Chávez. A discussion on constructing a curriculum discourse for
Latina/o students. Focusing on the need for authenticity from within the community that
values, respects, and dignifies the self by trusting the self for the good of self and others.
The author suggests that constructing curriculum for achieving equity is an attitude that
resonates from a longing to have all students think and do for themselves and others in
compassionate ways rooted in respect, dignity, and high expectations.
by Nancy Feyl Chavkin and Dora Lara Gonzalez. According to the Bureau of the
Census (1994), there are approximately 13 million Mexican Americans in the United
States. In reviews of the status of education for Mexican American students it is reported
that there is a decline in high school completion rates, a steady rise in the dropout rate,
and high numbers of students two or more years behind grade level. This digest describes
research supporting family participation in students' education. It then describes
barriers to participation faced by many Mexican American parents and successful
programs and strategies for overcoming those barriers. Finally, the benefits of two-way
communication and school-family partnerships are described.
by Ines Marquez Chisholm. This paper focuses on the need for the multicultural
preparation of preservice teachers. The intent is neither to prescribe a uniform teacher
education program for all institutions nor to encompass all aspects of a good teacher
preparation program. Rather, this paper suggests institutional and programmatic
practices that will prepare future teachers for classroom diversity.
by Donna Christian. In a growing number of schools in the United States, students are
learning through two languages in programs that aim to develop dual language
proficiency along with academic achievement. These two-way bilingual programs
integrate language minority and language majority students and provide content area
instruction and language development in two languages. A study of over 160 schools
between 1991 and 1994 provides a picture of the current state of two-way bilingual
education in the United States. Two-way programs typically share the goals of bilingual
proficiency, academic achievement, and positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors,
but they vary a good deal in the approaches and strategies they use to work toward those
goals. A host of local factors affect such issues as student enrollment, program features
and design, and instructional features. Emerging results of studies of two-way bilingual
programs point to their effectiveness in educating nonnative-English-speaking students,
their promise of expanding our nation's language resources by conserving the native
language skills of minority students and developing second language skills in English
speaking students, and their hope of improving relationships between majority and
minority groups by enhancing cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.
by Donna Christian. Children from different backgrounds come to school speaking a
wide variety of dialects. Should our schools try to teach all students to use a standard
dialect? If so, how? If not, how should different dialects be handled in the school setting?
What impact does speaking a non-school dialect have on students' academic success and on
their interactions with others in and out of school? These complex and controversial
questions are discussed in this digest article.
by Nancy Clair and Carolyn Temple Adger. This digest focuses on professional
development for teachers in culturally diverse schools. It summarizes what is known
about effective professional development and the conditions that allow it to succeed. It
provides three examples of professional development that are grounded in the academic
achievement of English language learners as a fundamental ingredient to overall school
success.
by Virginia P. Collier. Given the misinformation that persists about second language
acquisition among both educators and the public, this short publication is written to
guide the reader through the substantial research knowledge base that the field has
developed over the past 25 years.
by Virginia P. Collier. This article reviews a number of studies, including the
author's own recently completed one, that point to an advantage which children in middle
childhood appear to have over younger children and adolescents in formally acquiring a
second language.
by Clayton Collins of The Christian Science Monitor. This article suggests that
language has long been equated with cultural clout - the "perfect instrument of empire,"
as Spain's Queen Isabella was said to have been told by an adviser. Today, the world's
empires may be in retreat but active movements to leverage language for power have
surged worldwide. This article provides a world wide perspective to language policy for
political power.
by T. B. Corcoran. This policy brief reviews what is known about professional
development, where it is now, and where it needs to be. The brief discusses its
organization, costs, and effects on practice. It also suggests some principles to guide
professional development in the future and offers a framework for designing and
assessing policies and programs.
by James Crawford. Paper presented at a Conference on Language Legislation and
Linguistic Rights, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 21, 1996.
by James Crawford. A review of current research literature on the education of
language minority students in the United States. The result of the review is the
presentation of the "Best Evidence" as it relates to the research foundations of the
Bilingual Education Act (Title VII of The Improving America's Schools Act). The author
has organized the document according to the Congressional findings on the Bilingual
Education Act.
by James Crawford. An historical perspective on bilingualism and bilingual education
in North America. From Crawford's highly acclaimed book, Bilingual Education:
History, Politics, Theory, and Practice.
by James Crawford. The threat to linguistic resources is now recognized as a
worldwide crisis. As many as half of the estimated 6,000 languages spoken on earth are
spoken only by adults who no longer teach them to the next generation. An additional 40
percent may soon be threatened because the number of children learning them is
declining measurably. In other words, 90 percent of existing languages today are likely
to die or become seriously embattled within the next century. In formulating a response
to this crisis, there are three questions that need to be explored: (1) What causes
language decline and extinction? (2) Can the process be reversed? And (3) why should
we concern ourselves with this problem? This articlel looks in detail at the situation of
Native American languages in the United States.
by James Crawford. What would be the legal impact of an English Language
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? This excerpt from Language Loyalties: A Source
Book On The Official English Controversy, gives a detailed overview of the historical and
legal precedents to explore this question.
by Jim Cummins, from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education clarifies aspects of
the distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills and cognitive academic
language proficiency that he framed 20 years ago (Cummins, 1979) as a qualification to
John Oller's (1979) claim that all individual differences in language proficiency could
be accounted for by just one underlying factor, which he termed global language
proficiency.
by Jim Cummins. This paper outlines the rationale underlying an innovative
approach to computer assisted language learning that proposes to use target language text
as input for learning. The text is made comprehensible to learners as a result of
dictionary and learning strategy supports built into a multimedia CD-ROM design. The
dictionary supports can be provided in learners' first and second languages (L1 and L2)
and learning strategy supports include graphic organizers to facilitate comprehension of
content as well as a variety of vocabulary building and grammar learning supports.
These supports represent scaffolding that enables the learner/reader to process the
meaning of texts that otherwise would have been inaccessible. Any text in electronic
form can be imported into the system and used as authentic input for target language
learning. Computer Assisted Text Scaffolding for Curriculum Access and Language
Learning/Acquisition - Summary
by Jim Cummins. The "e-Lective Language Learning" system described in this paper
proposes to use target language text as input for language learning by incorporating a
variety of L1 and L2 dictionary and learning strategy supports into a multimedia CD
ROM design. Any text in electronic form can be imported into the system and used as
authentic input for target language learning. The built-in supports permit learners to
comprehend text that would otherwise have been inaccessible. As considerable research
has demonstrated, the more target language text learners read and comprehend, the more
of the target language they learn.
by Jim Cummins. The term "immersion education" came to prominence in Canada
during the 1960s to describe innovative programs in which the French language was
used as a medium of instruction for elementary school students whose home language was
English. However, as Johnson and Swain (1997) point out, there is nothing new in the
phenomenon of "immersing" students in a second language (L2) instructional
environment. In fact, throughout the history of formal education the use of an L2 as a
medium of instruction has been the rule rather than the exception. The Canadian French
immersion programs, however, were the first to be subjected to intensive long-term
research evaluation, although some large-scale research had been undertaken in other
contexts prior to the Canadian experience.
by Jim Cummins. Rebuttal of the Rossell and Baker study. In 1996, Christine Rossell
and Keith Baker published a review of research studies which they claimed addressed the
effectiveness of bilingual education. (Rossell & Baker, 1996). Their findings looked
impressive and are frequently cited by opponents of bilingual education. For example,
they claimed that in ten studies comparing transitional bilingual education (TBE) with
Structured Immersion in reading performance, no difference was found in 17% and
Structured Immersion was superior in 83%. However, when we look at these research
studies more closely, it turns out that 90% actually demonstrate the effectiveness of
bilingual and even trilingual education.
by Jim Cummins and Michael Genzuk. The U.S. Department of Education released
the findings of an eight-year study designed to provide definitive answers to one of the
most volatile questions in American Education: What types of programs work best in
helping Hispanic students succeed in school? The issue has revolved around the
effectiveness of bilingual education which involves using the child's primary language in
addition to English as a language of instruction. This article also available in Spanish.
by E. DeAvila. Over the past twenty years programs designed to improve the language
proficiency of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students have met with mixed results.
Largely because of a lack of adequate evaluative documentation, results have been
equivocal regardless of program quality. Much of the confusion has come out of variable
approaches to the concept of growth and what can be expected from programs of this type.
Recently, "expected gain" has become an important concept in documenting the
educational development of Limited and Non English Proficient speaking students. An
understanding of this concept requires an analysis of the relationship between quality of
instruction and measurable student outcomes. This article looks at three key factors
which both underlie this relationship and provide the necessary foundation upon which
expectations for learning that can be derived or generated in a meaningful and defensible
manner.
by E. C. De Laurentiis. The author of this article proposes criteria to create
excellent learning environments with computers. Many of these criteria apply to good
education no matter what the learning device. He also suggests that despite its promise,
and the vision of many futurists, technology has yet to make its mark on education.
by William Demmert. This Digest connects personal experience to that of other
Native peoples and to the findings of two national studies. The Digest concludes with a
summary of steps that must be taken at the local and federal levels, as recommended in
the studies.
Escrito por el Departamento de Educación de los Estados Unidos. Esta guía
sobre el Internet para padres de familia tiene como fin ayudar a los padressin importar
su nivel de conocimientos tecnológicosa utilizar el mundo en línea como una importante
herramienta educativa. La guía simplifica la abrumadora cantidad de información para
los consumidores y ofrece a los padres una introducción al Internet y la forma de navegar
por él. La Guía sugiera la forma en que los padres pueden permitir a sus hijos explorar
los prodigios del Internet al mismo tiempo que los protegen de sus peligros potenciales.
by Amy DePaul, of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research
and Improvement. If you wanted to know what the first year of teaching school is like,
you'd ask teachers who just completed their first year on the job. This book attempts to
capture the fascinating and inspiring answers received. It is based largely on a series of
discussions held among winners of the First Class Teacher Award sponsored every year
by Sallie Mae, a corporation dedicated to education.The teachers talked in frank terms
about what it's like to feel rebuffed by veteran teachers, to struggle with budget
cutbacks, to see children in distress. But the obstacles they related are only half the
story. They also share how they surmounted challenges, what they would want new
teachers to know, and why being a teacher is so crucial to their sense of self.
by John M. Dodd, J. Ron Nelson, William Spint. Because of the diversity among
American Indian peoples, numerous tests and extensive research are required to develop
tests for the many American Indian tribal groups. Since selling tests in sufficient
numbers to make a profit is the goal for publishers, it is reasonable to assume that there
will not be suitable psychometric tests available for all American Indian groups in the
near future. When the dubious benefit for having such tests available is considered,
perhaps their development should be discouraged. However, prevention of inappropriate
testing is essential. One way to accomplish this is through culturally sensitive
prereferral intervention.
by Jamie B. Draper and Martha Jiménez. Not since the beginning of this century
has language received as much attention in the United States. Like the language battles of
the early 1900s, those of the 1980s were rife with appeals to patriotism and unity
casting language minorities in the role of outsiders who deliberately "chose" not to learn
the English language. This article provides a chronological overview of these efforts.
by M.A. DuFon. In recent years increasing numbers of researchers have begun to
investigate second language acquisition within the socio-cultural context in which it
occurs using qualitative methods and approaches such as an ethnographic approach. This
frequently entails audio and/or video recording of the participants in naturalistic
contexts. Yet theoretical and methodological issues related to video recording have not yet
received a great deal of attention in the second language acquisition literature. The
purpose of this paper is to initiate such a discussion among SLA researchers. This is
accomplished by reviewing the visual anthropology, educational anthropology, and
ethnographic filmmaking literature on three questions concerning the collection of valid
video recorded data: a) How should the interaction be video recorded? b) Who should be
video recorded? c) Who should do the video recording? Examples are presented to
illustrate the kinds of problems that might be encountered in each of these areas. The
author presents reflections on the decisions made when videotaping so that other SLA
researchers using video recording might gain some insights that will assist them when
dealing with the theoretical, methodological and practical considerations of planning and
implementing their SLA studies using an ethnographic approach.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Nadine Dutcher. This Overview presents a picture of language education in the
United States, its context and its dimensions, especially at the secondary level of
education. Topics include: Language in society; Language policy; Primary and secondary
language education; Post-secondary language education; and Teacher education and
professional development, including an annotated list of organizations that support
teacher development. Separately we include a review of English as a second language
education, a topic not of concern to the other participating countries but of strong
interest in the United States. Sources for the Overview are U.S. government
publications, reports from the professional associations of language teachers, academic
researchers, and personal communication with language educators.
by J. Egbert, T. M. Paulus, Y. Nakamichi. The purpose of this study is to examine
how language teachers apply practical experiences from computer-assisted language
learning (CALL) coursework to their teaching. It also examines ways in which teachers
continue their CALL professional development.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by ERIC. Annotated bibliographies and abstracts about equity and diversity posted by
the ERIC Clearinghouse on trends and issues affecting Asian-Americans.
ERIC. Reading is a discipline that requires a significant transfer of skills, knowledge,
and concepts from one language to another for bilingual students. In the classroom,
bilingual educators must provide instruction that builds a strong foundation for reading
literacy in both the first and second language. The research and classroom practices
highlighted in this pathway provide bilingual educators with specific methods and
materials that can be used to build a strong foundation in reading.
by ERIC. Annotated bibliographies and ERIC abstracts highlighting classroom materials
for African American studies and students. The documents and journal articles have been
entered into the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. Most
documents can be ordered from original sources or from the ERIC Document
Reproduction Service, 1-800-443-ERIC.
by ERIC. ERIC abstracts on family involvement of Asian/Pacific Islanders. Most of the
documents and journal articles have been entered into the Educational Resources
Information Center (ERIC) database. Links to ERIC Abstracts provide detailed ordering
information.
by ERIC. This Digest examines the relationship between K-12 teachers' use of
computer-based technologies to deliver and support classroom instruction and the
training provided to prospective teachers by teacher education institutions. It offers an
overview of obstacles faced by teacher educators in providing appropriate technology
instruction and outlines approaches to addressing these obstacles.
by O.S. Fashola & R. E. Slavin. Over the past ten years a number of programs
designed to affect dropout rates and related outcomes have been implemented and
evaluated in middle and high schools serving many Latino students. Collectively, these
studies show that schools can make a dramatic difference in the dropout rates, school
success, and college enrollment rates of at-risk Latino youth. The purpose of the paper
is to review research on programs of this kind.
by Olatokunbo S. Fashola, Robert E. Slavin, Margarita Calderón, and
Richard Durán. The focus of this review is on the identification of programs that have
been shown to be effective in rigorous evaluations, that are replicable across a broad
range of elementary and middle schools, and that have been successfully evaluated or at
least frequently applied to schools serving many Latino students.
By Veronica Fern. Education Secretary Riley estimates that about two million new
teachers will be needed in the next ten years. However, he cites significant barriers to
providing an adequate pool of qualified teachers. These include the failure to recruit
sufficient numbers of talented minorities to the profession, and the failure to prepare
teachers adequately in the subject areas. This digest addresses the question of how do we
best prepare teachers for linguistically- and culturally-diverse settings?
by Mark Fetler. A rising need for teachers is projected for California and the nation
during the next decade. Sound policy for teacher preparation should not only foster a
capable workforce, it should also assure that the supply of qualified teachers balances
with employment demand. A conceptual model is proposed to describe the flow of
individuals through teacher preparation programs and the workplace. Evidence for a lack
of balance between supply and demand is found in an upward trend of emergency hiring of
teachers who do not meet all requirements for a credential and low employment rates for
first-time college and university prepared teachers. The asymmetry between supply and
demand could be redressed partly through better retention of working teachers and
closer coordination of preparation programs with the needs of schools in their service
areas.
By Joshua Fishman. Attitudes toward language-loss depend on your perspective.
When a language is lost, you might look at that from the perspective of the individual.
Many individuals suppressed their language and paid the price for it in one way or
another. You can also speak from the point of view of the culture lost. The culture has
lost its language. What is lost when the culture is so dislocated that it loses the language
which is traditionally associated with it? That is a serious issue for Native Americans.
We can ask it from the national point of view. What is lost by the country when the
country loses its languages? This article focuses on language loss from only one of these
perspectives, the perspective of the culture. Because losing your language is,
technically, an issue in the relationship between language and culture. What is the
relationship between language and culture?
by Nicholas B. Fitzgerald. This digest summarizes findings of the NEAEP that are
pertinent to English as a second language (ESL) literacy education, including a profile of
the ESL population served by adult education, the nature of ESL program participation,
the impact of ESL instruction, and estimates of both current and future demand for ESL
services.
by Judith LeBlanc Flores. Postsecondary outcomes for Mexican Americans have not
improved measurably since the mid-1980s. Although Hispanic students are attending
and graduating from college in greater numbers, much of this growth is linked directly
to their population growth. Despite increased representation among undergraduates and
college graduates, Hispanic students complete college at a lower rate than the general
student population. This digest addresses those factors that may facilitate postsecondary
outcomes for Hispanic students, particularly Mexican-American students, who enroll in
U.S. community colleges and 4-year institutions.
by E. Franklin & J. Thompson. This article describes the collected written and
visual works of one Dakota child, Monica, and three themes: relationships, cultural
commitment, and romance visible in her works. Through a descriptive study of her
works, Monica's teachers were able to understand her particular meaning-making
efforts, the way in which various genres (e.g., personal narratives, realistic and
romance fictional narratives, cards and letters, written and visual responses to books)
supported her exploration and expression of meaning, and the struggles and tensions
inherent in her creative process.
by Paul Galbraith and Kris Anstrom. The leadership role on the part of educators
of LCD students along with interdisciplinary cooperation between bilingual/English as a
Second Language (ESL) and mainstream staff is critical for the effective education of LCD
students. The education of these students has been perceived as the domain of only a small
group of specialized individuals, namely ESL and bilingual teachers. This perception has
often led to the isolation of LCD students from the rest of the school and to the provision
of a separate curriculum for those students. This study suggests a staff development
model to address these concerns.
by Ann Galloway. This digest looks at the communicative approach to the teaching of
foreign languages. It is intended as an introduction to the communicative approach for
teachers and teachers-in-training who want to provide opportunities in the classroom
for their students to engage in real-life communication in the target language. Questions
to be dealt with include what the communicative approach is, where it came from, and
how teachers' and students' roles differ from the roles they play in other teaching
approaches. Examples of exercises that can be used with a communicative approach are
described, and sources of appropriate materials are provided.
by Patricia Gándara, Katherine Larson, Russell Rumberger, and Hugh
Mehan. This Brief reports on three California school-based programs aimed at
improving the rate of both high school completion and college attendance among Latino
students. While the aims of the three programs are similar, their strategies differ
according to the segment of the population they target and the ways in which they deploy
their resources. Yet each has proven to be effective. ALAS targets the lowest-achieving
Latino students who are at the greatest risk of dropping out of high school. AVID targets
underachieving students with above-average test scores who have the potential to take
more-demanding college preparatory courses in high school. Puente targets students
with varied levels of achievement with the aim of ensuring that they finish high school
and go on to college. The report describe each of the programs and the evaluation results
that exist to date.
by Patricia Gandara. This is a study of high academic achievement found in the most
unlikely places: among low-income Mexican Americans from homes with little formal
education. It examines the backgrounds of 50 persons, male and female from one age
cohort, who met most of the predictors for school failure or "dropping out." All came
from families in which neither parent completed high school or held a job higher than
skilled labor; the average father finished grade four and most were sons and daughters of
farmworkers and other unskilled laborers. Most began school with Spanish as their
primary language, yet all completed doctoral-level educations from the country's most
prestigious institutions. This study investigates the forces that conspire to create such
anomalies. Its aim is to suggest how such outcomes might be the product of design rather
than accident.
by Patricia Gándara. The following report was written at the request of the Latino
Caucus of the California Legislature and was completed in April of 1997 as the debate
surrounding Proposition 227 was getting underway. The impetus for the report was the
concern of the caucus that much of the rhetoric in the press and on the street was that
"bilingual education had failed." The Caucus asked the question, "Is there research
evidence that bilingual education works?" Hence, the task that was put to us was "not" to
provide an accounting of studies and essays on all sides of the issue, but to essentially
"present the case" for bilingual education. We called upon many of the most distinguished
researchers in the field and asked them to provide guidance in answering the question
that had been posed to us. (Their names are listed at the end of the report). This report
represents a synthesis of their recommendations along with some analysis of basic
education data.
by Eugene Garcia. This report suggests that linguistically and culturally diverse
students can achieve academic success when provided with appropriate instruction
tailored to meet their specific needs. Recent research has documented effective
instructional practices used with students from homes and communities where English is
not the primary language of communication. These descriptive studies identified specific
schools and classrooms whose language minority students were particularly successful
academically.
by Fred Genesee. Among the most interesting and effective innovations in second
language education during the last three decades have been the immersion programs
developed in Canada. The first immersion programs were developed to provide Canada's
majority-group English-speaking students with opportunities to learn Canada's other
official language. Since that time, immersion programs have been adopted in many
different areas of North America, and alternative forms of immersion have been devised.
This report presents a selective review of research findings from the extensive
evaluations that have been undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of immersion
programs in Canada and the United States. It focuses on selected aspects of second
language learning and discusses implications of immersion research findings for the
design and development of second language programs in other school settings for other
kinds of learners.
by Michael Genzuk. This digest suggests that the nation's nearly 500,000
paraeducators working in K-12 classrooms embody a promising source of prospective
teachers. Paraeducator-to-teacher programs capitalize on the attributes that
paraeducators bring to the program and the program streamlines their pathway into
teaching. Studies suggest that paraeducator-to-teacher program graduates bring a
wealth of community and student knowledge to their practice, attributes that are highly
regarded in today's diverse classrooms.
by Michael Genzuk and Reynaldo Baca. This article from the "Journal on
Education and Urban Society" provides a 5-year retrospective on the experience of
planning and carrying out a paraeducator-to teacher pipeline program. Described are
how the project works, lessons learned to date, and directions for the future.
by Michael Genzuk, Magaly Lavadenz, and Stephen Krashen. This article
suggests bilingual paraeducators are a promising source of bilingual teachers. It
discusses possible barriers and support to the process of preparing this potential work
force to take its place among the ranks of the nation's teachers.
by Gustavo Gonzalez & Lento F. Maez. As we prepare students to meet the
challenges of the 21st century, research must be utilized to guide the implementation of
innovative and comprehensive school-wide instructional practices that focus on helping
all students meet high standards. The findings and conclusions from the research studies
discussed here can be applied to help linguistically and culturally diverse students reach
high levels of achievement and performance.
by Norma Gonzalez, James Greenberg, and Carlos Velez. How can committed
city teachers boost the literacy skills of their poor, minority students? According to
some educational researchers, the answer lies in a more "sociocultural" approach to
literacy instruction.
by N. González, L. C. Moll, M. Floyd-Tenery, A. Rivera, P. Rendón, R.
Gonzales, and C. Amanti. This Digest describes a research model that has shown that
classroom practice can be developed, transformed, and enriched by drawing upon the
existing funds of knowledge in minority students' households. Funds of knowledge refers
to those historically developed and accumulated strategies (e.g., skills, abilities, ideas,
practices) or bodies of knowledge that are essential to a household's functioning and
well-being. Through participant-observer visits to minority student households,
researchers and teachers became aware of these funds of knowledge.
by Norma González, Luis C. Moll, Martha Floyd-Tenery, Anna Rivera,
Patricia Rendón, Raquel Gonzales, and Cathy Amanti. This report is from the
University of Arizona National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second
Language Learning. The article reports the conceptualization of working-class Latino
students' households as being rich in funds of knowledge has engendered transformative
consequences for teachers, parents, students, and researchers. The qualitative study of
their own students' households by teachers has unfolded as a viable method for bridging
the gap between school and community.
by Manuela González-Bueno. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of using e-mail
as a tool to promote foreign language learning in and out of the classroom. The study
identifies the following features of the foreign language generated through the electronic
medium, some of which have already been observed in previous studies: (a) greater
amount of language; (b) more variety of topics and language functions; (c) higher level
of language accuracy; (d) more similarity with oral language; (e) more student
initiated interactions; and (f) more personal and expressive language use. These
observations are expected to expand the generalizations made in previous studies, and
more finely tune theoretical propositions, about how to integrate electronic
communication in the classroom in order to facilitate foreign language learning.
by Kenneth Goodman, Yetta Goodman and Barbara Flores. The purpose of this
monograph is to examine the issues of reading in bilingual education. The focus is
primarily on the contemporary classroom in the United States. The authors examine the
problems, issues, trends, and research. They also include suggestions on promising
directions.
by A. Lin Goodwin. The nation's schools are increasingly multiracial even as the
teaching force continues to be predominantly white. This juxtaposition of burgeoning
"minority" school populations against dwindling numbers of "minority" teachers has
drawn much scholarly attention. Yet, few studies include data on Asian and Pacific
Islander (API) teachers rendering information partial, at best. This ERIC digest reviews
available data on APIs in order to assess their presence in the teaching profession.
by Jay P. Greene. With the sponsorship of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, the
Public Policy Clinic of the University of Texas' Government Department, and Harvard
University's Program on Education Policy and Governance, the researchers have
conducted a systematic, statistical review of the literature on the effectiveness of
bilingual education. With this technique known as meta-analysis to summarize the
scholarly research, they find that children with limited English proficiency who are
taught using at least some of their native language perform significantly better on
standardized tests than similar children who are taught only in English. In other words,
an unbiased reading of the scholarly research suggests that bilingual education helps
children who are learning English.
by Kenji Hakuta. This article reviews numerous areas including the following topics:
bilingualism defined, what is bilingual about bilingual education? second language
learning, bilingualism and cognitive development, and cross-language transfer of skills
and knowledge.
by Kenji Hakuta. In a recent court declaration urging that immigrant students be
exposed to English as early as possible, an advocate wrote: "the optimal time to learn a
second language is between age three and five or as soon thereafter as possible, and
certainly before the onset of puberty" (Porter, 1998). Such statements derive from the
critical period hypothesis for second language acquisition, the origins of which are
attributable to Penfield and Roberts (1959) and more prominently perhaps to Eric
Lenneberg (1967), who amassed evidence in support of the view that first language
acquisition is a biologically constrained process, with a specific timetable ending at
puberty. In a single paragraph of the book (p. 176), Lenneberg speculated about the
implications for second language acquisition, noting that after puberty, second languages
are acquired consciously and with great effort, and often not very successfully. The
purpose of this paper is to make explicit the assumptions underlying this hypothesis,
and to highlight what we know, and don't know, about its empirical status.
by: K. Hakuta, J. Banks, Christian, Durán, Kaestle, Kenny, Leinhardt,
Ortiz, Hinojosa, Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, & Snow. The Committee to Develop a
Research Agenda for the Education of Limited-English-Proficient and Bilingual Students
was convened to undertake a comprehensive review and synthesis of research on the
education of limited-English-proficient and bilingual students an recommend research
needs and priorities for the future. A report of the committee's work, Improving
Schooling for Language-Minority Children: A Research Agenda, was published in early
1997. A second report published in February 1998, Educating Language-Minority
Children summarizes for teachers and education policymakers what has been learned
over the past three decades about educating language-minority students.
by K. Hakuta, Y. G. Butler and D. Witt. One of the most commonly asked questions
about the education of language minority students is how long they need special services,
such as English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and bilingual education. The purpose of
this paper is to pull together findings that directly address this question. This study
reports on data from four different school districts to draw conclusions on how long it
takes students to develop oral and academic English proficiency.
by Linda Harklau. Language minority students are often placed in mainstream,
English medium classrooms long before they develop the degree of language proficiency
necessary to compete on an equal footing with native speakers of the school language.
With the ever-increasing presence of such students in U.S. schools, ESL and content are
educators are working to better integrate their respective curricula and instructional
roles. In order to accomplish this integration, significant instructional difference in
these two contexts must be identified, and systematic comparisons must detail how L2
learners fare in each of these instructional environments. What do students lose and gain
in their transition from ESL to the mainstream? This question was addressed in a 3 1/2
year ethnography of the L2 learning experiences of newcomer students attending a high
school in northern California.
by Shirley Brice Heath. Both language learning theorists and practitioners of
teaching English as a second language or dialect have argued that role playing moves
language learners beyond their usual performance in ordinary classroom presentations.
This paper tells the story of how inner city youth organizations use dramas that young
people write, cast, and direct to enable them to retain their first language or dialect
while gaining standard English and preparing for job entry. The story ends with
implications for the language classroom.
by Glenn Ole Hellekjaer. Bilingual instruction is the Council of Europe's preferred
term for teaching content in a foreign language. This article looks at some of the ways in
which bilingual instruction differs from foreign language and subject-matter
instruction, and what this means for teaching. It pays particular attention to the process
of introducing upper-secondary school pupils to this novel form of instruction, and
offers practical suggestions on how to teach and organize such a class. Next it looks at
how foreign language and subject-matter instruction can help or hinder bilingual
instruction. Last, it discusses briefly the need for a whole school policy to support a
bilingual program.
by Mary Hermes. Located within the recent scholarship in Indian Education, this
brief annotated bibliography concentrates on the subject broadly referred to as "culture
and curriculum." If culture is understood as the collective values, practices, and will of
a people, then cultural practices in Indian education can only be understood as acts of
self-determination.
by Gary Huang. To explore the complexities of communication with Asian and Pacific
Islanders (API) children and their families, this digest describes the overt and covert
dimensions of the various API cultures, and discusses APIs' socioeconomic background
and life experiences that affect their communication behavior. The goal is to help
practitioners improve communication with APIs and, thus, more effectively educate API
children.
by Beverly Hunter and John Richards. The nature of work and learning in our
knowledge-based society and economy requires active participation by individuals and
groups in the construction of knowledge. Active construction of knowledge, participation
in collaborative learning, and building on learners' interests and experiences outside of
school are major threads in educational reform and new curriculum standards. This
paper provides examples of student work that not only demonstrates their own learning
as young "knowledge" workers, but also makes a contribution to their community, to the
learning of others, and to the base of knowledge available on the Internet.
by Beverly Johnson. This ERIC Clearinghouse on Teacher Education Digest focuses on
teacher as researcher. The article reviews "action research" a deliberate, solution
oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted. It is
characterized by spiraling cycles of problem identification, systematic data collection,
reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem redefinition. The
linking of the terms "action" and "research" highlights the essential features of this
method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or
improving curriculum, teaching, and learning
by Beau Fly Jones, Gilbert Valdez, Jeri Nowakowski, & Claudette
Rasmussen. This publication introduces what we know about effective learning and
effective technology, and puts it together in a planning framework for educators and
policy makers. After reading about effective learning and technology, educators can
follow the instructions to actually use the framework to plan technology and technology
enhanced programs that complement learning. Published in 1995 by the North Central
Regional Educational Laboratory.
by Hee-Won Kang, P. Keuhn, and A. Herrellby Hee-Won Kang. This article
suggests that for some adults, the development of literacy may be a practical matter of
economic advancement or survival. For others, it may be a matter of broader concerns
such as preservation of a culture and helping to brighten the future of their children.
The Hmong Literacy Project, funded by the National Institute for Literacy, encompassed
all of these concerns.This article is a description of the implementation and some of the
results of the project.
by Robert D. King. Language is tearing apart countries around the world, and the
proponents of "Official English" may be ready to add America to the list. An article in the
Atlantic Monthly.
by Martin Luther King Jr. This page contains a few of King's more famous works
and includes some of the material found in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.at the
MLKJ Website at Stanford University. Included are the Letter from Birmingham Jail,
August 28th Address at March on Washington (The "I Have a Dream" speech), Nobel
Prize Acceptance Speech, and the I See The Promised Land (aka "I've Been To The
Mountaintop", King's last sermon). Free registration may be required.
by by Ann Koufman-Frederick, Martha Lillie, Laurie Pattison-Gordon,
Daniel Lynn Watt, and Richard Carter. A collboration of the Northeast & Islands
Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University, the National School Network, &
the Teacher Enhancement Electronic Community Hall. This full-text guide features an
11-step process for making online collaborative projects successful. Offerings include:
explanations of various kinds of online collaborations -- discussion groups, data
collection and organization, document sharing, synchronous communication, and online
workshops and courses, tools and websites that can be resources for creating each of
these forms of collaborative environments, and tips for moderating online
collaborations. Examples of school-based online collaborations appear throughout the
guide.
by Stephen D. Krashen. The core of the case for bilingual education is that the
principles underlying successful bilingual education are the same principles that
underlie successful language acquisition in general. These principles are: (1) We
acquire a second language by understanding messages, by obtaining comprehensible
input. (2) Background knowledge can help make second language input more
comprehensible, and can thus assist in the acquisition of the second language. (3) The
development of literacy occurs in the same way as second language acquisition does.
by Stephen Krashen. Critics of bilingual education have cited the high Hispanic
dropout rate as evidence against bilingual education. Since most bilingual programs are
Spanish-English, it is concluded that bilingual education must be responsible. This note
reviews what is known about dropout rates among Hispanic students.
by Stephen Krashen. The "failure" of whole language in California has been widely
reported. The author attempts to give a clear definition of whole language, discuss some
of the research, and provide some information about the impact of whole language in
California.
by Stephen Krashen. Bilingual education continues to receive criticism in the
national media. This Digest examines some of the criticism, and its effect on public
opinion, which often is based on misconceptions about bilingual education's goals and
practice. The Digest explains the rationale underlying good bilingual education programs
and summarizes research findings about their effectiveness.
by Patricia Kuntz. Although the teaching of African languages at the elementary and
secondary levels is rare, a number of schools offer one or more of the following major
African languages at these levels: Arabic (North Africa), Hausa (West Africa), Swahili
(East Africa), Wolof (Senegal), Yoruba (Nigeria), and Xhosa and Zulu (South Africa).
This digest suggests these programs have adequate instructional materials, learning
time, effective teaching practices, and curricula designed by scope and sequence.
Testimony submitted by William Labov, Professor of Linguistics at the
University of Pennsylvania, Past President of the Linguistic Society of America,
member of the National Academy of Science.
by Bernard Laplante. This article proposes a number of language and science related
teaching strategies that are appropriate for elementary science teachers working with
language minority students. Each of the nine strategies proposed are described and their
theoretical underpinnings discussed. When appropriate, classroom examples are given.
Commonly held teachers' beliefs (about language and science) are discussed, as these
beliefs are sometimes contrary to the theoretical underpinnings of alternative strategies
and impact negatively on their implementation in the classroom. It is hoped that this
approach will allow teachers to reflect on their classroom practice not only in terms of
teaching strategies but also by considering how their own beliefs guide this practice.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Mary S. Leighton, Amy M. Hightower, Pamela Wrigley. Funds of Knowledge
for Teaching" (FKT) is a project of the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology and
the College of Education at the University of Arizona. At the core of this project is a
notion of culture as a dynamic entity--a way of using social, physical, spiritual, and
economic resources to make one's way in the world. In FKT, anthropologists, teacher
educators, and teachers learn about the funds of knowledge possessed by students and
their families in order to gain insight about connections among ordinary curricular
goals and students' experience in the community. Together they devise new academic
materials, strategies, and activities that build more sturdily on what students know and
can do outside of school.
by Mary S. Leighton, Amy M. Hightower and Pamela Wrigley. From the
projects described in this federally sponsored report, educators can learn much about
how to develop a highly qualified instructional workforce for language minority students.
Illustrates research-supported principles of professional development with the
experiences of communities of scholars, practitioners, and teacher aspirants at selected
sites. Commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Bilingual Education
and Minority Language Affairs.
by Benjamin Levin and J. Anthony Riffel. Increasing diversity in the population
is a major issue for educators in North America, presenting political as well as
educational challenges. This paper examines Canadian educational policy responses to
four kinds of diversity - bilingualism (French/English), multiculturalism, the
situation of aboriginal peoples, and the problem of poverty. A description of each issue
leads to some speculations or propositions on the nature of diversity and appropriate
educational responses to it.
by V. W. Lewelling. The issue of an official language has surfaced periodically
throughout U.S. history. On the surface, the idea appears to be a symbolic gesture-to
give English, the de facto language of the country, official status. However, proposals
have also called for prohibition of state laws, ordinances, orders, programs, and policies
that require the use of other languages. Concern over the implications such an
amendment could have for U.S. citizens and residents whose native language is other than
English led to formation of an English Plus language advocacy coalition of more than 50
civil rights and educational organizations. This digest reviews these topics.
by Linguistic Society of America. In this Statement, the Society addresses some of
the misconceptions and urges the protection of basic linguistic rights.
by A.T. Lockwood. This article examines the context in which Hispanic students drop
out of school--and what one exemplary middle school has done to battle these contextual
factors. A web of interlocking factors synergize to make dropping out of school much
more likely for Hispanic students. Factors include racial and ethnic identity, gender,
socioeconomic status, academic performance, self-concept, family organization, and
language fluency.
by A.T. Lockwood. In this document attention focuses on secondary-level curricular
strategies that have been successful in not only significantly diminishing the dropout
rate of Hispanic students, but also accomplishing a variety of other worthwhile goals. It
features the educational strategies of the Calexico School District in Calexico.
by A.T. Lockwood. To bond Hispanic students to schools and prepare them for
productive roles as citizens in a democratic society, school staff need to familiarize
themselves with the many outstanding programs available to strengthen their current
instructional and social agenda, and to implement programs best suited to the individual
needs of their student populations. Many demonstrably effective programs at the
elementary or middle level already are flourishing in schools around the country. This
article focuses on three of those programs: Success for All, the HOSTS Program (Helping
One Student To Succeed), and Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). This article
illustrates what each of the three programs looks like in application.
by Anne T. Lockwood and Walter G. Secada. The document contains six chapters.
The first, The Hispanic Dropout Problem and Recommendations for Its Solution, provides
statistics on the Hispanic dropout rate, and an overview of findings from the Hispanic
Dropout Project. Included are the probable reasons for the dropout problem and the best
methods of solving it. Chapters Two through Five describe the implementation of
effective programs for Hispanic youth in elementary and secondary schools. Cognitively
Guided Instruction (CGI) in mathematics, Helping One Student to Succeed (HOSTS), and
Success for All are presented among the successful models. The final chapter
incorporates interviews with four members of the Hispanic Dropout Project in a
discussion of what leads to Hispanic dropout and how to en sure a better future for the
education of Hispanic students.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Tamara Lucas and Anne Katz. The use of the native language appears so
compelling that it emerges even when policies and assumptions mitigate against it. This
article explores the complexities of the use of students' native languages in schooling,
describes and illustrates various ways these languages were used in the English-based
but multilingual programs, and argues that programs for language minority students
should be reconceptualized to move beyond the emotional and politically heated debate
that opposes English-only instruction to native language instruction.
by Courtney Macavinta. Although more Americans are getting online, race and class
lines still are sharply segregating those who have access, according to a report issued
today by the Commerce Department. In the agency's third annual look at the so-called
digital divide between technology "haves" and "have-nots," the 1998 data shows that
those living in rural areas and those at the lowest income levels have much less access to
computers and Net connections in comparison to upper-income households in urban
areas. Although 40 percent of U.S. households were online last year, there is a
perpetuating trend in which whites are on the Net at a much greater rate than African
Americans, Latinos, or those of Asian/Pacific Islander descent, according to the report,
Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, which is based on U.S. Census data.
by Reynaldo F. Macias and Candace Kelly. This 1996 report summarizes the
information submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Bilingual Education
and Minority Language Affairs by State Educational Agencies (SEAs) in the Survey of
States' Limited English Proficient Students and Available Educational Programs and
Services for the 1994-95 school year. The explicit purpose of the annual SEA Survey is
to collect information on the number of limited English proficient (LEP) students in the
various states and outlying territories and jurisdictions and the educational services
provided or available to them.
by S. L. Mckay and G. Weinstein-Shr. This article examines the relationship
between U.S. national policies on literacy, available literacy programs, and individual
lives. Beginning with a discussion of the expanding role of English literacy in U.S.
immigration policies, this article examines the pressures to become literate in English
with consideration given to the resources that are available to do so. Language use in
immigrant families is discussed with a focus on native language loss and the consequences
of this loss for intergenerational relationships. The article concludes with suggestions
for an approach to literacy in which the links between national policies and personal
lives are made explicit.
by Barry McLaughlin. By discussing commonly held myths and misconceptions, this
paper attempts to clarify a number of important issues in the area of second language
learning. These include the ease and rapidity with which children learn a second
language, the optimal age at which to begin second language instruction, the importance
of the extent of exposure to the second language, the relationship between oral
communication skills and academic language skills, and cultural and individual
differences in language learning styles. Each myth presented in this paper is followed by
a discussion of related research on second language learning and its implications for
classroom teachers.
by Barry McLaughlin & Beverly McLeod. Researchers at the National Center for
Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning have identified
instructional strategies that are effective for educating students from culturally and
linguistically diverse backgrounds. They have also studied reform efforts that have
important lessons for the school, the teacher, and the classroom. This research has a
bearing on how schools can be organized and how teachers can teach to meet the needs of
all their students.
by Beverly McLeod. The National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and
Second Language Learning at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in collaboration
with BW Associates of Berkeley, California, was contracted by the U.S. Department of
Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) to study good
educational practice for LEP students. Researchers conducted a nationwide search for
schools that have successfully met the challenge of educating LEP and other language
minority students to high standards.
by Hugh Mehan. The prevailing discourse poses dropping out as a failure of
individuals. The purpose of this paper is to try to interrupt that discourse and to furnish
a different "way of talking that can unpack, inform, critique but still imagine what could
be" in public urban high schools in the United States. The different way proposed
represents dropping out in social, not personal, terms, as an institutional production
that reproduces the structures of inequality in the educational, economic, and civic
domains of everyday life.
by Carla Meskill, Jonathan Mossop, Richard Bates. School-age children for
whom English is not the native language have immediate and critical needs regarding
English language and literacy. The majority of these children are not in any of the
nation's bilingual programs. Thus they are restricted in their participation in academic
activity during the period needed for their second language and literacy acquistion, a
period which is typically from five to seven years. During this time, English as a Second
Language (ESL) learners receive instruction in second language and literacy through
specialized English as a second language instruction as well as "incidentally" in regular
mainstream classroom classes. Providing opportunities for ESL learners to develop
English language and literacy skills is a continual challenge and concern for schools.
Recent interest in technologies as a means of supporting language development has
brought ESL teaching professionals around the country to include computers,
multimedia, and telecommunications as tools for instruction. In addition to ESL-specific
instruction, non-ESL or mainstream teachers are coming to view these technologies as a
means by which ESL learners who cannot otherwise participate in class activities can be
actively involved in language and literacy practice.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by C. Meskill, J. Mossop, S. DiAngelo, and R.K. Pasquale. This study compares
and contrasts the "technology talk" of novice and expert teachers of K-8 language and
literacy (ESOL). Interview data with eight teachers - two expert (experienced teachers
and technologies users), five novice (limited experience in teaching and teaching with
computers) and one transitional expert (experienced teacher and non-technology user)
serve to illustrate the conceptual and practical differences between those who have
adapted technologies as powerful teaching and learning tools and teachers who, in spite of
specific formal training in instructional technology, speak about it and its application in
starkly contrasting ways. These contrasts are presented as a set of four conceptual
continua that can help in explicating novice starting points, transitional issues, and the
expertise of computer-using language professionals.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Robert Milk; Carmen Mercado; Alexandria Sapiens. The authors suggest
that as teaching contexts change, so, too, must teacher training and staff development
programs adapt to reflect shifting realities. Impetus for change in teacher education is
particularly strong in today's environment and is currently being driven by three
significant forces: political, demographic, and programmatic. Each of these forces is
described in this paper.
by Barbara Miner. This article looks at two California schools with large Latino
populations take very different tacks to preserve bilingual literacy in the wake of
Proposition 227's "English-only" provisions.
by Douglas E. Mitchell, Tom Destino, and Rita Karam. Summary of the report
on data system reliability and statisticfal modeling of program impacts in the Santa Ana
Unified School District's English language development and bilingual programs.
by H. Molina, D. Farrell Siegel, and R. A. Hanson. This paper presents the
results of several related studies that examine the relationship among early reading
instruction, non-English language background, and the schooling achievement of high
school seniors. Collectively, these studies challenge the current thinking about when
students should begin receiving formal reading instruction, and that being from a non
English language background (NELB) is generally synonymous with being academically
disadvantaged. To the contrary, they indicated that NELB students, particularly those who
are provided with early reading instruction, are generally not at a disadvantage in terms
of standard education measures taken in high school. That is, after controlling for social
class and family size, being from a non-English language background probably has
positive effects on the general achievement levels of children. These findings add support
to bilingual programs utilizing NELB language and cultural assets.
edited by Jay Moskowitz and Maria Stephens. Up to one-third of new U.S.
teachers leave the profession within the first few years. One reason for this "wastage" of
teaching resources, according to the Commission, is our typical "sink-or-swim"
attitude toward teacher induction. In contrast, new teachers in some other countries are
provided with resources and guidance that help them to make a successful transition
from being students themselves to becoming self-confident, skilled professional
teachers. This paper reviews a cross-national study of teacher induction practices.
edited by Jay Moskowitz and Maria Stephens. This publication is the result of
the second phase of a study on teacher training and professional development sponsored
by APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). Phase I of the study described teacher
preparation systems across APEC members, to identify key issues and challenges for
teacher preparation and professional development, and to identify promising practices
for the future of teacher preparation. The findings of Phase II, focusing on policy and
practices of teacher induction in 11 participating APEC members, are presented here.
by Adel Nadeau. This 1997 paper draws on the author's experiences leading a major
school reform effort in an urban elementary school with a large limited English
proficient (LEP) student population. The discussion offers insights into successful
reform practices premised on the language and academic needs of LEP students. The
context for reform as it existed at the author's school is presented first. Pedagogical
premises that apply to programs for LEP students are outlined next, followed by the
reform practices.
from National Center For Education Statistics. This report reviews teacher
professionalization-the movement to upgrade the status, training, and working
conditions of teachers. This report is concerned with the effects of teacher
professionalization on elementary and secondary teachers in the United States. The
analysis assesses the effects of teacher professionalization by examining the
relationships between a selected set of characteristics, traditionally associated with
professions and professionals, and one of the most important aspects of the quality and
performance of teachers: their commitment to their teaching careers.
by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Decisions about technology
can be daunting for a school, particularly if no one there has experience with hardware,
software, or networking. That's why the Department's National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) produced a publication now available (in HTML) on the web. The 100
page publication tells how to.define your needs and technical requirements; develop a
"needs assessment"; determine what resources you have and what resources you will
need; implement, support, and maintain your technology solution; provide effective
training, and more.
by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
Task Force on Technology and Teacher Education. A group of educators from
diverse institutions and backgrounds was assembled to consider ways that NCATE can
provide leadership and support initiatives to meet the technology challenge facing
teacher education institutions. The first section of the report presents the task force's
vision of what teachers must be able to do in order to take advantage of technology for
instruction and student learning, identifies current teacher education program
deficiencies, and suggests what teacher education programs need to do to correct the
deficiencies and bring vision into reality. The second section advances three broad
recommendations regarding what NCATE can do to: (1) stimulate more effective uses of
technology in teacher education programs, (2) use technology to improve the existing
accreditation process and to reconceptualize accreditation for the 21st century, and (3)
improve and expand its own operations through greater uses of technology. Brief case
illustrations that demonstrate innovative technology use in a variety of teacher
preparation programs appear throughout the text to highlight and illustrate points made
in the report. The task force finds that a watershed for education and training has been
created by rising costs for P-12 and higher education, by educational reform efforts at
the state and federal levels, and by developments in modern information technology that
have already affected the U.S. economy and society.
by National Education Association (NEA). This article reviews: Reasons Against
English Only; NEA Resolutions; Language Inclusion History & English Only Legislation;
Community Recommendations; and English Only Resources.
by the Natioanl Education Commission on Time and Learning. The report of
the National Education Commission on Time and Learning suggests that learning in
America is a prisoner of time. For the past 150 years, American public schools have
held time constant and let learning vary. The rule, only rarely voiced, is simple: learn
what you can in the time we make available. It should surprise no one that some bright,
hard-working students do reasonably well. Everyone else-from the typical student to the
dropout- runs into trouble.
by Geoffrey Nunberg. This essay suggests that the story told by the English-only
movement is nonsense from beginning to end. No language was ever less in need of official
protection.
by Oakland Board of Education. Resolution of the board of education adopting the
report and recommendations of the African-American Task Force; a policy statement and
directing the superintendent of schools to devise a program to improve the English
language acquisition and application skills of African-American students.
by A. Duranti E. Ochs. On the basis of research on the Samoan American community
of urban Los Angeles, the authors argue against two common misconceptions of
multiculturalism: (1) that language is a precise indicator of cultural orientation; and
(2) that members of multicultural communities are in one culture at a time. The notion
of syncretic literacy is introduced to account for the ways in which the same language
(in this case, Samoan or English) can be used for distinct cultural practices and the
ways in which different cultural practices can be merged within the same literacy
activity.
by Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of
Education. Paper suggesting that after-school programs can be a great source of
prospective teachers by starting teacher cadet programs for middle school and high
school students. after-school environments can introduce prospective teachers to
diverse student populations and at-risk students. By beginning to work with at-risk
students and their families prior to entering the teaching force, future teachers will be
better aware of the challenges they will face in regular classrooms.
Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of
Education. Paper suggesting that computers and access to the Internet provide
tremendous opportunities for after school learning to reinforce reading, math, and
writing skills as well as to complete homework and school assignments that focus on
doing research, gathering information, and writing reports. More complex math,
science, and art projects often necessitate simulations and problem solving that can also
be enhanced by using computers. In addition, technology can enable schools to reach
families at home and bring other community resources such as museums, libraries, and
local projects to kids via telecommunications. In a recent survey on after-school
programs, parents cited access to technology and computer literacy as their number one
priority for after-school activities.
by Irma M. Olmedo. Teaching social studies to bilingual or ESL students in the U. S.
can create both linguistic and cultural difficulties. Because social studies textbooks and
materials use abstract vocabulary, teachers need to develop comprehensible examples
for students with limited English skills and information retrieval skills and a knowledge
base to make the curriculum content accessible. Many teachers are already rethinking
the way the social studies is taught in order to find ways to make the subject more
interesting and comprehensible to students. One approach helps students understand that
history is filled with stories. By employing oral history approaches with bilingual and
ESL students, teachers can "bring history home" and help students understand that
history is not just something that happened long ago and now lives only in their
textbooks, but rather that they and their communities are players on the historical
stage.
by Wayne O'Neil. A linguist addresses some of the more common questions about
Ebonics and the Oakland School Board resolution, and some of the misconceptions about
the resolution spread by the mainstream media.
by ORBIS Associates. This Digest provides brief descriptions of key federal
legislation and initiatives calling for school reform. Each description is followed by a
series of questions that can help American Indian and Alaska Native communities closely
examine local school reform plans.
by Flora Ida Ortiz. The Bureau of Census (1994) reports there are approximately
13 million U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. Over 30 percent reside in the South and
over 45 percent in the West. The lives of Mexican American women, wherever they
reside, are affected profoundly by schooling, work, and family. This report shows the
interdependence of these factors; changes in one affect the others.
by Maritza M. Osuna and Carla Meskill. This pilot study investigates the
potential role of Internet resources as a means to gain a deeper sense of the culture of the
Spanish-speaking world for college students. Thirteen college students enrolled in the
first quarter of Basic Spanish were instructed to utilize the Web to complete five
activities that expanded on the aspects of culture studied in the class. Data collected
demonstrate that the Web is a suitable tool to increase language and cultural knowledge,
as well as a means to increase motivation. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
by JoAnn Parla. All educators must face the reality of culturally and linguistically
diverse students in today's classrooms according to the author. School districts which
never before had to instruct these students are now finding they must meet this need.
Often, the number of bilingually trained personnel in these areas is limited. This article
discusses issues related to the multicultural classroom. It presents a teacher-training
component that includes information on cultural sensitivity, linguistic diversity, and
teaching strategies.
by G. Genevieve Patthey-Chavez, Lindsay Clark and Ronald Gallimore. This
report explores the ways in which instructional conversations between a teacher and her
students contributed to building an academic community in a transitional bilingual
fourth-grade classroom. Through an analysis of reading lesson transcripts, classroom
events, and student essays and journal assignments, this report shows how classroom
experiences fostered the development of students' understanding of the concepts of
sacrifice and responsibility. This report describes how, at both the individual and
classroom community level, instructional conversations deepened student
understandings of the texts they read in class by encouraging students to make
connections between particular textual concepts and their own experiences. In addition to
tracking student gains in understanding, this report shows how the conversations helped
build a classroom community that incorporated the cultural beliefs and concerns of the
students.
by Lucinda Pease-Alvarez. Recent research has emphasized the economic, social,
and cognitive advantages available to bilinguals. Yet for many immigrant groups,
bilingualism is a temporary phenomenon. Most immigrant children arrive in the United
States as monolingual speakers of their native language, develop bilingualism as they
acquire English, establish English-speaking households, and raise their children as
English-speaking monolinguals. According to survey data, even Spanish, a language
thought to be particularly enduring in the United States, seldom lasts beyond the second
or third generation
by Robert A. Peña. This article investigates the relationships between student
achievement, student culture and practitioners' attitudes and expectations. Student
achievement was defined as academic performance but also included perceptions,
rationales and explanations for student behaviors and conduct. Student culture described
students' Mexican American origins, customs and beliefs. Practitioners' attitudes
described how middle school personnel generally perceived Mexican American high and
underachieving students, and practitioners' expectations described how personnel
interacted and behaved toward Mexican American students.
by Theresa Perry. An essay on the political furor that greeted the Oakland School
Board's resolution on Ebonics, and some of the issues that were glossed over during the
noisy national debate that followed.
by President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for
Hispanic Americans. A report to the President of the United States, the Nation, and
the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education. The report includes
an analysis of the current status of Hispanic American educational attainment, which is
not optimistic, but, in fact, devastating to both Hispanics and the nation. Hispanic
American progress toward achievement of the National Education Goals and other
standards of educational accomplishment is constrained by the persistent gap in
educational attainment between Hispanic Americans and other Americans, which is
already intolerable.
by Sherri Quiñones and Rita Kirshstein. Evaluating educational technology
programs can be a challenging endeavor. This guide represents a joint effort among the
U.S. OERI, the Office of Educational Technology, and the Office of Elementary and
Secondary Education. The guide should be viewed as a tool for individuals who have little
or no formal training in research or evaluation. Its intended informal style and
accompanying worksheets provide the basic principles of evaluation and are designed to
help district and school personnel gain an overview of and ideas for evaluating local
technology initiatives. The guide is not meant to be the key to conducting a perfect
evaluation. Rather, the goal of this handbook is to provide educators a resource with
which to jump into the evaluation process, learning as they go.
by L. Radford, J. Netten, and G. Duquette. This article provides classroom
teachers with clear directions and specific classroom strategies which will enable
students to develop target second language skills through the teaching of mathematics.
Students learn a number of problem-solving strategies and they apply these strategies to
specific, real context situations using arithmetic and algebraic formulas. Students are
encouraged to co-operate and communicate in finding solutions to the mathematical
problems they face and thus develop communications skills related to the problem
solving activities.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by J. David Ramírez, Sandra D. Yuen, & Dena R. Ramey . This is the Executive
Summary of the Final Report: Longitudinal Study of Structured English Immersion
Strategy, Early-Exit and Late-Exit Transitional Bilingual Education Programs for
Language-Minority Children, February 1991, as prepared for the United States
Department of Education under contract no. 300-87-0156.
Rand report. Summarizes the first of four workshops organized to take advantage of
the experience and insights of those already implementing new technologies in the
schools. This workshop examined professional development needs and consisted of a one
and one-half-day conversation with educators and experts working to apply
communications technology to the school system.
by Jon Reyhner. This article looks from a historical perspective at what impact the
implementation of the American Indian Languages Act might have on Indian education.
edited by Jon Reyhner. Effective Language Education Practices and Native Language
Survival is the proceedings of the Ninth Annual International Native American Language
Issues (NALI) Institute co-sponsored by the NALI Board of Executors and the Montana
Association for Bilingual Education and held in Billings, Montana, June 8 & 9, 1989.
by Jon Reyhner. Teaching Indigenous Languages contains a selection of papers
presented at the Fourth Annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium "Sharing
Effective Language Renewal Practices" held at Northern Arizona University (NAU) on
May 1, 2, and 3, 1997. This conference brought together nearly three hundred
indigenous language experts, teachers, and community activists to share information on
how indigenous languages can best be taught at home and at school.
by Jon Reyhner. Contains over 40 full text papers on preserving, promoting, and
teaching indigenous languages plus some 50 full text columns on American Indian/Alaska
Native education from the newsletter of the National Association for Bilingual Education.
Well worth the visit.
by Thomas Ricento. A review of the history of language restrictionism in the United
States and commentaries on current efforts to declare English the official language.
by John R. Rickford. A Sociolinguists, from the Department of Linguistics at Stanford
University, discussion of the controversial language debate on Ebonics.
by Margaret Riel. Current developments in communication technology now provide
new options for students to extend themselves across distances and through time. This
technology invites children to leap off the "shoulders of giants" onto satellites and use
this global perspective to participate in new ways with their peers and other experts in
distant locations. It is possible that these experiences will help make the power or the
written word more apparent to new generation of citizens This paper on the Internet and
the humanities focuses on the human side of networking. How do classrooms change when
they are part of a global network like the Internet? What future images of schooling can
we see from the vantage point of satellites? The paper is organized around two general
topics followed by some reservations about technological solutions and problems.
by Cheryl A. Roberts. Do literacy skills developed in L1 transfer to L2? Many
researchers and practitioners in ESL/BE are aware of research evidence which supports
such transfer, but research is not always applied to practice. In this paper, the author
discusses definitions of literacy, reviews research related to the transfer of literacy
skills, and suggests some practical applications of research findings.
by Diane Rodriguez and Angela Carrasquillo. The purpose of this article is to
discuss a conceptual framework for bilingual education teacher preparation. The
framework described is based on information provided by experienced bilingual special
education field specialists (teachers, administrators, clinicians, and professors) about
the competencies bilingual special education teachers need to demonstrate in order to
meet the unique needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities.
The article describes five areas relevant to the preparation of bilingual special education
teachers: language proficiency, assessment, planning and delivery of instruction,
culture and advancement in the profession.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Kellie Rolstad. This study examines the effects of Korean/English two-way
immersion on third language speakers who received no first language support, and
includes assessments of self-concept, ethnic identification, academic progress and
language proficiency. The effects of this third language immersion experience on these
language minority children were assessed longitudinally, ending during the children's
sixth and final year in the program, as well as cross-sectionally in comparison with
similar children in other programs. The findings show that, except for the tendency for
first language ability to decline among the third language children, the immersion
experience has not been detrimental to the third language children, and hence that third
language immersion may, in fact, constitute a source of educational enrichment despite
the lack of first language support. These findings suggest that submersion damage is
likely related to what I call "sociolinguistic status" rather than to supposed linguistic
deficits incurred as a result of a home/school language switch. The implications of this
study, while only suggestive, provide further evidence of the social causes of submersion
damage, and support the feasibility of immersion education for third language speakers
as a form of educational enrichment, provided that the children have at least a basic
proficiency in the majority language.
by Christine Rossell. A critique of the study suggesting that the methodology of the
study is unscientific. The criteria for a scientific study are basically four-fold. First,
there should be a treatment group-for example, LEP students in a bilingual program
and one or more comparison groups-forexample, similar LEP students in one or more
types of all-English programs. Second, the achievement of these students should be
compared after some time period in their respective programs. Third, any differences
between the students initially should be controlled for statistically in order to give each
group a level playing field. (This is not necessary if there is random assignment.)
Fourth, the same students must be followed over time since there is no way to
statistically control or match on initial differences, nor would it make any sense to do so
if different students are in the study at different points in time. This article contends
that although all four characteristics are essential, only the first two are found in the
Thomas and Collier study.
by Richard Rothstein. A Phi Delta Kappan article suggesting that our commonly held
notion of how earlier generations of immigrants were educated -- often used as the chief
argument in support of English immersion -- is a myth.
by Daniel L. Roy. Summary of the findings of the Latino Ethnic Attitude Survey
(LEAS). The 182 page report, titled Strangers in a Native Land: A Labyrinthine Map of
Latino Identity, dealt specifically with middle-class Latinos of all national origins in the
United States. Using the Latino Ethnic Attitude Survey, attention was focused on five
related sets of issues. The first set deals with how middle-class Latinos identify
themselves, including any contextual differences (self-identity). The second set includes
whether their identity or ethnicity is an issue at work, in their community, or in the
larger society (a sense of place). The third set considers their language preference. The
fourth set looks at how generational differences affect middle-class identity; and finally,
the fifth set includes normal geodemographic information related to gender, education,
income levels, and zip code.
by Robert Rueda and Carmen DeNeve. In their efforts to accommodate cultural
diversity in the classroom, schools have taken a variety of approaches - few of them
ideal. In this article, the authors examine how educators can use the "funds of
knowledge" available in culturally diverse families and communities to build bridges
between the home cultures of students and the cultures of their schools.
by Robert Rueda and Erminda Garcia. This study investigated teachers' belief
systems or mental models and everyday practices regarding the nature, function, and
uses of assessment with a special focus on reading with Latino language minority
students. These mental models can be seen as integrated systems of concepts, scripts, and
scenes which function to lend meaning to the action systems of classrooms.
by Robert Rueda, Claude Goldenberg and Ronald Gallimore. The current focus
on more effective ways to foster literacy in school-age children, especially language
minority students, has led to the development of alternative instructional approaches.
One such approach is the instructional conversation (IC), based on early work in the
Hawaiian Kamehameha Elementary Education Project (KEEP), on neo-Vygotskian
theory, and on recent classroom-based research on reading comprehension.
by R. G. Rumbaut. This review is intended to provide some insight into the
determinants of the educational progress and adaptation of the children of these new
immigrants in California public schools. Results from a comparative research study of
the educational performance of children of immigrants in San Diego schools (including
dropout rates, grade-point averages [GPAs], achievement test scores, and educational
aspirations), focusing on the largest groups: Mexicans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Laotians,
Cambodians, and East Asian groups is given. This is followed by a review of three
illustrative case studies of the adaptation of immigrant high school students who reside
in different parts of California: Southeast Asian refugees, Punjabi Sikhs from India, and
Mexican immigrants.
by R. W. Rumberger, K. A. Larson, G. J. Palardy, R. K. Ream, and N. C.
Schleicher. This report examines student mobility among California Latino
adolescents. Student mobility may be especially important in California because of its
highly mobile population. Latinos are the largest and fastest growing segment of the state
population. According to California Department of Finance estimates, the Latino public
school population is projected to triple in size between 1986 and 2006, while the non
Latino white population is projected to decrease. Consequently, if student mobility can be
problematic for both students and schools, as previous research suggests, it is especially
important to understand the nature of mobility among the Latino population.
by Jesus Salazar. This article summarizes the results from the re-analysis of two
recent bilingual education studies: Greene's (1998) meta-analysis and Thomas and
Collier's (1997) longitudinal study. First , the article presents the ten main criteria
identified over the past three decades by the research community for conducting a
methodologically adequate bilingual education study. Second, based on a power analysis of
Greene's data, it is argued that a major reason why many bilingual education studies
over the past thirty years remain uninterpretable is because of the high occurrence of
Type II errors. Third, based on an effect size analysis of Thomas and Collier's data, it is
maintained that their longitudinal model best explains thirty years of bilingual education
research. When Thomas and Collier's data are converted into effect sizes, their model
becomes a longitudinal meta-analysis, and their findings support the results from
Greene's and Willig's (1985) meta-analyses. This article concludes by making
recommendations for enhancing the evaluation of Title VII programs.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Katharine Davies Samway. Although there is no single way to implement a
writers' workshop, there are some key elements that are integral to the implementation
and maintenance of this very important classroom event. This article provides a
comprehensive overview of the process, ethnographic insights, and valuable examples of
the writer's workshop process.
by Muriel Saville-Troike. This discussion of the role of culture in the bilingual
classroom explores the relationship of language, culture, and education. It provides in
service and pre-service training procedures for developing cultural competencies in
bilingual educators; and suggests applications of cultural information to classroom
practices, curriculum development, and evaluation. These concepts and methods may
prove useful not only in bilingual programs, but for improving equal educational
opportunity for all minority-group students, and for all those commonly labeled the
'disadvantaged'.
by Dennis Sayers. How can other languages be used in conjunction with English to
further intercultural and multilingual learning when teachers and students participate
in computer-based global learning networks? Two portraits are presented of
multilingual activities in the Orillas and I*EARN learning networks, and are discussed as
examples of the principal modalities of communication employed in networking projects
between distant classes.
by Lynn Schnaiberg. Comprehensive overview of the bilingual education debate.
Provides full text coverage and additional informational links. (Education Week)
by Wendy Schwartz. The enrollment of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students is
increasing drastically, so it is important for school and community people to learn how
to communicate with API families. Since APIs communicate very differently from
native-born Americans and other immigrants, this guide describes how the backgrounds
and cultures of the various API groups affect their attitudes and behavior.
by Wendy Schwartz. This digest describes strategies and programs specially designed
to meet the early education needs of Hispanic children, particularly those whose families
suffer from poverty. It also reviews efforts to recruit the children; to involve their
parents in activities that will enhance their children's learning; and to provide parents
with literacy, job, and other skills training, and a range of social services.
by Walter G. Secada, Rudolfo Chavez-Chavez, Eugene Garcia, Cipriano
Muñoz, Jeannie Oakes, Isaura Santiago-Santiago, and Robert Slavin. The
final report of the Hispanic Dropout Project summarizes the project's findings, data,
and recommendations, based on its work nationwide. It addresses the role of the following
constituencies: students, parents and families, schools and school staff, local and state
policymakers, and institutions of higher education, including the research and
development establishment. For each constituency, the group presents typical comments
advanced to explain inaction, followed by evidence of inaction, distilled from the data of
the Hispanic Dropout Project and concrete illustrations from sites the project visited.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Carrie Secret. This 31-year veteran of Oakland classrooms explains the effects of
the Standard English Proficiency program, which recognizes the systematic, rule
governed nature of "Black English" while helping students learn Standard English, and
how respect and cultural awareness can help teachers reach their students.
by M. Seda and D. J. Bixler-Marquez. The objective of this case study was to
identify, in a holistic manner, the individual, aggregate, and interactive effect of
socioeconomic status (SES), cultural, psychosocial, and academic factors that shaped the
at-risk status of a Chicano fourth grader. A prescriptive dimension of the study was to
provide a set of recommendations that could be used to place the subject on the path of
academic and social recovery.
by A.M. Shartrand, H.B. Weiss, H.M. Kreider, and M. Elena Lopez.
Researchers at the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) have collected data to
determine not only why training teachers to work successfully with families is so
critical, but also how to train teachers to work in partnership with parents and
families. In addition to identifying the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for
teachers to prepare for family involvement, the findings confirm three needs of
teachers: (1) more direct experiences with families and communities, (2) support in
making school conditions conducive to family involvement, and (3) opportunities to
share successful experiences and outcomes with their colleagues.
by Deborah J. Short. Integrated language and content instruction has become a
popular alternative to traditional ESL instruction. Researchers have recommended this
instructional approach to develop students' academic language ability and facilitate their
transition to mainstream classes. Practitioners have also favored this approach to
prepare students for mainstream classes, increase student motivation and interest with
content themes, and make ESL students feel part of the mainstream school curricula.
This article addresses the issue of assessment in integrated classes and provides a
framework for organizing assessment objectives. It recommends using alternative
assessment measures, such as checklists, portfolios, interviews, and performance
based tasks.
by Deborah J. Short. This report describes preliminary findings from a study
examining middle school American history classes with English language learners. The
study has investigated the construction of social studies knowledge in these classes and
the development and implementation of lessons that address the cultural and educational
backgrounds of the learners while integrating language, content, and culture objectives.
Attention is paid to teacher accommodations, student oral and written participation, and
the infusion of multicultural issues and perspectives.
by Carmen Simich-Dudgeon, Patricia Anne DiCerbo. This article is written
primarily for English as a second language (ESL), bilingual and mainstream teachers
who have English language learners in their classroom. The methods and activities
described throughout can be successfully adapted for use with elementary, middle, and
high school students. In reworking these activities for their own classrooms, teachers
will want to consider the literacy and English proficiency levels of their students, along
with such factors as age, cultural and education background, and learning style.
by M. Smith. An article looking at the unique challenge being faced by Hispanic
students who are hearing impaired. The purpose of this article is to review some basic
facts about hearing impairment then discuss the effects this disability can have on
Hispanic students. Specific suggestions are offered for meeting the needs of these
students and their families.
by Matthew Soska. For many years, teachers used the computer to provide
supplemental or additive exercises. In recent years, advances in computer technology
have motivated teachers to reassess the computer and consider it an integral part of daily
learning. Today, technology gives teachers the capacity to significantly enhance their
students' language and cognitive development. They can utilize the technologies briefly
described here for instructional testing and assessment; to teach culture; to help
students learn academic content and develop critical thinking skills; and to expand
students' speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.
The South African Schools Act, 1996. Two policies are highlighted, the Language
in Education Policy, and the Norms and Standards Regarding Language Policy Published
in Terms of The South African Schools Act, 1996. While these two policies have different
objectives, they complement each other and should at all times be read together rather
than separately. This Language-in-Education Policy Document is seen as part of a
continuous process by which policy for language in education is being developed as part
of a national language plan encompassing all sectors of society, including the deaf
community.
by Bernard Spolsky and Elana Shohamy. Article focusing on Israel's language
policy reporting Israel as highly multilingual, with a 20% Arabic-speaking minority
and large number of languages used by its enormous immigrant population, Hebrew is
the dominant language for official, public and private use of the 5,500,000 citizens. In
spite of the widespread official and ideological policy support for Hebrew, English has
continued to flourish and spread in all sectors of the Israeli population. Article reviews
language education policy and language education system.
by Charles W. Stansfield. Not all students are able to participate in the assessment
program. Typically, schools defer or exempt students from participating if they cannot
speak, read, and write English. Consequently, the test results obtained by schools often
give an incomplete and, sometimes, misleading picture of the quality of student
achievement at the school. In schools where there are a large number of non-native
English speaking students, the school may exclude all of those students from
participating in the assessment program. Thus, the official reported results may have
little relationship to the actual status of educational achievement in the school. This
digest reviews the problem and the situation and offers solutions.
by Richard St. Germaine. American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students
regularly face obstacles that can impede their progress in school. Educational theorists
and researchers have provided various explanations for this high failure rate, each with
its own set of prescriptions. Recently, much attention has focused on cultural
discontinuity. This Digest suggests that addressing cultural obstacles is an important but
incomplete approach to increasing AI/AN students' success.
by K. Swisher. This study is an exploratory effort to determine current thinking
about learning styles from the perspective of those groups closely associated with
American Indian students, i.e., teachers and administrators of the schools attended by
American Indian students. The study assumes that there is a pervasive, but not clearly
defined, understanding by practitioners of learning styles relating to American Indian
people. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of teacher knowledge about
learning styles and to determine the extent to which this knowledge is applied in
classrooms attended by American Indian students.
by TESOL. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
recommendations for countering the oofficial English movement in the U.S. This
document includes: TESOL's statement on language rights, a brief history of language
restrictionism in the United States, and a chronology of the official English movement.
by Roland Tharp and Ron Gallimore. Newly understood through the principles of
socio-historical theory, real teaching is understood as assisting the learner to perform
just beyond his or her current capacity. This assistance in the "zone of proximal
development" awakens and rouses to life the mental capacities of learners of all ages.
This assistance is best provided through the instructional conversation, a dialogue
between teacher and learners in which the teacher listens carefully to grasp the
students" communicative intent, and tailors the dialogue to meet the emerging
understanding of the learners.
by Roland G. Tharp and Lois A.Yamauchi. Instructional conversation (IC) is a
dialog between teacher and learner in which prior knowledge and experiences are woven
together with new material to build higher understanding. IC contrasts with the
"recitation script" of traditional western schooling, which is highly routinized and
dominated by the teacher. IC varies in form in different cultures, as do other discourse
forms. Analysis of the research on the formal and informal learning of American Indians
lends insight into possible ways in which instructional conversations in classrooms with
these children can be modified to promote learning. Effective instructional conversations
for Native Americans are influenced by four basic psychocultural factors identified by
Tharp (1989): a) sociolinguistics; b) motivation; c) cognition; and d) social
organization. These factors are implicated in activity settings that are more likely to
produce effective ICs in Native American classrooms. "Ideal" activity settings--those
most likely to produce and maintain ICs for Native American students are proposed and
illustrated in this article.
by Ronald Tharp and Lois Yamauchi. Research indicates that the instructional
conversation (IC) can be an effective method for raising the low academic achievement
levels of various groups of Native American students. The IC is a dialog between teacher
and learner in which prior knowledge and experiences are woven together with new
material to build higher understanding. A description of factors and their role in
implementing ICs among Native American populations is discussed.
by Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia Collier. This publication presents a summary
of an ongoing collaborative research study that is both national in scope and practical for
immediate local decision-making in schools. This summary is written for bilingual and
ESL program coordinators, as well as for local school policy makers. The research
includes findings from five large urban and suburban school districts in various regions
of the United States where large numbers of language minority students attend public
schools, with over 700,000 language minority student records collected from 1982
1996. A developmental model of language acquisition for school is explained and validated
by the data analyses. The model and the findings from this study make predictions about
long-term student achievement as a result of a variety of instructional practices.
Instructions are provided for replicating this study and validating these findings in local
school systems. General policy recommendations and specific action recommendations
are provided for decision makers in schools.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Joseph Torres. Under a cloud of new affirmative-action turmoil in higher
education, the class of 2001 is arriving on campus -- but for Hispanics, the figures
we've been reading in the papers aren't the only story. Other numbers, fed by
immigration and determination, add up to brighter prospects for the nation's 32 million
Latinos. As Latino students matriculate and choose their majors, they can be found
venturing into fields that not so long ago were deemed out of reach. Degrees earned by
Hispanics in just about every field are dramatically increasing, according to a recent
report by the American Council on Education.
by María E. Torres-Guzmán. The purpose of this article is to present a review of
the literature on mentoring bilingual teachers and to pose alternatives to extant models.
A question and answer format has been used to provide a definition of mentoring, discuss
implementation efforts and problems encountered, identify salient issues emerging from
the pairing of mentors in bilingual settings and suggest mentoring alternatives.
by Henry Trueba & Lilia Bartolomé. This digest provides a critique of the various
educational strategies that have been used with Latino students, and suggests alternatives
that may prove more effective. Interestingly, some of the recommendations included here
were first made nearly 20 years ago, but they have not yet been widely implemented.
by Charles William Twyford. The author of this article analyzes a number of
factors --cognitive, sociocultural, affective, and linguistic-- that may account for age
differences in second language acquisition.
by U.S. Department of Education. The strategies in this booklet aim at meeting the
unique educational needs of Hispanic and LEP students in the context of this emphasis on
high standards and high achievement. The strategies in this booklet reflect the priority
the Department of Education places on the education of Hispanic and LEP students and
respond to the recommendations proposed by the President's Advisory Commission, the
Hispanic Dropout Project, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat.
Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by A. Valencia. A comprehensive study that is intended to yield findings on the degree
that significant persons in the students' lives have had in their decisions to pursue and
reach higher educational attainments. Nine sources of influence were selected for this
study, and the sources were of one particular type- significant persons in the students'
lives who influenced them to pursue and complete university studies.
by James A. Vasquez et al. This bibliography, with 310 references, is a good
sampling of the literature that is currently available and includes practices that many
educators have found lead to successful teaching of LEP students. The bibliography
provides a beginning point for those interested in bilingual and ESL instructional
settings.
by G. Vernez, R.A. Krop, C.P. Rydell. This Rand report asks: How much would it
cost and what would the benefits be if blacks and Hispanics graduated from high school,
went to college, and graduated from college at the same rate as non-Hispanic whites? The
answer to this important question for the future of the nation is explored in this report.
The costs of education would be high, increasing by about 20 percent in California and
10 percent in the rest of the nation. But the benefits, in the form of savings in public
health and welfare expenditures and increased tax revenues from higher incomes, would
be even higher. Indeed, the added costs of providing more education to minorities would
be recouped well within the lifetime of taxpayers called upon to make the additional
investments. The nation is experiencing a rapid immigration driven increase in the
share of Hispanics in the school age population. Failure to increase the educational
attainment of this group would result in growing shares of new labor-force entrants
having levels of education lower than those prevailing today; in increased income
disparities between blacks and Hispanics, on one hand, and Asians and non-Hispanic
whites, on the other; and in increased public expenditures for social and health
programs for generations to come.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by D.J. Villa. The recent explosion in technology, in particular in computer and
digitizing systems, has many implications for heritage language maintenance and
learning. In particular, authentic language usage can be easily recorded and preserved
for those goals. That same explosion, however, can lead to a less than appropriate
implementation of technology for language maintenance and learning. Further, certain
cultural boundaries can make it difficult to have access to authentic language usage,
particularly by out-group individuals who work on indigenous languages. This paper
presents a pilot study that attempts to both implement technology in an appropriate
manner and surmount the problems faced by out-group language researchers by training
an in-group member, in this case a speaker of Navajo, in the methodology and technology
necessary for recording and preserving her heritage language. The results of this work
are discussed, as well as the role of computer and digitizing technology in language
maintenance and teaching.
NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe
Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
by Judith Wilde. This document provides information to those who might be planning
professional development activities for educational personnel. While the focus is on
assessment of those participating in professional development activities related to
English language development, sheltered content instruction, and bilingual instruction,
the processes involved can, and should, be applied to any professional development
activity that results in a certificate or license of some type -- any professional
development activities that will result in better educational programs for all students
within the school.
by Lily Wong Fillmore. Just as readers must apply their linguistic knowledge to the
interpretation of the texts they read, so too must they make use of their knowledge of the
world and their prior experiences in reading. The author argues that the education of
children irrespective of their background would be greatly diminished if educators were
to choose materials for them that were in any way narrowed or lowered in level because
of putative deficiencies in the children's backgrounds. Such decisions must take into
account the role that authentic and challenging materials play in building students'
background and in supporting language development. Children and adolescents also gain
the very kind of background that they need to have, to deal with materials they read in
school, from the literature and textbooks they have already read.
by A. M. Zehler, P. J. Hopstock, H. L. Fleischman, C. Greniuk. The purpose of
this report is to examine assessment instruments and practices and to review issues
related to assessment of LEP students. It is critical to examine these issues now, as
major steps are being taken toward: (1) the redesign of assessment approaches; and (2)
definition of standards and new national assessment systems. Given their increasingly
large representation in schools today, issues related to language minority and LEP
students should be included early on in the efforts to define new assessments.
by S.Y. Zhang and A. Carrasquillo. This article reviews the literature related to
Chinese parents' influence on Chinese students' educational performance. Cultural values
always play an important role in the educational achievement of Chinese students.
Chinese parents are renowned for their willingness to sacrifice for the sake of their
children's education. Parents have a significant influence in the academic performance of
Chinese students.