This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Nicole S. Montague, Jocelyne Bahous, Jorge P. Osterling, Peter Graf, Susan Duron, Emma Violand-Sanchez, Robert E. Slavin, Donna M. Sobel, Thomas J. Nowalk, and Jana Sanders.
(1999). Latino Families Learning Together, Educational Leadership. The push for the English-only literacy approach sends the wrong message to language-minority families. The Arlington (Virginia) Public Schools have established first-language pilot programs to accelerate Latino students' academic achievement and have welcomed community-based educational initiatives. A family-literacy program motivates parents to become effective learners and productive citizens. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Educational Improvement, Elementary Secondary Education, Family Literacy
(1999). Multilingual School Education as a Key Qualification in the European Employment Area, Vocational Training: European Journal. The European Union principle of free worker movement across borders requires thorough knowledge of the language of the country of employment. Multilingualism, including intercultural skills, is a key employment skill that should be acquired early. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Cultural Awareness, Employment Qualifications, Foreign Countries
(1999). Learning To Live with Proposition 227…, American Language Review. Reports on how bilingual educators in California are coping with English-only instruction in the aftermath of Proposition 227. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Elementary Secondary Education, English (Second Language), Limited English Speaking
(2002). Fostering the Literacy Development of Latino Students, Focus on Exceptional Children. This article examines the literacy of Latino students and related educational issues, including the need for more informed educators, the distinctive nature of instruction for Latino students, alternative literacies, facilitating the transfer of information from first language and life experience to school-based tasks, xenophobia and linguicism, and promising instructional models. (Contains references.) Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Bilingual Students, Cultural Differences, Elementary Secondary Education
(2002). University/Public School Partnership Provides a Jump Start for Three-Year-Olds. This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and the university, with an enrollment representative of Corpus Christi's population. This chapter focuses on the process of collaboration between faculty at the ECDC and the Zavala Special Emphasis School (SES). The collaboration was an effort to replicate the regular education 3-year-old program at the ECDC and expand early start opportunities to an additional 44 low-income children in the school district. More specifically, the chapter addresses how collaboration served to develop and implement an early childhood program, the Zavala Early Childhood Development Center, to: (1) advance early childhood education through comprehensive high-quality teaching and research efforts specifically designed to meet the needs of 3-year-old children in the Zavala SES attendance zone; (2) provide professional development opportunities for inservice and preservice teachers; (3) promote literacy and community health initiatives; and (4) promote dual-language literacy development. (Contains 26 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Child Development, Child Development Centers, College School Cooperation
(1999). Unlocking the Future: Early Literacy, SEDLetter. This newsletter of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL)contains a collection of articles which discuss various aspects of early literacy. Articles in the newsletter are: "Introduction: Reading Instruction, a Key to the Future"; "Ensuring Early Literacy through Coherent Instruction" (Leslie Blair); "Reading across the Region" (Leslie Blair)–the "region" consists of the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; "New Mexico State University Is up to the Challenge" (Pamela Porter); "Cooperative Education–The Key to Bilingual Success?" (Pamela Porter); "The Reading Success Network: Linking Teachers, Building Community" (Jill Slack); and "Resources for Improving Children's Ability To Read" (compiled by the SEDL Office of Institutional Communication and Policy Services). [More] Descriptors: Beginning Reading, Bilingual Education, Cooperative Education, Emergent Literacy
(1999). What Language Should a Lebanese Child Learn First?. Bilingualism is common in Lebanon's educational system. The national curriculum requires students to learn a second language beginning in kindergarten and to study science and mathematics in that second language in later years. The national curriculum requires that another foreign language be taught by seventh grade. Although Arabic is the national language, all Lebanese children are required to achieve mastery in at least one foreign language. Many Lebanese parents use a foreign language at home in order to facilitate their children's school learning. At age 3, children attend nursery school, with admissions tests given in their dominant language. By the end of nursery school, children can speak one or two languages fluently. The critical point for second language acquisition without an accent is near puberty. Factors affecting language acquisition between ages 6 and 10 years include: brain development and maturation, psychomotor coordination of the speech muscles, intellectual development, and the affective domain (self-consciousness and attitudes). Children learning two languages simultaneously acquire them using similar strategies. The errors they make are developmental and not subject to first-language interference. Children who do not continue their foreign language use after their early education find that their language skills deteriorate. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Child Development, Elementary Secondary Education, Foreign Countries
(1999). Issues in Science Assessment in a Bilingual/Biliterate Elementary Classroom. This study examines the types, uses, and roles of science assessment in a bilingual/biliterate (Spanish/English) elementary classroom in the Honduras during one unit of science instruction. Focus is placed on how one teacher used assessment to a) inform practice; b) evaluate student learning; and c) modify curricula and teaching strategies to meet the needs of bilingual students. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Elementary Education, Evaluation, Foreign Countries
(2002). Exploring the Past and Connecting the Present: One Latina Teacher's Story. This study investigated the relationships between teachers' education and their instructional style, focusing on one Latina elementary teacher working with English language learners. It examined what beliefs guided her choice of literacy instruction, how school structure impacted instruction, and the roles of culture and gender in literacy instruction. The teacher had a Spanish English bilingual classroom within a predominantly Latino working class neighborhood. English was the primary language of instruction, with support provided in Spanish. Data came from observation interviews, and document analysis. Results indicated that the teacher implemented childhood reading techniques in her classrooms while having the choice and the freedom to sift through her experiences and create her own instructional agenda. The dominant culture caused her to perform gender and culture in different ways at home and in school. While she spoke Spanish and shared many cultural experiences with her students, there were differences between her home and school culture. However, at times she resisted the dominant culture mandates in order to provide students access to an education (though she insisted that access to education provided by the school was necessary for her students to succeed). (Contains 35 references.) [More] Descriptors: Access to Education, Bilingual Education, Bilingual Teachers, Cultural Influences
(2002). Book Choices for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Parents: Strategies for Sharing Books in Bilingual Homes. This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the dual-language ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and the university, with an enrollment representative of Corpus Christi's population. The chapter details a study, involving parents and grandparents of children at the ECDC and another district school (Zavala Elementary), which examined the effect of parent literature choices on the second-language literacy learning of children involved in dual-language and immersion programs. Findings showed that parents at both the more Spanish-dominant Zavala school and the ECDC selected English-language books to read to their children, although their reasons differed. Zavala parents valued the academic and economic role of English, while ECDC parents often could not read Spanish-language books. (Contains 8 references and lists 13 children's books.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Books, Child Development Centers, Childrens Literature
(2002). America Reads Reading Recovery Right To Read = Quality Tutoring. A Pilot Program. This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the dual-language ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and the university with an enrollment representative of Corpus Christi's population. The chapter details an evaluation of a pilot model for reading tutoring, which was based on America Reads monies, incorporated aspects of Reading Recovery, and used some of the materials developed under the Right to Read program. Evaluation of the pilot program found it to be very successful based on students' reading scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). Recommendations for tutor selection and training, format for tutoring sessions, and ongoing tutor support were also developed.(Contains 25 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Child Development, Child Development Centers, Childrens Literature
(1999). Effects of Bilingual and English as a Second Language Adaptations of Success for All on the Reading Achievement of Students Acquiring English, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk. Studied the effects of two adaptations of the Success for All program, a Spanish bilingual version (Exito para Todos) and an adaptation that integrates English-as-a-Second-Language strategies with English reading instruction using data from six studies. Notes substantially positive effects of both approaches on students acquiring English. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education, Elementary Education, English (Second Language)
(2002). A Self-Study of Diversity: Preservice Teachers' Beliefs Revealed through Classroom Practices, Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners. The authors present the results of a self-study by seven preservice teachers that reveals ways in which the teachers' beliefs regarding diversity issues were realized in their classroom interactions, practices, and observations. This investigation was set within the context of a cohort of postbaccalaureate preservice teachers in an initial teacher education program that is built around the goal of preparing reflective teachers. It provided the framework for preservice teachers to raise their level of awareness regarding issues of diversity. The identification of common themes in the participants' journals provided insights into how these beliefs may link to future classroom teaching practice and ways teacher educators can help preservice teachers to view their students' backgrounds and abilities as resources, not problems. [More] Descriptors: Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Teacher Education Programs, Teacher Educators
(2002). A University Lab School for the 21st Century: The Early Childhood Development Center. This chapter is part of a book that recounts the year's work at the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) at Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi. Rather than an "elitist" laboratory school for the children of university faculty, the ECDC is a collaboration between the Corpus Christi Independent School District and the university with an enrollment representative of Corpus Christi's population. The chapter delineates the rise and fall of university laboratory schools in the United States and then describes the ECDC, including its facility, school population, faculty, principal/director, dual-language curriculum, health center, counseling center, training mission, and positive student results on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The chapter suggests that the ECDC addresses some of the problems of older campus laboratory schools, and at the same time, grapples with some of the major concerns of educators and legislators in the 21st century. (Contains 24 references.) [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education, Child Development, Child Development Centers
(1999). Framing Games: An Exploration into the Speaking Activity of a Chinese-English Bilingual Child. A study applied an ethnography of speaking to the study of a bilingual child, with the construct of a frame as the unit of analysis. The child was observed and tape recorded playing a commercial game in Chinese with her mother and in English with her father. Both activity frames and conceptual frames were analyzed toward answering: (1) what frames were performed during game play; (2) how those frames differed between Chinese and English; (3) what conceptual frames were produced in languages spoken; and (4) how those conceptual frames differed between each language. In brief, an ethnographic perspective was applied toward describing how the organization of activity and language compared between both languages, through the play of a single game. Results indicated that each parent enacted different roles with the daughter during the play of the game. Whereas the mother (with previous game experience) performed an expert-novice role during game play, the father (with lack of experience in game playing) took a novice-expert stance with the daughter. The activity frames and conceptual frames followed accordingly, with the games in Chinese dominated by frames featuring directing and reporting on the part of the mother, while the games in English had the daughter dominating talk with informing and reporting functions of frames. Findings suggest a tight relationship between utterance, its function, and its frame for embedding topic-relationships. This hints at dual activity-conceptual systems among bilingual children, warranting further attention by educators to integrate three dimensions into language classroom instruction: grammar form, speech function, and conceptual contents. (Contains 12 figures, 33 tables, a 112-item bibliography, and function lists for the Chinese game and the English game). [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, Case Studies, Chinese