This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Dan Creely, Samina Hadi-Tabassum, Maria Korkatsch-Groszko, Janet Bercik, Fred Genesee, Cynthia Ballenger, Mihi Roberts, Nancy Cloud, and Magda Costantino.
(1999). Reading and Second Language Learners. Research Report. This document was created as a resource for educators and policymakers regarding English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. public schools, providing a synthesis of the research on teaching and learning to read in English as it relates to students in U.S. public schools who speak little or no English. Focusing attention on children of primary acquisition age, this research summary addresses the following questions: (1) What are the prerequisites that children need to meet in order to become proficient readers in English as a Second Language? (2) If ELLs are experiencing difficulties reading English, is it a language problem or a reading problem? and (3) What are the school, program, and classroom characteristics that support the reading development of ELLs? This report contains three chapters and three appendices. Chapter 1 discusses the theories and different aspects of the language acquisition processes. Chapter 2 examines the primary challenges ELLs face in learning to read English and the skills they must develop to succeed. Chapter 3 summarizes the research on the effectiveness of various program models for the education of ELLs. (Contains 236 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Elementary Secondary Education, English (Second Language), Immigrants
(1998). Success for All/Exito Para Todos. Effects on the Reading Achievement of Students Acquiring English. Report No. 19. While it is important to improve the outcomes of bilingual and English-only reading instruction for English language learners at all grade levels, there is a particular need to see that students are successful in beginning to read in the early elementary grades. One program that has achieved a great deal of success in meeting this goal is called Success for All, a comprehensive reform program for elementary schools, especially those serving many students at risk. This report presents data on the achievement of English language learners in schools in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Southern California, Houston (Texas), and Arizona that are implementing Success for All or Exito Para Todos (the Spanish bilingual adaptation of Success for All). The effects of Success for All on the achievement of English language learners are not entirely consistent, but in general they are substantially positive. In all schools implementing Exito Para Todos, effect sizes for first graders on Spanish assessments were very positive. The Houston study showed that this effect was more pronounced when schools were implementing most of the program's elements. The Philadelphia evaluation showed that even after transitioning to English-only instruction, Exito Para Todos third graders performed better on English assessments than control students who were primarily taught in English. For students in sheltered English instruction, effect sizes for all comparisons were also positive, especially for Cambodian students in Philadelphia and Mexican American students in California. (Contains 4 figures, 7 tables, and 31 references.) [More] Descriptors: Asian Americans, Bilingual Education, Cambodians, Effect Size
(1999). Citizenship Handbook. The Orange County (Florida) teacher's guide to citizenship instruction for immigrants to the United States provides information about the discipline and the characteristics of the adult learner of English-as-a-Second-Language, and includes recommended instructional materials. Sections contain: background information and suggestions on managing attendance, the teacher's responsibility, characteristics of adult ESL learners, and learning styles; Florida's curriculum framework for citizenship education, including performance objectives and instructional materials; practice citizenship interview questions; reproducible classroom materials; sources for bilingual materials and additional teaching resources; suggested classroom activities; a glossary of useful idioms and expressions; and a survey for users of the handbook. (MSE) [More] Descriptors: Adult Education, Bilingual Education, Citizenship Education, Citizenship Responsibility
(1998). Creating Montessori Bilingual Programs. Spotlight: Montessori–Multilingual, Multicultural, Montessori Life. Discusses presentation given by Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, at a meeting with Hispanic child caregivers in California. Discusses family life and childrearing among Guatemala's Mayan people, traditional ceremonies and symbols, becoming a leader, and the Mayan experience of resisting oppression. Discusses implications for Montessori education, educational policy, and obstacles to academic achievement by Hispanic students. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Foreign Countries
(1999). The "California Reading Initiative": A Formula for Failure for Bilingual Students?, Language Arts. Describes the formation of the new "California Reading Initiative" that directly ties school funding to practices such as teaching phonemic awareness and systematic, explicit phonics. Assesses its research base, and discusses problems in teaching Limited-English-Proficient students to read following its directives. Presents research that supports an approach to reading instruction consistent with effective programs for bilingual students. Descriptors: Academic Failure, Bilingual Education, Decoding (Reading), Elementary Secondary Education
(1998). Multilingualism Is Basic, Educational Leadership. Demographic, economic, and social realities make linguistic and cross-cultural competence essential skills for today's students. This article discusses three innovative program types that build on basic education while enriching it through second languages: second-language immersion for native English-speaking students; developmental bilingual programs for language-minority students and two-way bilingual immersion programs for all students. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Demography, Diversity (Student), Economic Factors
(1998). Welcoming Place: An Urban Community of Inuit Families, Canadian Children. Describes a visit by an early childhood educator to the Tungasuvvingat Inuit Head Start Program in Ottawa. Explains how this program, funded by Health Canada under the Aboriginal Head Start Initiative, emphasizes retention of the Inuit culture and language in its curriculum activities and materials, special events, daily routines, parent education and resources, and staffing. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Cultural Activities, Cultural Education, Cultural Maintenance
(1999). Authentic Assessment: Strategies for Maximizing Performance in the Dual-Language Classroom. A study investigated whether teaching techniques and the use of self-evaluation tended to increase student motivation and second language proficiency. Subjects were 59 high school Honors Spanish 4 students with varying levels of academic ability, motivation, and proficiency, and included both non-native and English-dominant Spanish speakers. The foreign language program dropout rate reflected the low priority given to foreign language study. Analysis of probable causes and solutions suggested that treatment involving positive attitudes, cooperative learning, and use of multiple intelligence pedagogy would improve performance. Real-life application and self-evaluation helped to improve individual student's motivation. Results tended to support current research. Most of the subjects demonstrated significant growth in both oral and written proficiency in the target language. Their organizational skills and acceptance of personal responsibility improved. However, students with excessive absences from school did not benefit from the intervention. Posttest and attitudinal surveys revealed greater confidence and interest in developing foreign language proficiency. The instructional rubrics used were useful, but it was found that their design needed to be refined. The only aspect negative was that students tended to depend on class time to finish projects. The instructional rubrics, student surveys, and results are appended. (Contains 33 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Classroom Techniques, High Schools, Language Dominance
(1999). Teaching Other People's Children: Literacy and Learning in a Bilingual Classroom. This book details the experiences of a teacher in a Haitian-populated preschool in an urban area of the United States, focusing on the development of literacy and English as a second language. An introductory chapter describes the children, some of their personal and cultural background, their classroom demeanor, and the context in which they were taught. The second chapter describes the traditions and practices of classroom research as experienced by the teacher. The third chapter further examines the school, the families, and the patterns of family life of the students. The next four chapters discuss the difficulties encountered in teaching literacy and managing student behavior. These include the differences between the teacher's assumptions about how adults should control or influence student behavior and the assumptions of the children and their families; varying student and teacher approaches to early literacy activities; and storybook reading and the ways students participated imaginatively with stories. The final chapter considers the value of classroom research, noting how the insights it offers differ from other forms of educational research. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Case Studies, Classroom Communication, Classroom Research
(1998). The Educational and Cultural Implications of Maori Language Revitalization, Cultural Survival Quarterly. Maori language revitalization in New Zealand has had government support since 1982. Programs include schools that teach entirely in Maori and are based on Maori philosophy and pedagogy, as well as immersion programs and bilingual classes. School programs are complemented by community-based adult and preschool programs. Teacher shortages, dialect problems, and intergenerational tensions are discussed. Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Community Education, Educational Change, Elementary Secondary Education
(1999). Assessing Students' Attitudes and Achievements in a Multicultural and Multilingual Science Classroom, Multicultural Education. Takes a qualitative and quantitative look at the curriculum and teaching of a two-way immersion eighth-grade solar energy science classroom and examines its implications for education policy and reform. Results for a class of 25 students indicate that the approach increases the retention rate of Hispanic students. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education, Curriculum, Educational Policy
(1998). L'enseignement du francais et en francais en milieu amerindien au Quebec: Une problematique ethnopedagogique (The Teaching of French and in French in an Amerindian Milieu in Quebec: A Problematic Ethnopedagogy), Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics. Examines the situation of Quebec's First Nations setting. Discusses problems raised by certain verbal tasks required for Atikamekw students in an Atikamekw-French bilingual program. Suggests that both first and second language pedagogy must take into account the ethnolinguistic characteristics of the students' social background and that an ethnological perspective may be pertinent to numerous pedagogical contexts. Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Canada Natives, Ethnicity, Ethnology
(1999). Collaborative Practices in Bilingual Cooperative Learning Classrooms. In cooperative learning environments, small groups of students work together to accomplish specific pedagogical tasks, and teachers act as facilitators. One highly significant characteristic of cooperative learning that has received little consideration so far is the shift in the participation frame that takes place when students are left alone to work on classroom tasks rather than having the teacher direct the learning process. Students are free to take their own time to work out their learning strategies, and they rely on peer group processes both to establish collaboration and guide their own learning. It is in such exchanges that learning processes can be made into observable activities. Central to the case studies described in this report is the fact that everyday informal conversational exchanges play an essential role in group processes, where one speaker is given primary rights of speaking, but where participants must compete for the floor and cooperate in achieving shared communicative tasks. The cases presented here are drawn from the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) database, which includes approximately 200 hours of 90-minute video recordings collected through ethnographic field work in third and fourth grade bilingual classrooms over a period of 3 years. The focus is on in-depth conversational and interactional sociolinguistic analysis of selected excerpts that illustrate key learning and teaching issues that arise in cooperative learning situations in monolingual and bilingual classrooms. (Contains 27 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Case Studies, Classroom Communication, Classroom Techniques
(1999). Modeling the Standards for Teacher Educators: How One Group of Supervisors Meets the Challenge. This paper demonstrates how supervisors can implement and model professional teaching practices for their preservice students that exemplify knowledge, skills, and attitudes critical to teachers in a culturally diverse society. It discusses the importance of understanding the supervisory process, how the supervisory process can be effectively administered, and how the importance and understanding of the teaching process is essential to the final results. The paper provides examples of how the Standards for Teacher Educators may be met at the college and school levels. Four attachments offer health, physical education, and recreation samples; early childhood education samples; bilingual/bicultural and elementary education samples; and secondary education/English samples. Each example provides insight into how the supervisors work with their students and schools and adjust their expectations, focusing on Standard 1 (model professional practices which demonstrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes reflecting the best available practices in teacher education). [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Comprehensive School Health Education, Early Childhood Education, Educational Quality
(1999). The Evolution of Maori Education in a Predominantly Non-Maori School. Since the late 1970s, the New Zealand government has instituted educational reforms to increase Maori participation and success in education. These reforms required Treaty of Waitangi principles to be incorporated into school policies, devolved responsibility to local boards of trustees with community representation, required Maori culture to be reflected in school policies and practices, and ensured that instruction in Maori culture and language was provided when requested. The Forest Lake school, which in 1978 had an all-White staff (except for the author) and 10 percent Maori students, set up its first bilingual unit in 1982. The school developed an educational environment that is sensitive to Maori values and empowering to all students. The partial immersion course develops competency in both English and Maori and is flexible. The total immersion course delivers all subjects in Maori. The school has two parent groups, one Maori and one White, which merge when they need answers. The school now has nine Maori staff, a Maori deputy principal, and a Maori principal. Maori resources are produced along with English resources. There has been a 51 percent increase in Maori students. Multi-level classrooms allow students to move at their own pace without the shame of being held back. Reading tests for year-6 children showed that partial and total immersion Maori girls compared very favorably with mainstream pupils. Three Maori boys were up to standard and the remainder scored at a slightly lower rate in English. However, since partial and total immersion students can read in two languages, they are considered advanced. [More] Descriptors: Biculturalism, Bilingual Education Programs, Community Involvement, Culturally Relevant Education