As language programs are endangered in K-16 contexts due to low enrollments, and for budgetary reasons, it is more important than ever to find enduring ways to help promote the study of languages and to make studying languages enjoyable for everyone. For sustainable language education, we need to focus on and promote the true purpose of…

As language classrooms become increasingly diverse, educators face a daily challenge of navigating linguistic, cultural, and learning differences among students from different cultures and backgrounds. The diverse language environment, which many educators perceive to be challenging to manage, also presents valuable opportunities for implementing…

This article presents five main challenges refugee children experience in their learning and living in host countries, revealing an urgent need for reexamining their strengths and needs in education. It further reports an asset-based participatory research project with 18 preservice teachers (PTs) and 85 refugee children (K-5) engaged in an…

In this eagerly anticipated revision of their bestselling book, authors Diane Staehr Fenner, Sydney Snyder, and Meghan Gregoire-Smith share dynamic, research-backed strategies that every educator of multilingual learners (MLs) can add to their repertoire. Including more of what educators loved from the first edition--authentic classroom examples,…

Students who receive English Learner (EL) services at Forest Oak Elementary School in Newark, Delaware, do so through a pull-out model of instruction. They meet with an EL coach in a separate setting for instruction on reading, writing, speaking, and listening in English. A first-grade teacher at Forest Oak Elementary School participated in this…

The goal of the present study was to examine how effective use of teaching strategies predict reading growth among a sample of English Language Learners. The study specifically examined whether the types of teaching strategies that predict growth in decoding skills also predict growth in comprehension skills. The sample consisted of students in…

Challenging policymakers, educators, reformers, and citizens to replace piecemeal reforms with fundamental redesign, "First Things First!" calls for a different way of organizing the American primary school. Ruby Takanishi outlines a new framework for integrating early education with primary education (pre-K-5), including both short- and…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise, description and basic statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects, such as the…

Recent currents in language learning research highlight the social and emergent aspects of second language (L2) development and recognize that learners need opportunities for interaction in meaningful contexts supported by explicit attention to language itself. These perspectives suggest new ways of conceptualizing the challenges faced by children…

The theme for the 58th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) was Bridging Cultures Through Literacy. In the first section of the Yearbook, Parker Fawson's presidential address captures the unique nature of ALER and its role in his professional development, and then moved beyond to capture the changing…

Summarizing current research and weaving it into practical instructional strategies that teachers can immediately use with young English language learners (ELLs), this book addresses a major priority for today's primary-grade classrooms. All aspects of effective instruction for ELLs are explored: oral language development and instruction,…