This digest focuses on reforming mathematics instruction for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students who have had limited or interrupted schooling in their first language. These students--referred to as ESL literacy students--must learn in a linguistically and culturally unfamiliar environment, construct understanding without the background…

Human beings have as great a capacity for losing or forgetting a language as they do for learning one. Many have lost language skills due to a lack of a linguistically appropriate environment in which to use a particular language. Millions of individuals who have studied a second language in high school or college for several years have lost the…