While early research suggests that bilingualism creates a language handicap in individuals, more recent and methodologically better research clearly supports the advantages of bilingualism in promoting overall cognitive development. Three major explanations for this improved development are proposed: that (1) the bilingual-bicultural child…

Problems of a process approach to English for specific purposes courses for "convergent" academic disciplines are illustrated with an example of science instruction. Course designers must undertake task analysis of the intellectual abilities used in learning activities and relate these to the intellectual abilities of language learners. (Author/CB)

The purpose of this fastback is to help teachers find out how children acquire a second language and explore the linguistic foundations on which sound English as a Second Language (ESL) curricula can be developed. It is intended for the regular classroom teacher, not the ESL specialist. Central findings in research on second language learning…