Discusses bilingual students' backgrounds; language use and proficiency at home and school; and students' and parents' reactions to the bilingual program established for the children of Mexican immigrants. (RAE)

Presents conversations of a group of fifth graders collaborating on a social studies task to illustrate how childen use language to learn. Focuses on one student whose oral language was rapid and chaotic but who demonstrated extremely sophisticated and complex structuring of knowledge to understand a particular social studies concept. (HTH)