State adult education systems, which receive significant funding from the U.S. government, are the primary source of many key integration services for adult immigrants--from English classes and literacy programs to civics courses and some workforce development activities. Although such programs have existed for decades, the passage of the…

Background: In Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes, there are concerns about student teachers' English language proficiency. Aim: To discuss the first iteration of the PrimTEd English language and literacy test and analyse the results for information about the test instrument and about student teacher attainment. Setting: South African…

In this article the authors analyze the synergy of the theoretical, practical, and linguistic (TPL) design and its impact on the effectiveness of professional development in a dual language university setting. The theoretical, practical, and linguistic components of the TPL design are explained and the workshops given within each component are…

Recently, Cosmopolitan English and Transliteracy won the 2018 Research Impact Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the largest international organization that specializes in the teaching and studies of composition. This recognition seems to signal a turn to transliteracy education, i.e., English writing…

This study investigated structural features of a newcomer program housed within a comprehensive high school and language practices among newcomer students and their teachers. Findings indicate efforts to provide newcomer students with "safe spaces," opportunities for language and literacy development in English and Spanish, and access to…

In this article, I report on the first stage of a whole school literacy project," Embedding Literacies in the KLAs" (ELK), which aims to support multilingual learners to access the literacies they need for high stakes curriculum learning. As it is "quality teaching" that has been found to have the greatest impact on student…

Deaf learners whose first language is American Sign Language face particular challenges and constraints in developing literacy in English as a second language. These constraints are interrogated and discussed in terms of their relationship to issues of language proficiency in both L1 and L2, and to models of second language literacy education.…

This paper is about the interaction between policy and practice, and about how competing policies contributed to a paradoxical tension within that interaction in one school. Within a paradigm of educational renewal, the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) has initiated a number of policies designed to give schools autonomy in designing and…

Ethnography is a research approach that seeks to understand and represent the points of view of the members of a particular culture. As in other forms of qualitative research, the data collected are rich in their descriptions of people, places, languages, and events. Ethnographic research can be characterized by its multi-instrumental approach,…

Workplace-based educational programs are not new. Recent perceptions of a national literacy crisis and the need for a competitive workforce, however, have resulted in the development of new programs across the country, many of which provide literacy and language training for nonnative English speakers. This digest focuses on the reasons for…

The Freirean approach to adult literacy education bases the content of language lessons on learners' cultures and personal experiences. This approach has been used in the developing world in successful native and second language literacy projects sponsored by governments and voluntary organizations in both urban and rural settings. The two most…

A survey of volunteer programs in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy instruction in Illinois is reported. The report begins with a review of literature concerning ESL literacy volunteerism, most of which is descriptive and program-specific. The statewide survey results are then summarized, giving an overview of ESL volunteer programming.…

An examination of family literacy programs was made in this newsletter issue to reveal the trends and practices of these programs and their contribution to the development of children of refugee parents. The examination found that most effective and innovative programs recognize that literacy instruction is more effective when it is content based…

This document focuses on the requirements of the immigrant amnesty process, which were established by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. Sections focus on the following questions: (1) How can eligible legalized aliens (ELA) fulfill the IRCA educational requirements? (2) What issues are considered in designing and offering an…