The 2023 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages was held in Columbus, Ohio on March 9-11. This year's theme, Empathy, Equity, and Empowerment is reflective of the vital work educators do in classrooms every day across the country. The Wikipedia definition of empathy is "the capacity to understand or feel what another…

Assessment "as," "for," and "of" learning complement effective curricular and instructional practices, however, the complexities of assessment for multilingual students are too-often overlooked and misunderstood. What if multilingual learners, teachers, and educational leaders all had opportunities to plan for and use…

This report synthesizes findings from extant empirical research to identify nine key policy areas that state policymakers and stakeholders in California can leverage to improve English learners' (ELs') opportunities and outcomes across the state. Importantly, the report situates these policy areas within the current framework of California state…

This volume builds on Fortune and Tedick's 2008 Pathways to Multilingualism: Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education and showcases the practice and promise of immersion education through in-depth investigations of program design, implementation practices, and policies in one-way, two-way and indigenous programs. Contributors present new…

This practitioner issue brief outlines successful strategies and recommendations for state-level policymakers, administrators, schools, and districts that are based on a 5-year evaluation study on the learning environment for ELLs in the state of California. This brief offers four critical building blocks that should be in place to effectively…

Discusses a collaboration in the design and implementation of student portfolios to examine growth in foreign-language proficiency. Analysis of the portfolios showed that many factors should be considered by teachers in deciding on contents and objectives of the portfolios. (Author/JL)

In this paper, I discuss current interest in educational reform in Puerto Rico, the need for better and more appropriate assessment tools, the growing realisation in the USA that two-way bilingual programmes can provide an effective vehicle for fostering the development of bilingual proficiency, bicultural competence and subject-matter knowledge…

The school performance of pupils in grades 2-4 of the French immersion program in operation in the Ottawa-Carleton public schools is evaluated in comparison with the performance of those in the regular English program. The results indicate that by the end of grade 2, pupils in the immersion program show the same level of cognitive development as…

The school performance of pupils in grades 1-3 of the French immersion program in operation in Ottawa public schools is evaluated in comparison with that of pupils in the regular English program. The results indicate that by the end of grade 1 immersion program pupils taught reading in French are found to lag behind their peers in the regular…

The school performance of pupils in grades K-2 of the French immersion program in operation at Allenby Public School in Toronto is evaluated in comparison with that of pupils in the regular English program. The results indicate that by the end of kindergarten pupils in both programs are equally ready for beginning school work in grade 1. By the…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

This paper provides a literature review, staff development information, and a guidebook for elementary administrators and educators that explains the academic benefits of Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) for prekindergarten through fifth grade students. TBE allows limited English speaking students to learn a second language while being…

In June of 1998, Proposition 227 was passed by 61 percent of the California electorate. The initiative was intended to significantly alter the ways in which the state's English learners (ELs) are taught. Proposition 227 requires that ELs be taught "overwhelmingly in English" through sheltered/structured English immersion (SEI) programs…

The Hawaiian Language Immersion Program, implemented at the kindergarten/first grade level in an elementary school on Oahu and one on Hawaii, is described and evaluated. The program was instituted at the request of parents of students who had attended a Hawaiian language immersion preschool and was open to all students, regardless of ethnicity or…

This paper presents empirical data concerning the use of a cloze test as a measure of second language proficiency. Grade four students in their fifth year of a French immersion program were tested using both English and French cloze tests. Correlations between the cloze test and other language achievement measures were calculated for both…