In elementary classrooms, teaching immigration often begins and ends at Ellis Island--without discussions of racist migration policies or engagement with current issues. Although contemporary immigration is rarely discussed with elementary students, the number of young people from immigrant and/or refugee backgrounds in the U.S. continues to rise.…

The use of ELT textbooks in multicultural schools is an under-explored issue despite an increasing number of non-Thais studying in the Thai compulsory education system due to mobility within the ASEAN Community. This paper aims to explore the representations of cultural aspects in the ELT textbooks, which are used in a public primary school where…

A culture of thinking (CoT) is defined as "a place where a group's collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as the regular, day-today experience of all group members" (Ritchhart et al., 2011, p. 219). This study aimed to determine the effects of a CoT implementation on Lao English as a foreign…

Scholars who study Southeast Asian American (SEAA) communities are in consensus that this group's realities diverge from their Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) counterparts. In fact, nearly four decades after large-scale immigration as political refugees from Southeast Asia (SEA), this population composed of Cambodians, Hmong, Laotians,…

Foreign language anxiety is common among adult learners, especially those who lack exposure to the language that they are learning. In this study, we compared the foreign language anxiety experienced by monolingual and bilingual tertiary students in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) who were learning English as a Foreign Language. The…

Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) students are often characterized as model minorities. However, AAPI students represent many diverse communities and a wide spectrum of achievement. Each AAPI culture may experience varying levels of biculturalism and acculturation that can influence students' academic success. This quantitative study…

This article presents the results of a study examining the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF) on the simple past tense and the impact beliefs may have on students' uptake of the feedback they receive. A seven-week study was carried out with 42 advanced EFL learners in Vientiane, Laos. Students' beliefs about written CF were first…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious global public health issue. At least one in three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused during her lifetime. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than three women in the United States die every day from physical abuse suffered at the hands of an intimate…

The early 1980s saw an influx of Southeast Asian refugees from various demographic groups and backgrounds to Minnesota. As teachers, the author and her colleagues regularly added children from these groups to their classrooms, receiving little explanation of a student's history or language proficiency. To counteract increasing teacher resentment…

The study described in this paper focuses on English language acquisition by adult Hmong Laotian immigrants in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program in a city in the Northeastern United States. Preexistent levels of literacy and second language familiarity are discounted as influences on the speed of students' acquisition of language.…

One of a series of refugee orientation materials, this guide to employment is intended to assist Laotian refugees in their understanding of the employment situation in the United States and to give them necessary information for obtaining work. The text is in Lao followed by an English-language version, which is not an exact translation but which…

The primary focus of this book is the Lao, the principal ethnic group of Laos, who form about one-half of the population of that country. Chapter 1 of the book outlines the recent history of Laos and the Laotians. Chapter 2 describes education in Laos up to 1975, schooling in Thai refugee camps, and problems encountered by Lao refugees in American…

This booklet of individual handouts was prepared to assist Minneapolis mainstream school teachers to work with limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. Topics discussed include current research on how LEP students best learn in mainstream classes, social versus academic English, and adapting instructional procedures for and integrating LEP…

This is a guide for teachers and administrators to familiarize them with the Laotian people, language and culture. The first section contains a brief geography and history of Laos, a discussion of the ethnic and lingustic groups of Laos, and information on the economic and religious life of these groups. Section two describes the Laotian refugee…

A JTPA/FEL (Job Training Partnership Act/Family English Literacy) demonstration project is reported that involves a partnership between the Lao Family Community (LFC) of Minnesota, the City of St. Paul, and St. Paul Public Schools/Adult Basic Education. The goal is to provide workplace literacy instruction to refugees with limited English…