There is growing recognition about the importance of studying teacher agency in working with Linguistically Diverse Students (LDSs) after No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) given that the high-stakes testing and accountability system, required by NCLB and largely maintained by ESSA, have exerted negative effects on…

Louisiana is currently the only state in the United States that requires foreign language (FL) study for some, but not all of their high school students, and these requirements are undergoing seismic changes. Considering that "geographic," "economic," and "integration" factors contribute to whether a school can…

This paper reports the results of a narrative inquiry study on exchange programs, intercultural awareness, and professional development in eight former participants of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant--FLTA--program. This study used written narratives to collect data from eight participants of the FLTA scholarship program who…

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…

This review explores the multifaceted challenges and strategies related to the education of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the U.S. education system. It highlights three primary themes: program approaches, instructional needs, and the importance of school-home connections. The first theme evaluates various educational programs for EB…

Research indicates English learners perform best when teachers are required to have state certification to teach English as a Second Language (ESL), English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), bilingual or other type. At least 39 states provide for training, professional development, teaching standards, certification or endorsements for…

As opportunities for face-to-face teaching, in-person conference attendance, travel, professional exchanges, digital collaboration, and formal institutional and organizational partnerships have gained traction, English language teaching (ELT) professionals have the chance, once again, to engage in numerous types of collaboration. In this article,…

The population of English learners (ELs) in K-12 schools continues to grow. Between the 2009-10 and 2014-15 school years, the percentage of English learners increased in over half of the states, and in 2017, English learners made up 10.1% of the total student population. Research suggests that in their transition to English, non-native speakers…

Language assessments are often framed as benign mechanisms needed to objectively classify people's linguistic proficiencies. In this article, I argue for the need to critically re-examine how purportedly objective institutional language assessments and our participation in them deceptively reify historical and contemporary inequities. I offer the…

English language education policy is deployed strategically as an instrument to address wider national policy objectives in most emerging nations. In universities, policy enactment at institutional and classroom levels hinges on the development of a qualified and skilled English teaching workforce. The continued dominance of linear discourses of…

The population of English learners (ELs) in K-12 schools continues to grow. Between the 2009-10 and 2014-15 school years, the percentage of English learners increased in over half of the states, and in 2017, English learners made up 10.1% of the total student population. Research suggests that in their transition to English, non-native speakers…

With the 2015 passage of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), the oversight of language policy in U.S. schools shifted from federal to state governance. Although the education of students officially designated as English learners (ELs) has historically been grounded in federal law, we argue that ELs' educational experiences are also…

These are the appendixes for the report, "English Proficiency and the Pandemic: How Texas English Learner Students Fared during the COVID-19 Pandemic. REL 2023-144." This study examined levels of English proficiency before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among English learner students in grades 3-12 in Texas. In 2020-2021, nearly…

More than 100 U.S. institutions of higher education hosted Confucius Institutes (CIs), Chinese government-funded language and culture centers, on campus during the late 2000s and 2010s. While CIs provided a source of funding and other resources that enabled U.S. colleges and universities to build capacity, offer supplemental programming, and…

This article examines the Spanish proverb, "quien habla dos idiomas vale por dos," which literally translates to mean he who speaks two languages is worth two people and applies its meaning to immigrant children who are language brokers for their families. Historically, the United States has not promoted multilingualism and even frowned…