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.…

Many nations have attempted to create different language-in-education policies that would cater not only to the needs of learners but also to the demands of preserving a country's native languages. The emergence of multilingual education has led to a proliferation of research that shows the benefits of using a learner's first language. These…

Language and cultural preservation efforts among different communities of language speakers in the United States have received increasing attention as interest in linguistic rights and globalization continues to deepen. In addition to mounting evidence of the cognitive, psychological, and academic benefits of heritage language/community language…

This brief article discusses, in English, Vietnamese, and Cambodian, the best method for Indochinese refugees in the U.S. to learn to speak and understand English fluently. The grammar-translation method is not recommended. Instead, audiolingual methods are stressed, as well as constant oral practice, either with a teacher or native speaker.…

This guide is addressed to teachers and/or school administrators who may have non-English-speaking Vietnamese and Cambodian children in their classrooms. The guide describes certain interference problems involved in learning a second language, as well as a number of psychological and cultural factors affecting the learning process. A suggested…

There are no good figures on the number of limited English speakers who are also illiterate in their native languages. This data is worth having because there is research indicating that literacy in the native language plays an important role in the acquisition of oral English and the development of English literacy. This digest reviews recent…

The purpose the Native Language Literacy Screening Device (NLLSD) is to give English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) practitioners a sense of the native language literacy levels of learners coming into their programs. This is worth knowing because when learners have had limited schooling in their first language instructional strategies used…