The number of languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a small number of languages serve as important link languages or languages of wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world's approximately 200 countries…

As school reform efforts demand that schools become places of excellence for all students, educators committed to these reforms face enormous challenges, not the least of which is the education of teachers. Although the responsibility for improved schooling must be shared among administrators, teachers, parents, and students, school reform efforts…

A native English-speaker explores the reasons why she persists in speaking her husband's native language, Chinese, at an intermediate level at home, despite the fact that she lives in the United States. She looks, in a humorous way, at the errors she has made in learning Chinese, some cultural contexts for language choice, the importance of…

Enrollment of language minority students continues to outpace overall enrollment growth. In the ten-year period from 1991-92 to 2001-02, California's public schools added more than one million students, an increase of 20 percent. In the same period, the number of English learners (ELs) increased by 44 percent and the number of Fluent English…

This publication reviews literature and presents findings concerning programs at the secondary school level that are designed to serve English language learners (ELLs). These are students who come from homes where English is not the primary language spoken and whose English language skills are assessed as needing improvement. The report organizes…

In 1995, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) launched the High-Poverty Schools Initiative. It focuses on building the capacity of state education agency officials and their local partners to implement various federal education programs aimed at improving outcomes for students in high-poverty schools. The overall initiative goal is…

This bulletin reports the work of a committee appointed by Dr. John J. Tigert, United States Commissioner of Education, to study the many problems of school work with adult illiterates. The committee was formed following the National Literacy Conference in Washington, D.C., January 11-14, 1924, whose work included formulating practical programs…

Describes how behavioral and cognitive psychologies regarding language learning can be synthesized in the teaching of written composition to students learning English as a second language. (MM)

Reviews the difficulties teachers face in evaluating the competence of their students in using English, and suggests recognition of the influences that may inhibit language performance in the classroom when the speaker comes from a minority sub-culture. (Author/JM)

Includes an 18-item bibliography on reading instruction for non-English-speaking first graders. (RD)