The focus group method has rapidly gained credibility among researchers in many fields, including public health researchers. The increased use of focus groups by public health researchers has underscored the demonstrable need for the capacity to apply this method of research among populations with limited abilities in or cultural resistance to…

This book examines how in a multicultural, multilingual society, schools must involve parents and community members in literacy teaching and learning. By building on existing literacy, schools can become catalysts in empowering children, families, and teachers. Collaborative literacy teaching and learning can be a positive force in redefining…

This collection of 16 tested ideas for improving teaching and learning evolved from the work of the 1995 Proven Laboratory Practices Task Force charged with identifying and collecting the best and most useful work from the Regional Educational Laboratories. The Regional Educational Laboratory program is the largest research and development…

This report focuses on issues relating to the development and implementation of educational programs for and placement of national origin minority students identified as having limited English proficiency. It examines the present-day barriers that prevent students with limited English proficiency from having an equal opportunity to participate in…

This report was designed for teachers and teacher educators who, in their teaching, curricula, and relationships with students, struggle with fundamental cultural questions: Who are my students? What kinds of cultural influences shape their lives? How do they and I shape and construct this culture on an ongoing basis? and What are my own cultural…

The spring issue focuses on the evolution in the education of language minority students. Rosalie Pedalino Porter's article, "On the State of Bilingual Education 1990-1995: 'Forked Tongue' Continued," highlights the advances made by local school districts where students are being introduced to academic content learning in English at a…

The rapid increase in the number of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students is especially significant in the nation's large urban school districts. The numbers of LEP students in special, bilingual education programs has exploded due to the constant stream of immigrants into the United States and the inability of so many children, even those who…

This study examines the changing role of bilingual education in a Title I elementary school in Northern California in the wake of the passage of Proposition 227. It is found that native language literacy is an important component in the academic success of English language learners and that reading in the native language does not detract form from…

This document contains two guidebooks--a workbook for students and a handbook for teachers. Class activities are designed for English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) students at level 1B of the Washington State Core Competencies. Some activities may be appropriate for level 1A and/or level 2 students too. Materials are based on experience and are…

This document is the final report describing the experiences, effectiveness, and findings of a home ownership literacy program in El Paso, Texas. It is asserted that such a program was and is necessary because the adult education programs that presently exist typically are not sufficiently addressing the practical, real-life needs of the…

This paper asserts that if a single theme prevails in the story of Greater Boston's new immigration, it is diversity. No single group dominates in metro Boston. Diversity in country of origin is compounded by differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic background, legal status, and language. Issues of particular salience to immigrant communities…

Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in…

This study explored the roles that two parents played in their daughter's English education during the initial period after moving to the United States. For English language learners (ELLS) with limited first language schooling in the home country, it usually takes several years to demonstrate cognitive academic language proficiency. For ELL…

This bilingual curriculum was developed by job search counselors at a Seattle nonprofit social service agency in conjunction with Washington state's welfare reform initiative, WorkFirst. The workshops were 30-hours long and were given over a 2-week period. The classes were conducted in the students' native language, as well as in English by an…

This paper presents the results of a study of sociocultural materials used with approximately 50 primary and secondary school teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Andalusia, Spain. Because Spain is becoming a more culturally diverse society, and will become even more so in the future as it joins the European Union, the Spanish…