For many patients throughout the world, access to healthcare depends on the patients" and healthcare providers' ability to communicate efficiently in each other's language. One way to reduce linguistic barriers to healthcare access is to increase the number of linguistically and culturally competent healthcare professionals. Conspicuously…

This article is a revised version of a keynote address given at CALICO 1999. It describes the rapidly changing demography of the U.S. school population and the implications of these changes for pedagogical practices. Discusses implications of research priorities and directions for the work of those concerned with improving the effectiveness of…