Purpose: Best practices recommend promoting the use of the home language and allowing caregivers to choose the language(s) that they want to use with their child who is deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). We examined whether Spanish-speaking caregivers of children who are DHH receive professional recommendations on oral bilingualism that follow best…

Every year, there are between 150,000 and 200,000 immigrant students in California who have been in U.S. schools for less than 3 years. These newcomers generally require specialized academic instruction and social services to succeed in school. Despite great efforts, many districts are struggling to create these conditions for success. Many…

School districts that have adopted the 3Ls™ approach to provide rigorous instruction for English learners (ELs) have, invariably, had to make a case for what this approach offers, how it reflects best practices in English language development (ELD) instruction, and how it meets the needs of English learners. They have also had to make explicit…

Dual language learners make up an increasing share of preschool students, but they often perform worse than monolingual students on assessments measuring school achievement. This study compares Head Start classrooms implementing either the dual language model or the English with home language support model. The author examines how the models…

This study explores how a transient community of Chinese visiting scholars in the US negotiates the language norms and identity in the transnational spaces. Transient communities, being different from diasporic stable communities in terms of flexibility and fluidity of movements, are subject to continuous negotiation of social or language norms.…

The term "newcomers" is commonly used to describe students who have recently arrived in U.S. schools. Depending on usage, newcomers may mean students in their first 6 months in U.S. schools, in their first 4 years, or anywhere in between. A majority arrive speaking little to no English, most are from socioeconomically disadvantaged…

For children from immigrant families, opportunities to develop additive bilingualism exist, yet bilingual attainment has varied widely. Given the significance of language development opportunities in home settings, this study examines the home language use of 20 second-generation children (ages 6-8) of Mexican and Korean descent in the United…

In community colleges, English Language Learners (ELL) comprise several subgroups of students, each of which has a distinct background and data profile. Among these subgroups, three clearly emerge, each of which interact with placement systems and curriculum in distinct ways based on their prior educational experiences and contexts. These three…

Prominent discourses about emergent bilinguals' academic abilities tend to focus on performance as measured by test scores and perpetuate the message that emergent bilinguals trail far behind their peers. When we remove the constraints of formal testing situations, what can emergent bilinguals do in English as they engage in naturally occurring…

The aim of this descriptive statewide study is to decipher reclassification practices in California -- the state that educates 20% of the nation's English language learners (ELL) and enrolls more language-minority students than any other state in the union. In the course of our investigation, we examined reclassification criteria from a…

Translingual practice is an emergent theoretical perspective which emphasizes the capacity and disposition for meaning-making across linguistic boundaries. Following on studies of globalized workplaces that have focused on lingua franca English, this article explores translingual practice as represented in interview and blog narratives recounted…

Across the nation, nearly all teachers can expect to have EL students in their classrooms. The challenges of teaching ELs students are particularly acute in the nation's secondary schools. There is evidence to suggest that the lack of preparation to teach ELs is generally weak, but even more so for secondary teachers. We analyze data from a survey…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the extent to which a proposed home language survey in California could better identify possible English learner and multilingual students than the current home language survey. The responses to a proposed and current survey were examined for students registering for kindergarten through grade…

Although it is commonly thought that people who are bilingual have an advantage in the labor market, studies on this topic have not borne out this perception.The literature, in fact, has found an earnings penalty is associated with bilingualism--people who are bilingual often make less than people who are monolingual in similar jobs. This report…

Simply put, children with poor English skills are less likely to succeed in school and beyond. What's the best way to teach English to young children who aren't native English speakers? In this article, Lisa Barrow and Lisa Markman-Pithers examine the state of English learner education in the United States and review the evidence behind different…