Although English-as-a-second-language (ESL) practitioners are generally making good progress in teaching listening and speaking skills, the entire area of teaching literacy skills to ESL students is barely in the formative stage. The teaching of ESL is further complicated when students are not only lacking in English literacy skills but are also functionally illiterate in their native languages. Educators need to become more aware of the special problems that even the most motivated ESL students face when learning a language that is as difficult to learn as is English. Whereas many ESL programs have been predicated on the notion that students must be orally proficient before they can read English, research shows that reading and speaking can be taught concurrently. To facilitate the teaching of reading and writing in the ESL classroom, educators should provide early and systematic instruction in areas such as phonetic spelling, writing mechanics, structural analysis, study skills, and test taking. In addition, planners of ESL and literacy programs should devote more effort to pooling the resources of smaller local programs to avoid duplication, solicit cooperation from and work together with business and industry, offer counseling services, and provide necessary staff development activities. (MN)