The report summarizes findings of research activities conducted over 2 years by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) on the mother tongue and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy. The first section provides a review of existing literature in native language literacy for adults, including a summary of surveys, review of studies on native language literacy, analysis of rationales that programs give for offering native language literacy, and a description of key articles written by practitioners. The second section presents findings of a 1992 CAL working group on native language literacy, whose participants included teachers and administrators from native language literacy programs in the United States and other researchers and experts in the field. Overviews of activities and promising practices at six sites offering instruction in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Hmong native language literacy are included. The third section identifies key issues that need to be addressed to move the field forward, and makes recommendations for research and policy formation. One key issue is the funding of demonstration projects that can be linked to studies of the relationship between native language literacy and second language acquisition, student retention, and other learner goals. (MSE) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education)