In the context of Canada's reliance on immigration for social and economic development, an effective language policy for migrant students is essential for educational systems. However, existing language policy research puts little emphasis on parental agency, particularly immigrant parents. The qualitative study presented here therefore explored…

This chapter examines current issues in English as Second Language (ESL) policies and programs for adult immigrants in Canada from a critical multiculturalism perspective.

Guided by post-structural perspectives of identities as processes of becoming and transculturation and transnationalism, this study explores how multilingual students in a Mandarin-English bilingual programme form their sense of identities in a dynamic process. Multiple forms of data are collected, including observations, interviews and documents.…

Research in home-school communication has incorporated little, to date, about participation by English as a second language (ESL) parents. This article examines the communication processes between recent Chinese immigrant parents and Canadian teachers at secondary school Parents' Nights. Drawing from observations of three annual Parents' Nights,…

Interest in home-school communication has paid little attention, to date, to the experiences of English as a second language (ESL) parents. This article examines recent Chinese immigrant parents' and Canadian teachers' perspectives of ESL learning presented at Parents' Night. On the basis of observations of three annual Parents' Nights, interviews…

When I visited Canadian elementary and secondary schools over the past 10 years, many teachers told me that it was difficult to get English-as-a-second language (ESL) parents involved in K-12 education. I was often asked by teachers, "Why don't they show up at school?" The absence of ESL parents from school is often misinterpreted as…

English has become the dominant global language of communication, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy and the internet. Governments as well as some scholars appear to be accepting such a spread of English uncritically. However, we argue that the increasing dominance of the English language is contributing to neocolonialism by empowering…

Peer evaluation has been criticized as a threat to academic freedom and has been used, usually erroneously, as a justification for academic reappointment, tenure promotion, and merit pay. In recent years, scholars have recommended that peer consultation, which is primarily designed to improve teaching, be honored, but apart from evaluation. In…

This is a review of the literature that supports content-based language learning. The articles and books reviewed cover recent literature as well as a number of key contributions that date as far back as the late 1980s. There are many commonalities between the earlier works and those of more recent origins since the authors grapple with similar…