This book assembles a wide range of research on children's language development, interprets it with analyses of how bilingualism affects that development, and, above all, breaks the myths surrounding bilingualism and bilingual education. The urgency about introducing language minority children to English immediately in schools, and about…

Suggests a curriculum for rural and small-town schools that combines bilingual education in local languages (indigenous, heritage, or immigrant languages) with global, multicultural education. Discusses benefits to students and community, and ways that the model overcomes typical rural constraints of inflexible school organization; administrative…

Surveys of 105 U.S.-born, Chinese-American and Korean-American students in southern California high schools found that those who adapted to the mainstream culture while maintaining their heritage language and culture had higher academic achievement than those who wholly adopted mainstream values and lifestyles. (Contains 21 references.) (SV)

English-only advocates and bilingual education supporters have generally disregarded the harsh symbolic and material conditions that contribute to the failures of English learners. Interviews with three bilingual and ESL teachers in an urban school describe inadequate facilities and materials, de facto segregation, oppressive teacher attitudes,…

Eleven native-Korean-speaking, Korean-American mothers of children aged 2-4 received 1 hour of training in specific language facilitation techniques around picture-book interactions. A control group received instruction in general emergent literacy development and first language acquisition. Four weeks later, treatment-group children showed…

Learning styles were investigated for 857 English-learners of Armenian, Hmong, Korean, Mexican, and Vietnamese origin in 20 California high schools. All ethnic groups indicated major or minor preferences for kinesthetic/tactile and visual learning styles. Groups differed in preferences for group versus individual learning. Some preferences were…

In the United States today, other languages and bilingualism receive no more respect than in 1954 when Mexican American children had to spend years in "pre-primer" classes before entering first grade. The rush to dismantle bilingual education programs has proceeded without any evidence of program failure. Without true equity and respect…

A case study examined a Texas bilingual teacher education program that recruited local paraprofessionals and Mexican teachers (normalistas). Interviews, writing samples, and observations of seven students revealed that normalistas were open to seeing merit in U.S. educational methods, while paraprofessionals began to question the deficit model…

In a study examining situational autobiography, a learner in a family literacy classroom completed three situational autobiography chapters and then explored the same themes with her children at home. Findings indicate that knowledge of learners' backgrounds is essential to providing quality education, and situational autobiography has a healing…

A study examined 13 bilingual Spanish-speaking children's perceptions of their bilingualism and biliteracy through conversations, collages, and drawings. The children felt the usefulness of becoming biliterate to be embedded in altruistic helping relations with family members and other monolingual speakers. Identity issues surfaced for all the…

A study examined parental support for bilingual education in the face of political debate. Surveys of 1,043 parents of children attending 10 dual-language programs in Colorado found that parents understood the purpose of these programs, freely chose the programs, and believed they were effective. Spanish-speaking parents responded more positively…

Based on the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, the Content Area Program Enhancement (CAPE) model fosters a collaborative environment among teachers and administrators to improve achievement for English language learners. In three predominantly Hispanic middle schools in south Texas, CAPE improved reading and mathematics scores for all…

A 4-year science education project in a rural southern California elementary school involved kit- and inquiry-based science instruction, including the use of science notebooks. Evaluations of fourth- and sixth-grade students in the program for 0-4 years found that English-learners with longer program participation had increased achievement scores…

A teacher-developed alternative assessment of reading comprehension was specifically designed for transitional English language learners. Use of the measure with 89 fifth-graders in their first year of English language instruction showed that the students could successfully engage with English texts and provided teachers with useful information to…

A Test of Spanish Word Features was developed to determine if Spanish orthography contains graphophonemic features similar to English. Test administrations to bilingual children in grades 1-5 found that spelling features in Spanish were internally consistent (reliable) but varied little in complexity compared to English. There was little evidence…