Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for Multilingual Learners

This bestselling classic, now in a third edition, offers up-to-date guidance for transforming policies and practices to improve the education of emergent bilinguals.

In this updated edition, Ofelia García and Jo Anne Kleifgen are joined by Claudia Cervantes-Soon to bring forth a just vision for the education of language-minoritized students in the United States. The authors use accessible language to introduce policies, programs, research, and practices to equitably educate these students.

This widely used textbook has been expanded to explore the potential of translanguaging and the promises and pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence. It also addresses the harmful role that colonialism and raciolinguistic ideologies play, offering guidance for transforming policies and practices to improve the education of emergent bilinguals. Updated chapters provide the theoretical constructs, empirical evidence, and pedagogical practices related to the five most important aspects of the education of emergent bilinguals in K–12 classrooms: language and literacy considerations; curriculum and pedagogy; family and community engagement; assessment; and digital technologies and learning.

Readers will find innovative recommendations to help them imagine the possibilities and make changes that will transform education for some of the most disadvantaged students.

Book Features:

• Highlights the importance of leveraging all the linguistic and cultural practices of emergent bilinguals.
• Provides succinct descriptions of alternative practices for transforming our schools and students’ futures.
• Uncovers the deleterious effects of not only colonialism, but also capitalism, patriarchy, and racism.
• Addresses the social cataclysms, including a global pandemic, that have affected minoritized communities, as well as teachers and students.
• Explores the development of new technologies that are altering the ways in which we educate children.

Ofelia García is professor emerita at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. She received the 2024 Literacy Research Association Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award. Jo Anne Kleifgen is professor emerita of linguistics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Claudia Cervantes-Soon is associate professor of bilingual/bicultural education at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University.