Educating Language-Minority Children

In the past 30 years, a large and growing number of students in U.S. schools have come from homes in which the language background is other than English. These students present unique challenges for America's education system.

Based on Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children, a comprehensive study published in 1997, this book summarizes for teachers and education policymakers what has been learned over the past three decades about educating such students. It discusses a broad range of educational issues: how students learn a second language; how reading and writing skills develop in the first and second languages; how information on specific subjects (for example, biology) is stored and learned and the implications for second-language learners; how social and motivational factors affect learning for English-language learners; how the English proficiency and subject matter knowledge of English-language learners are assessed; and what is known about the attributes of effective schools and classrooms that serve English-language learners.

Diane August and Kenji Hakuta, Editors; Committee on Developing a Research Agenda on the Education of Limited-English-Proficient and Bilingual Students, National Research Council and Institute of Medicine