Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students

Here is an excellent resource full of practical information on teaching reading to students who are not native English speakers. Written for teachers who are working with students from diverse backgrounds and with a broad range of experiences, this comprehensive text includes background information on reading, ESL instruction, and ESL learners, as well as specific strategies that have proven effective with this student population.

This volume begins to address the pressing need facing the majority of teachers in the United States and in other countries in the English-Speaking world-how to teach children whose primary language is not English. Teachers-faced with exploding demographics, lack of knowledge about children's cultures and how languages (first or second or third, oral or written) are learned across different social contexts, lack of pedagogy to restructure the teaching of English language arts for children-need concrete ways of teaching. They also need to learn more about the social and political nature of language use, language learning, and language instruction...

"Kids Come in All Languages" fills a void with instructional practices that teachers need. It also addresses issues of cultural diversity, challenges commonly held assumptions, and marks a shift to viewing children whose primary language is not English with more respect and dignity. Supporting teachers' pedagogical change is one of the most formidable tasks facing our profession. We need more books such as this.