Multilingual Education in Practice : Using Diversity as a Resource

How can educators implement an inclusive and effective curriculum for ESL students?

Sandra Schecter and Jim Cummins provide some answers from school-based practitioners and university-based researchers who worked on a collaborative project exploring strategies and structures that promote academic success for ESL students. This book documents the initiatives this group generated and carried out at two public schools. It also includes specific suggestions for developing school-based language policies and for preparing teachers to work effectively in linguistically and culturally diverse contexts.

Each chapter highlights an innovative multilingual and multicultural approach to promoting ESL students' academic engagement. Chapter topics include:

• creating an inclusive climate for newly arrived students
• building on the language and cultural knowledge that students bring to school
• the roles of home, school, and community
• teacher preparation
• leadership in the diverse school.

In addition to theory and practice, the book offers some great classroom stories with photographs and many examples of students' prose, poetry, and artwork.

Sandra R. Schecter teaches in the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto. Her research focuses on the development of bilingual and biliterate identities in individuals and families and on the dynamics of bilingual communities. She has published extensively in the areas of language teaching and learning, language planning, and language socialization. She is the author of the ESL/EFL textbook, Listening Tasks.

Jim Cummins teaches in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the nature of language proficiency and second-language acquisition. He is the coauthor of Scott Foresman ESL: Accelerating English Language Learning, among many other publications.