Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for English Language Learners (Language and Literacy)

This comprehensive and insightful book shows how present policies and practices to educate language minority students in the United States ignore an essential characteristic—their emergent bilingualism. In one accessible guide, the authors compile the most up-to-date research findings to demonstrate how ignoring children’s bilingualism perpetuates inequities in their schooling. What makes this book truly useful is that it offers a thorough description of alternative practices that would transform our schools and students’ futures, such as building on students’ home languages and literacy practices in schools, as well as incorporating curricular and pedagogical innovations, new approaches to parent and community engagement, and alternative assessment tools.

Providing critical research, rich theoretical perspective, and meaningful blueprints for effective pedagogy, Educating Emergent Bilinguals is essential reading for all teachers of language-minority students, as well as principals, superintendents, and policymakers.

Ofelia García is professor in the PhD programs in urban education and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian literatures and languages at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Jo Anne Kleifgen is professor of linguistics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

“Perhaps once or twice a decade you read a book that is so lucid, convincing, and inspirational that you want to order copies for every teacher, administrator, and policymaker across the nation. Ofelia García and Jo Anne Kleifgen have written such a book.”

—From the Foreword by Jim Cummins, University of Toronto

“The best introduction to the education of English language learners available today.”

—Guadalupe Valdés, Stanford University