A Different Way to Think About Teaching English Language Learners

Linguistic proficiencies are very complicated. Some students who are monolingual in English may speak heavily accented English. This often results in their being characterized as English-language learners. Some students who speak both English and their home language may still exhibit some limitations in listening, speaking, reading and writing English. Other students are clearly English language learners who are in the process of acquiring the language.

 The following interview is from TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(sm) eMAIL NEWSLETTER, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning. comments at http://tomprofblog.mit.edu/

The posting below looks at the challenges of teaching English language learners.. It is #46 in the monthly series called Carnegie Foundation Perspectives and is a interview with Professor of Education at Stanford University, Stanford, California. The Foundation invites your response at: CarnegiePresident@carnegiefoundation.org.

"A Different Way to Think About Teaching English Language Learners" is by Guadalupe Valdes, a senior partner in the Carnegie Network advising the Foundation in its new work, especially on issues around students who are English language learners. She has written that "as American educators we have a choice, we can isolate English-language learners in our educational institutions or we can choose to develop the full intellectual potential of all our citizens and future citizens."