Bilingual and ESL Classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural Contexts

TLDR

Demographic trends predict that language‑minority students will become a majority in many states, and the text integrates ESL, bilingual, and multicultural education across all content areas, including math, science, and social studies. The authors argue that all educators must prepare to work with language‑minority students. The new edition presents research on the English‑only movement, first‑ and second‑language acquisition, and the cultural foundations of schooling for diverse linguistic and cultural heritages. The second edition, a time‑tested classic, offers comprehensive theory and practice coverage, with 90 % new material and a new chapter on cooperative, critical, and interdisciplinary multisensory lessons that connect to students’ lives.

Abstract

Demographic predictions are that with close connections to their bilingual/bicultural heritages (now labeled minority students by the federal government) will be very large in number in the near future, becoming the majority in many states over the next three decades. The authors feel it is the responsibility of all educators, not just specialists, to prepare themselves to work with language minority students. This time-tested classic text (not an edited volume) integrates theory and practice and provides comprehensive coverage of all bilingual and ESL issues. The text integrates the fields of ESL, bilingual, and multicultural education and provides rich examples of effective practices and their underlying research knowledge base. The text covers teaching of all the content areas and has separate chapters on teaching mathematics, science, and social studies. Ninety percent of the second edition is new since the first edition written thirteen years ago. The new edition Includes research on the English-only movement (chapter 1), a comprehensive review of current research on first and second language acquisition for school (chapter 4), and the crucial research base on culture and the integral role it plays in schooling of diverse linguistic and cultural heritages (chapter 5). A new chapter 3 covers teaching and explores cooperative learning, critical pedagogy, and interdisciplinary, multisensory lessons, using as examples art, technology, and music incorporated into instruction that connects to students' lives inside and outside school.