Jim Cummins grew up speaking Irish and English, and has drawn on that experience to develop innovative practices of teaching bilingual children, mostly in Canada. British psychologists and educators apply his ideas to the educational assessment of children who alternate between two or more languages every day, and will eventually have to be proficient in all of them in order to communication with people who are important in their lives. No index. Distributed in the US by Taylor and Francis. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Population mobility is at an all-time high in human history. One result of this unprecedented movement of peoples around the world is that in many school systems monolingual and monocultural students are the exception rather than the rule, particularly in urban areas. This shift in demographic realities entails enormous challenges for educators and policy-makers. What do teachers need to know in order to teach effectively in linguistically and culturally diverse contexts? How long does it take second language learners to acquire proficiency in the language of school instruction? What are the differences between attaining conversational fluency in everyday contexts and developing proficiency in the language registers required for academic success? What adjustments do we need to make in curriculum, instruction and assessment to ensure that second-language learners understand what is being taught and are assessed in a fair and equitable manner? How long do we need to wait before including second-language learners in high-stakes national examinations and assessments? What role (if any) should be accorded students’ first language in the curriculum? Do bilingual education programs work well for poor children from minority-language backgrounds or should they be reserved only for middle-class children from the majority or dominant group? In addressing these issues, this volume focuses not only on issues of language learning and teaching but also highlights the ways in which power relations in the wider society affect patterns of teacher–student interaction in the classroom. Effective instruction will inevitably challenge patterns of coercive power relations in both school and society.

This volume provides a comprehensive account of the implementation of bilingual education programs in countries throughout the world. For academics, graduate students, and policymakers, this volume clearly outlines the social and educational goals that can be achieved through bilingual education. It highlights the need to take account of the complex political context of inter-group relationships within which bilingual programs are inevitably embedded.

This volume examines educational assessment of bilingual children and the challenges faced by teachers. It takes the creative ideas of Jim Cummins and applies them through a novel technique of curriculum related assessment. The book describes the technique in detail and reports on its use in a wide range of settings.

This text is a comprehensive Introduction for all professionals working with bilingual children. For speech therapists, doctors, psychologists, counsellors, teachers, special needs personnel, the book addresses important issues at a practical level.

Over the past 40 years, Jim Cummins has proposed a number of highly influential theoretical concepts, including the threshold and interdependence hypotheses and the distinction between conversational fluency and academic language proficiency. In this book, he provides a personal account of how these ideas developed and he examines the credibility of critiques they have generated, using the criteria of empirical adequacy, logical coherence, and consequential validity. These criteria of theoretical legitimacy are also applied to the evaluation of two different versions of translanguaging theory – Unitary Translanguaging Theory and Crosslinguistic Translanguaging Theory – in a way that significantly clarifies this controversial concept.

This book offers practical research-based advice for teachers and other educators on how to adapt school and classroom procedures, curriculum content, and instructional strategies in order to provide a supportive learning environment for students of minority language backgrounds who are learning the language of instruction at the same time as they are learning the curriculum.

This is one of the most intense books a newcomer to ELL will ever purchase. Completely updated for Praxis 0361 test takers. What you will learn in this book is taught by hundreds of TESOL schools around the world. What is more is that you will learn about how to teach as a regular school teacher. The glossary, assessment and methodologies sections are what you will learn from university programs and not a short 4 week crash course. This book explains the different areas you need to learn to be an effective teacher: Lesson Plans Book Selection Whiteboard styles Classroom Management - Methodologies and Theories - More than 40 Grammar Vocabulary Reading Writing Speaking Listening Assessments - More than 8 different assessment types Culture Glossary - More than 400 terms Written by Keith Brooks, a licensed US teacher from Maine and who has been an ELL teacher for nearly eight years in Korea, Cambodia and Saipan.

Many teachers are increasingly concerned with how to best support the learning of the rising numbers of bilingual learners in schools – particularly those children who are new to English and therefore cannot yet communicate with the teacher or their peers in their first language – during the silent period. This book offers an alternative insight to that which is most commonly available to teachers and researchers, as instead of examining language acquisition purely from a linguistic approach; it explores the learning that is occurring through a sociocultural lens and even more significantly, from the young child’s perspective – the worm’s eye view. Investigated through the experiences of young bilingual learners allows the reader to make sense of the making meaning that occurs when the child cannot make sense of his/her new ‘world’; nor communicate verbally in the language of instruction in the classroom. Remarkably, learning through the silent period is revealed as both complex and ‘messy’ as the bilingual child mediates his or her own learning through a synthesis of alternative learning pathways. The silent period is presented as a crucial time for learning; distributed through a synthesis of close observation, intense listening and most significantly copying the practices of others. Throughout the silent period the children are not only seen to be learning but also contributing to the classroom practices. The book not only initiates new understandings of second language learning, but also offers creative ideas on how to raise the achievement of children who are learning English as an additional language.