This study reviews the emerging studies on the topic of Chinese immersion programs in the U.S. The effectiveness of Chinese immersion programs has been proved to have positive impacts on students' language proficiency, academic performance, and cognitive development. However, challenges in curriculum and instructions, behavior management, and…

Countries are seeing a rise in the number of families and schoolchildren who do not speak English as a first language. This study focuses on how two White monolingual English-speaking elementary teachers positioned language as it related to their Spanish-speaking students within a graduate teacher education program in the United States. Our work…

This article compares the immersion-education systems in Brittany and Wales. The number of Welsh speakers is growing thanks to its well-developed immersion-education system. Brittany has a much less well-developed system and the number of Breton speakers is falling dramatically. Urgent action is needed if Breton is to survive. Using an approach…

English learners are entitled to participate meaningfully and equally in educational programs. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes provisions to ensure success for all students, including English learners. However, the federal government does not prescribe specifically how states should meet these provisions; instead, it is the…

In 2006, Arizona ELL Task Force implemented Structured English Immersion (SEI) within its public schools to educate emergent bilingual (EB) students. Although prior research has demonstrated limitations of SEI, we investigate whether institutionalization has improved its implementation and outcomes using coordinators' and teachers' responses from…

Harrisonburg, Virginia, a community nestled in the fertile hills of the Shenandoah Valley, is emblematic of the demographic changes taking shape in the U.S. for some years now. The town's agricultural industry has attracted a large number of immigrant workers from Central America. In addition, Harrisonburg's refugee resettlement center has drawn…

This review of the extant research literature focuses on research about content-based language instruction (CBI) programmes in K-12 foreign/second language education in the USA. The review emphasises studies on one-way language immersion (OWI) and two-way language immersion (TWI) programmes, which are school-based and subject matter-driven. OWI…

This report synthesizes findings from extant empirical research to identify nine key policy areas that state policymakers and stakeholders in California can leverage to improve English learners' (ELs') opportunities and outcomes across the state. Importantly, the report situates these policy areas within the current framework of California state…

Using data from a large-scale, mixed-method study involving 222 K-12 foreign language (L2) teachers and their supervisors (see Kissau, Yon, & Algozzine, 2011), in this article the researchers explore differences in beliefs across four demographic groups: experienced and inexperienced teachers, teachers with L2 teacher training and those without,…

This article provides an analysis of Arizona's policy response in educating English language learners by conducting a narrative review. A critical Latina/o theory approach was used to analyze the data. This study reveals 5 salient policy responses: (a) severely limit bilingual education, (b) develop controversial funding solutions, (c) implement a…

Research on immersion teaching has consistently shown that immersion teachers tend to focus on subject matter content at the expense of language teaching. The response to that research has often entailed suggestions for teachers on how better to integrate language and content in their instruction. However, missing from the discussion are rich…

This article reports on a teacher education program's preparation of bilingual paraeducators during a period of conflicting educational reform of structured English immersion in Massachusetts. Drawing on nexus analysis of discourses (R. Scollon & S. W. Scollon, 2004), we discuss factors faced by Latino educators. These include competing…

Educational policies for English language learners (ELLs) tend to focus on English language acquisition. In this chapter, the authors argue that educators need to give more attention to the development of bilingualism and biliteracy to draw upon the tremendous intellectual, linguistic, and cultural resources that bilingual children bring to the…

This book explores the idea of "intercultural competence", which, despite its current popularity across various discourses, has remained a vague and oscillating concept. Interculture lacks a universal definition and "competence" is not only a cognitive construct but also includes psychological traits such as attitudes,…