Simply put, children with poor English skills are less likely to succeed in school and beyond. What's the best way to teach English to young children who aren't native English speakers? In this article, Lisa Barrow and Lisa Markman-Pithers examine the state of English learner education in the United States and review the evidence behind different…

This article provides an in-depth exploration of the language ecologies of two classrooms attempting to implement a two-way dual language (TWDL) program and its mediating conditions. Drawing on ethnographic methods and a sociocultural understanding of language, we examined both teachers' and students' language ideologies and language practices,…

In business education, the impacts of the globalization of markets, financial institutions, and economies exert increasing influence on the curriculum in business schools. Schools of business recognize the need to embed international experiences into their curriculum in order to prepare students for global context of the marketplace. Often,…

The policy of strict separation of languages for academic instruction dominates dual language bilingual education programming. This article explores the dynamic bilingual practices of two experienced bilingual teachers in a two-way dual language public school in Texas and contributes to current research problematizing language separation. Data…

It is essential for teachers to provide a setting where student interaction is fostered as a mediational tool for learning, thus expediting the natural transfer of language and knowledge among students (Cummins, 1979). Doing so provides students a way of learning in an additive environment (Soltero, 2004). Could such a classroom have the potential…

Language immersion students' lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic competencies are well documented, yet their phonological skill has remained relatively unexplored. This study investigates the Spanish vowel productions of a cross-sectional sample of 35 one-way Spanish immersion students. Learner productions were analyzed acoustically and compared to…

This article documents and interrogates top-down district-wide implementation of a two-way dual language bilingual education (DLBE) program in a large urban district. We carried out a language policy ethnography to explore the way two schools' teams of third grade teachers worked together to negotiate the intersection of DLBE implementation and…

Recent studies have identified multiple forms of capital that Latino students acquire in their homes and communities. Influenced by these studies, this article examines how transnational students of Mexican origin use various forms of their community's cultural wealth as tools to survive situations of violence in Mexico. In this article, we…

This article reports a qualitative study of the reasons mothers chose to enroll their children in a Spanish/English two-way immersion (TWI) Program in Central Texas. Some of the mothers' reasons varied, and others overlap. All mothers expressed the belief that the program would provide their children with more opportunities, cognitive benefits,…

The first purpose of this study was to examine the level of interdependence and reciprocity of the first and second language in students who were identified as limited English speakers and whose first language was Spanish. The second purpose was to identify the passing and commended rates of students within the specific bilingual programs that…

Expanding upon Yosso's theory of "community cultural wealth," this interview-based qualitative study finds that Mexican youth in an urban two-year English immersion high school here referred to as Literacy High are assisted academically by what Yosso would call their "aspirational capital" and what the present article theorizes…

There are many types of programs for Spanish speaking students in the US, with varying methods and goals. Some preliminary work suggests that bilingual classrooms may differ widely in instruction, even under the same program labels. However, there are few studies which have compared the extent to which various bilingual program models differ in…

The study examined how the English reading performance of predominantly Spanish-speaking students in transitional bilingual education compared with the performance of predominantly Spanish-speaking students in structured English immersion. The study analyzed data on three cohorts of students in six schools in Los Angeles; Denver; Albuquerque; St.…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the ways in which young transfronterizo students who live between the two worlds of El Paso (USA) and Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) bring their literacy practices and content to the classroom. Drawing on the data gathered during a 3-year ethnographic study, we illustrate how transfronterizo texts and content are…

This study explores the language ideologies of young children in a Spanish/English dual language programme in the USA. Recent studies of language ideologies in education have centred primarily on adults or older students, but this study focuses on young children from varied language backgrounds. By analysing discussions centred on children's…