The relationship between teaching English to speakers of other languages and bilingual education is explored through three dimensions in language education: participants, channels, and codes. Language barriers to education can be found in each of these. As student participants become more numerous and more linguistically diverse, the educational system, geared for one language, falters. Participant teachers often do not speak the language of their students. The traditional channels for education (reading and writing), haven't considered the oral tradition of many children's pre-school education. The language code used in school, the standard dialect, is often not the variety used at home. To overcome these barriers, educators must: (1) recognize that the school does teach the child a new language or variety, (2) recognize that the learner is a fluent speaker of some language, (3) respect the value of the new variety being taught, (4) respect and strengthen mastery of the home variety or language and (5) ensure that the new curriculum and methods don't challenge or limit the respect due the old. (PMJ)