Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Pages: 160, May 15, 2008
ISBN-10 : 1847690734, Rar'd PDF ~ 2 MB's Bookmarked
Description:
A collection of 18 essays addressing the policy and politics of educating English language learners. Subjects include demographic change and its educational implications, American responses to language diversity, public controversies over bilingual education, high-stakes testing and its impact on English language learners, and the precarious status of language rights in the USA.
Introduction
It’s unfair to ask educators, overstressed and underpaid as they are in the USA, to moonlight as political activists. The last thing they need is distraction from their important work in the classroom. Yet, like it or not, for educators determined to do their best for English language learners (ELLs), advocacy is part of the job description. How to teach these children has been among the most contentious – indeed, most politicized – issues in American education over the past three decades.
External forces such as the English-only movement, misguided approaches to school reform, state and federal mandates for high-stakes testing, uninformed media coverage, resistance to civil-rights laws, and legislators’ refusal to provide adequate funding continue to exert a powerful influence on what happens in ELL classrooms. Languageminority communities, by contrast, have limited power and resources to fight back; hence the limited responsiveness of policymakers. In this situation, it becomes imperative for educators to enter the public arena and do battle on behalf of their students.
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