BILINGUAL / ESL / MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION RESOURCES

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In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was made flesh. It was so in the beginning and it is so today. The langauge, the Word, carries within it the history, the culture, the traditions, the very life of a people, the flesh. Language is people. We cannot even conceive of a people without a language, or a language without a people. The two are one and the same. To know one is to know the other.

- Sabine Ulibarri

The Educational Resources Information Center/National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (ERIC/NCLE) recently posted these resources for educators: Compiled by MaryAnn Cunningham Florez, the effort contains a fact sheet with suggestions for a successful search of the ERIC database, along with a list of ERIC descriptors and references.

The University of Southern California was one of the first institutions nationwide to recognize that some portion of its international student population might require instruction in English in order to successfully complete their studies. The ALI was founded in 1959 to provide such instruction. The ALI has been in the forefront of English for Academic Purposes program design. In 1978, it was one of the first institutions to adopt a content-based approach to ESL instruction with the focus of instruction being on the informational content of the lesson rather than on the structure of the English language.

Are you interested in becoming a Bilingual Education or ESL teacher, or advancing your career teaching linguistically diverse students? This page provides links to U.S. universities, colleges, and school districts offering teacher education and/or professional development programs in bilingual education and ESL.

This page is intended primarily as a place for bilingual parents to find information and resources to help them raise their children bilingually.

The psycho-linguistic field on bilingualism has a long-standing debate on how the brain processes more than one language. Among the questions and issues that are being investigated at this Center are the following: are there two modular lexicons? Does the bilingual mind have two separate dictionaries? For example: If a person is an English/Spanish bilingual does this person's mind have a part that controls Spanish and another separate part that controls English? Is there one highly-interconnected system? Is there a single system with variations in the strength of within- vs. Between-language associations?

Organized in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder the Center strongly promotes quality education with an emphasis on cultural pluralism through a comprehensive range of research, training, and service projects. The Center is deeply committed to facilitating equal educational opportunities for cultural and language minority students. The Center also disseminates research findings and related information through various Center publications.

CAL is a private, nonprofit organization that has been involved in applying research and information about language and culture to educational, cultural, and social concerns since 1959. CAL's primary objectives are to improve the teaching of English as a second or foreign language, to promote the teaching of the less commonly taught languages, and to conduct research that will enhance the educational process.

A think tank focusing on research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States. The Center's policy suggest much of the analysis of immigration issues has been carried out by ethnic, business or foreign-policy interests that have given little attention to immigration's impact in the nation as a whole or to assessing that impact comprehensively. The Center promotes the case against immigration with strong calls for strict reform.

Based at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this multi-organizational research collaborative's goal is to assist the nation's population of diverse students, including those at risk of educational failure, to achieve academic excellence. The purpose of CREDE's research is to identify and develop effective educational practices for linguistic and cultural minority students, as those placed at risk by factors of race, poverty, and geographic location.

The Center located at California State University San Marcos endeavors to maintain strong ties with organizations interested in meeting the needs of young readers. El Centro se esfuerza en mantener lazos con organizaciones interesadas en atender las necesidades de lectores jóvenes.

This site is dedicated to the nations of the Fourth World and their elders. The Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) is an independent, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to wider understanding and appreciation of the ideas and knowledge of indigenous peoples and the social, economic and political realities of indigenous nations.

The Centre for Research on Bilingualism serves as a basis for a wide range of theoretical and practical research designed to create a better understanding of bilingualism. Areas addressed include bilingualism in the family, bilingual education, Swedish as a second language for children and adults, foreign language teaching, interpreting and translation services for immigrants and native ethnic minorities, conference interpreting, language attrition in bilinguals, minority language maintenance, and multilingualism in developing countries, thus covering sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic aspects of bilingualism.

Contact information for over 180 K-12 two way bilingual immersion programs in the U.S. Languages include Spanish, Korean, French, Navajo, Cantonese, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, and Portuguese.

A short hypertext paper linking to arguments for bilingual education, federal legislation, some professional programs and resource lists.

Operated by the Center for Applied Linguistics, ERIC/CLL provides a wide range of services and materials for language educators, most of them free of charge. These include two-page information digests and short bibliographies, a semiannual newsletter, and a question answering service eric@cal.org. All of these are available at no cost. Ready-made computer searches of the ERIC database are also available for a nominal fee.

Operated by the Indiana Univeristy School of Education this site provides educational materials, services, and coursework to everyone interested in the language arts. Includes lesson plans and a Tips for Parents area.

The Institute for Urban and Minority Education in Teachers College, Columbia University is now holding an archive of publications created by the former clearinghouse. UEweb offers manuals, brief articles, annotated bibliographies, reviews and summaries of outstanding publications in urban education.

Includes lesson plans for ESL, bilingual education, and foreign language; employment opportunities and professional associations.

Many ESL sites and English schools consecutively linked for a unique browsing experience.

The ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students is the result of many years' effort on the part of TESOL members and others who have sought to improve the education of students who are learning English as a second or additional language in the United States.

Library resources for Ethnic Studies can be found to some extent in almost every library in the USC library system. Among the types of materials found which relate to ethnic studies are histories, surveys of the individual areas, biographies of significant individuals, the published works of important authors, and journals.

The Ethnologue is a catalogue of more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228 countries. The Ethnologue Name Index lists over 39,000 language names, dialect names, and alternate names. The Ethnologue Language Family Index organizes languages according to language families.

The European Language Council (ELC), which was officially launched at a major international conference held at the Université Charles de Gaulle - Lille III on 3 - 4 July 1997, is a permanent and independent European association, the main aim of which is the quantitative and qualitative improvement of knowledge of the languages and cultures of the European Union and beyond. Membership of the ELC is open to all institutions of higher education in Europe and all national and international associations with a special interest in the area of languages. The European Language Council has a key role to play in policy-making at a European level. Individually, institutions are not in a position to respond to the challenges of a multilingual and multicultural Europe. The objective of the ELC is, therefore, to create the framework and conditions necessary for common policy development and provide a platform for the launching of joint projects specifically designed to bring about real improvement. The association has adopted a systematic approach, convening ten policy groups to address key issues in the field. VERSION FRANÇAISE

The Human-Languages Page is a comprehensive catalog of language related Internet resources. Over 1600 links in their database provide some of the best language links the Web has to offer. The site includes online language lessons, translating dictionaries, native literature, translation services, software, language schools, and other useful information focused on language and learning.

A monthly web magazine; includes articles, research papers, lesson plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas, and links.

Used by KIDLINK classes around the world, the Multi-Cultural Calendar is a list of various holidays world-wide. Searchable by month, holiday, country or author.

An "on-line" refereed journal that seeks to disseminate research to foreign and second language educators in the U.S. and around the world on issues related to technology and language education. The site features both a message and a medium. The message is that the use of computers and other new technologies has now moved to the mainstream of language education; research and theory are thus needed more than ever to ensure that new technologies are used wisely and effectively. The focus is to put language learning first; technology is considered not from a technical point of view, but rather as to how its use impacts the process of teaching and learning languages. The journal publishes a broad range of full text articles reporting on original research or linking previous research, learning theory, and teaching practices.

James Crawford, an independent writer and lecturer who specializes in the politics of language has constructed a site designed to encourage discussion of language policy issues, publish updates on current developments, report on pending legislation, and highlight links to other sources of information. Topics covered include the English Only movement, English Plus, bilingual education, efforts to save endangered languages, and language rights in the U.S.A.

This site offers 30 lesson plans for different levels of ESL.

Online exploration of the global linguistic environment with extracts from the Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities - a transnational classification of the languages and dialects of the world.

European network for information, documentation and research into regional or minority languages in education. In 1987 the Mercator network was set up, with the help of the European Commission, to store and collect documentation and information and to carry out research on minority or regional languages. To do so, a database with up to date material on the position of the languages was prepared. Mercator-Education carries out research and documentation projects and offers information to general as well as specialized audiences. It is active in the field of education, and co-operates with Mercator-Media and Mercator Legislation to offer a broad range of information services.

Migration Dialogue promotes an informed discussion of the issues associated with international migration by providing unbiased and timely information on immigration and integration issues. Four Migration Dialogue activities are highlighted: the newsletters Migration News and Rural Migration News, the work of University of California researchers, and seminars for European and American opinion leaders. UC Davis hosts this site.

From the projects described in this federally sponsored report, educators can learn much about how to develop a highly qualified instructional workforce for language minority students. Illustrates research-supported principles of professional development with the experiences of communities of scholars, practitioners, and teacher aspirants at selected sites. Commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs.

At the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of theUniversity of Toronto, The Modern Language Centre addresses a broad spectrum of theoretical and practical issues related to second and minority language teaching and learning. The Centre's work focuses on curriculum, instruction, and policies for education in second, foreign, and minority languages, particularly in reference to English an French in Canada but also other languages and settings -- including studies of language learning, methodology and organization of classroom instruction, language education policies, student and program evaluation, teacher development, as well as issues related to bilingualism, multilingualism, cultural diversity, and literacy.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Multicultural Issues Board has assembled 17 factsheets of suggested reading for individuals interested in obtaining a more in-depth understanding of the following issues: Asian and Asian-American Issues, Pacific Islander Issues, Native American Issues, African American Issues, Hispanic Issues, Multicultural History and Demographic Profile of the United States, ESL/Accent Modification/SESD Issues, Regional and Social Dialects, Cultural Differences in Communication and Learning Styles, Least-Biased Assessment, Language Attitudes and Educational Policy, Bilingualism and Language Development in Multicultural Populations, Intervention with Multicultural Populations, Neurological/Fluency/Voice Disorders in Multicultural Populations, Audiological Concerns, Research on Multicultural Populations/Ethnography, Service Delivery with Multicultural Populations. Excellent bibliographic resources provided.

The Multicultural Pavilion's mission is to provide resources for educators interested in multicultural issues. The site provides a wealth of multicultural resources including activities, discussion groups, research and list serves to mention but a few.

The NCLRC is one of nine federally-funded language resource centers. The mission of the NCLRC is to serve as a resource to improve the teaching and learning of languages other than English. It fulfills this function by providing material resources and professional services that derive from its current activities and past projects. Located in Washington, D.C., the NCLRC is a collaboration between Georgetown University, Center for Applied Linguistics and The George Washington University. Each institution contributes an extensive network of foreign language educators combined with institutional resources that make the Center truly national in scope.

The Purpose of the Center is to collect and report statistics and information showing the condition and progress of education in the United States and other nations in order to promote and accelerate the improvement of American education. NCES studies cover the entire educational spectrum, providing the facts and figures needed to help policymakers understand the condition of education in the nation today, to give researchers a foundation of data to build upon, and to help teachers and administrators decide on best practices for their schools.

The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA), formerly the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (NCBE) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education to collect, analyze, and disseminate information relating to the effective education of linguistically and culturally diverse students in the United States.

State-by state policies and resources as well as compiled information on meeting the educational needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students in the U.S.

An adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse focused on literacy education, family literacy, workplace literacy, and native language literacy, for adults and out-of-school youth learning English as a second language.

The NFLC is a research and policy institute located at The University of Maryland. The Center was founded in 1986 in response to a national need for foreign language competencies. The mission of the NFLC is to improve the capacity of the US to communicate in languages other than English. The NFLC implements that mission through intensive and innovative strategic planning and development with globalized institutions, organizations and enterprises throughout the US.

The aim of this site is to provide general -- but detailed -- information about one of the most recent and the most promising approaches to language teaching, the Natural Approach. It does not only introduce the very well-known facts about the approach but also strives to clarify the principles of the approach, which are often misinterpreted by language teachers and methodologists. Another important point made is its applicability to foreign or second language classes. Accordingly, the application of the Natural Approach theory to language classes is explained in detail.

Collaborative effort of the New York State Education Department (NYSED)and the Office of Bilingual Education (OBE). It was developed in response to the need of NYS educators for immediate access to current information on critical issues pertaining to the education of limited English proficient (LEP) students. A source for support and guidance in the areas of state regulations, program development, instructional strategies and materials, assessment, and policy issues. Utilizing the benefits of current technology to address the immediacy of their needs, NYSBEN promises high quality information that will help educators in implementing educational programs that support LEP students in the achievement of the NYS learning standards.

formerly the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA) was established in 1974 by Congress, the Office helps school districts, local education agencies and institutes of higher education meet their responsibility to provide equal education opportunity to limited English proficient children.

Creative writing resources and materials for ESL teachers.

The Schools of California On-Line Resources For Education provides links to quality language arts materials in Spanish.

An international journal of multicultural studies from the University of Colorado.

An international, nonprofit organization concerned about the future of the world's cultural and biological diversity. They report two main aims: preserving the world's linguistic diversity, and investigating connections between biological and cultural diversity. Site includes extensive internet index of resources on preserving linguistic diversity, language endangerment, survival, and revitalization.

Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Electronic Journal from Berkeley. Many valuable articles from 1994 to present.

Information on TOEFL including test dates, registration, practice questions, and study materials.

Links to web resources relating to the most common language groups for LEP students in the United States: Spanish, Vietnamese, Hmong, Chinese languages, Khmer (Cambodian), Korean, Lao, Native American, Tagalog, Russian, Haitian, Arabic, Japanese, and Armenian.

The LMRI collaborates with other institutions in research, dissemination and professional development activities that promote the understanding and improvement of language minority students in the schools. LMRINET provides information accessible through the Internet to researchers, students, and practitioners interested in issues of language, education, and public policy, especially as they relate to linguistic minorities.

Student financial aid materials, tips for parents, statistics & the latest findings on what works in education are among the myriad of documents stored on the site, helping make it one of the most widely used education resources on the Internet.