In the past 30 years, a large and growing number of students in U.S. schools have come from homes in which the language background is other than English. These students present unique challenges for America's education system.
Based on Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children, a comprehensive study published in 1997, this book summarizes for teachers and education policymakers what has been learned over the past three decades about educating such students. It discusses a broad range of educational issues: how students learn a second language; how reading and writing skills develop in the first and second languages; how information on specific subjects (for example, biology) is stored and learned and the implications for second-language learners; how social and motivational factors affect learning for English-language learners; how the English proficiency and subject matter knowledge of English-language learners are assessed; and what is known about the attributes of effective schools and classrooms that serve English-language learners.
Why a book on learner strategies? Modern languages teaching over the past decade or so has moved from more or less traditional approaches, involving the explicit teaching of grammar and translation, to various versions of communicative methodology. In England, the communicative accent has been reflected in the Graded Objectives movement, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the reform of Advanced Level syllabuses. However, despite this trend and the appearance of aplethora of attractive and authentic language-teaching materials, there has been a growing concern that learners have not progressed as much as might have been anticipated. Furthermore, learners are not developing independent language use; in short, they lack linguistic autonomy.
The adoption of the comprehensive school as the norm in secondary education in this country resulted in the opening up of the curriculum to a wide spectrum of abilities. In modern languages, for generations the preserve of selective schools, teachers had to find ways of making their subject accessible to middle and low ability learners, validating their teaching by use of graded objectives and the end-of-course Certificate of Secondary Education. For many pupils, however, foreign languages held little appeal and were jettisoned with alacrity at the option stage. These disenchanted learners would say in later life, if they thought about it at all, that they were just 'no good at languages', or that languages were 'boring' or 'useless' or 'too difficult'.
The Set Sail! Series focuses on getting young learners to enjoy communicating in English through a wide variety of activities in all four skills. Its pupil-centred approach motivates young learners, thus ensuring a positive experience in the English language classroom.
Practice Makes Perfect: English Vocabulary for Beginning ESL Learners introduces you to hundreds of essential words and helps you quickly build the skills and confidence needed to use them correctly in conversation.
Why a book on learner strategies?
The Set Sail
