EQUITY MATTERS: Research Review No.

From English Language

Learners to
Emergent Bilinguals

Ofelia García
Jo Anne Kleifgen
Lorraine Falchi

A Research Initiative of the Campaign for Educational Equity

 EQUITY MATTERS: Research Review No. 1

From English Language Learners to

Emergent Bilinguals

Ofelia García, Jo Anne Kleifgen, and Lorraine Falchi

January 2008

A Research Initiative of the Campaign for Educational Equity

Teachers College, Columbia University
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

What’s in a Name? ...............................................................................................................................................6

Part I. Who Are the English Language Learners?..................................................................8

How Do We Know Who They Are? ...........................................................................................................................8

How Many ELLs Are There? .............................................................................................................................................9

How Are ELLs Designated? ..............................................................................................................................................11

How Are ELLs Reclassified as English Proficient?.................................................................................................12

Where Do ELLs Live and Go to School? .................................................................................................................12

What Languages Do ELLs Speak? .................................................................................................................................13

What Are the Demographic Characteristics of ELLs? .............................................................................14

What Do ELLs Have in Common?.................................................................................................................17

Part II. Policies for Educating Emergent Bilinguals.............................................................18

Prevalent Educational Programs for ELLS...........................................................................................18

A Brief History of Educational Policies in the United States

for Emergent Bilinguals ............................................................................................................................20

Part III. Equity Issues in the Education of Emergent Bilinguals:

What the Research Shows ........................................................................................................................... 26

Providing Emergent Bilingual Students with Educational Programs That Are Tailored to
Meet Their Linguistic and Academic Needs......................................................................................................26

Providing Emergent Bilingual Students with Fair Assessment .......................................................................33

Providing Emergent Bilingual Students with Quality Instruction and Adequate Resources ........37

Involving Parents and Communities in the Education of Emergent Bilinguals .....................................43

Conclusion: Recommendations.............................................................................................................................46

References.................................................................................................................................................................... 50
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Comparison of U.S. Census and State-Reported Data on ELLs............................................................9

Table 2. Speakers of LOTEs and ELLs among 5-17 Year Olds in the United States ..................................10

Table 3. Speakers of LOTEs, Both ELLs and English Proficient, 5-17-Year-Old Students ........................11

Table 4. Number of Public School ELLs, 2004-05 .........................................................................................................12

Table 5. Percentage Growth of ELL population, 1994-95 to 2004-05...............................................................13

Table 6. Languages Spoken by ELLs, 5-17 Years Old ....................................................................................................13

Table 7. Proportion of LOTE Speakers Who Are ELLs, 5-17 Years Old ...........................................................14

Table 8. Types of Educational Programs for Emergent Bilinguals ..........................................................................18

Table 9. Silencing of Bilingualism ...............................................................................................................................................25

 … [T]here is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum;
for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.
— Lau v. Nichols, 1974
What’s in a Name?
One of the most misunderstood issues in pre-K-12
education today is how to educate children who are
not yet proficient in English. When policymakers refer to
these students as English language learners (ELLs)—as
many school district officials presently do—or as limited
From ELLs to Emergent Bilinguals
English proficient students (LEPs)—as federal legislators
did in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—it signals
the omission of an idea that is critical to the discussion
of equity in the teaching of these children.
English language learners are in fact emergent bi-
linguals. That is, through school and through acquiring
English, these children become bilingual, able to continue
to function in their home language as well as in English,
their new language and that of school. When officials
and educators ignore the bilingualism that these stu-
dents can and often must develop through schooling in
6
the United States, they perpetuate inequities in the edu-
cation of these children. That is, they discount the home
languages and cultural understandings of these children
and assume their educational needs are the same as a
monolingual child.
The central idea that will emerge from this review
of research is that there is a growing dissonance be-
tween research on the education of emergent bilinguals
and policy enacted to educate them. As we will dem-
onstrate, whereas research has consistently shown the
importance of building on the children’s first language
as they develop English language proficiency,1 U.S. edu-
cational policy has often ignored these research findings.
In fact, as we explain in Part I below, in recent years
U.S. educational policy on English language learners has
become more rigid, viewing these children solely from a
deficit perspective and increasingly demanding that Eng-
lish alone be used in their education. Educators, who are
closer to the ground than policymakers and traditional
researchers, are often caught in the middle of the conflict
between research, policy, and the immediacy of having to
educate English language learners. As a result, educators’
teaching practices often suffer as educators strive to find
alternative ways of carrying out top-down national and
local educational policies that are plainly misguided for
the education of these children.The conflicting nature of
research, policy, and teaching practices is responsible for
much of the miseducation of English language learners in
the United States and their failure in school.
According to NAEP data, only a very small per-
centage of English language learners in the eighth grade
are proficient in reading (4%)2 and in math (6%). And
71% of English language learners scored below “ba-
sic” on the eighth grade NAEP reading and math tests
(Batalova, Fix, & Murray, 2007). ELLs trail English pro-
ficient students by 39 points in reading and 36 points
in math on a 500-point scale nationally (Batalova et al.,
2007). English language learners are also not graduating
in proportionately the same numbers as those who are
English proficient. A survey by Hopstock and Stephen-
son (2003b) revealed that 50% of English language
learners fail their graduation tests, compared with 24%
of all English proficient students.
In Part I of this review we identify the students who
are the subject of our attention: students we refer to
as emergent bilinguals. In Part II, we briefly review the
policies and practices targeted toward this group of stu-
dents that have developed over the last 40 years. Finally,
in Part III, we review what the research reveals about
the educational programs, assessments, curriculum, ped-
agogy, resources, and family and community involvement
necessary to educate these children equitably. In Part III,
therefore, we also identify and describe the educational
inequities that directly affect the education of these chil-
dren. Most of these inequities stem from policymakers
and often educators’ lack of understanding of bilingualism
itself. Thus, throughout the third part of this review, we
will discuss how such misunderstandings of the nature
of bilingualism have educational equity consequences for
some of the most disadvantaged children. We end this
review with some recommendations.
There is agreement that English language learners
or limited English proficient students (as they are most
often known throughout the U.S. school system) are
those students who speak a language other than English
and are acquiring English in school. Although local and
state education agencies may use different definitions,
the federal government defines them as students who
are between the ages of 3 and 21 and are “enrolled in
elementary or secondary education, often born outside
the United States or speaking a language other than Eng-
lish in their homes, and not having sufficient mastery of
English to meet state standards and excel in an English-
language classroom” (as cited in Batalova, 2006). The No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) further describes
them as students “whose difficulties in speaking, reading,
writing, or understanding the English language may be
sufficient to deny the individual the ability to meet the
State’s proficient level of achievement on State assess-
ments” (sec. 9101(37)).3
There is little agreement, however, about what
the label that is most inclusive, while acknowledging the
fact that all these students are learning English in school.4
At the same time, this label has its own limitations—it
devalues other languages and puts the English language
in a sole position of legitimacy.
Nevertheless, we have decided to use the term
English language learners in Part I of this review, where
we discuss who these students are, and in Part II, where
we discuss the history of educational policies created
to serve them, because it is the commonly accepted,
popular term in discussions of this population, their des-
ignation, and the policies surrounding them. We prefer
and will use the term emergent bilinguals in Part III of
the review because it has become obvious to us that a
meaningful and equitable education will not only turn
these English language learners into English proficient
students but, more significantly, into successful bilingual
students and adults.
7

The Campaign for Educational Equity

name best describes these students. In addition to the
terms limited English proficient (LEP) and English lan-
guage learners (ELL), students who are acquiring English
in the nation’s schools are also variously referred to in
the literature as English learners, culturally and linguisti-
cally diverse, children with English language communication
barriers, English as a Second Language, language minority,
and bilingual. Each label has different connotations and
problems. Federal documents, agencies, and legislation
(including NCLB) all use the term limited English profi-
cient, but critics of this label argue that it focuses on the
students’ limitations rather than their potential.The terms
culturally and linguistically diverse and language minority
students can also include students who are already bi-
lingual, although the language minority label may better
offer a legal basis for their rights and accommodations.
English as a Second Language refers to a subject and not
to people; furthermore, this label does not encompass
students for whom English is a third or fourth language.
Thus, the term English language learners seems to be