"Students' goals go beyond conversation" (Mail Tribune, 03/02/09)

For the English-as-a-Second-Language students in Oregon public schools, it's rare to have the upper hand when it comes to language.

But in Tracy Patterson's advanced Spanish class at North Medford High School, the Latino English Language Learners help teach Spanish to the Anglo students.

The bimonthly conversation group, launched three years ago with a Medford Schools Foundation grant, is intended to give Spanish students practice talking with native speakers and to foster leadership skills in the ELL pupils.

"Adults Going Back To School For New Start" (Tampa Bay Online, 02/28/09)

With unemployment rising, they and hundreds more out-of-work adults in Hillsborough County are swamping adult education classes to prepare for the General Educational Development test or to strengthen their English-speaking skills.

"School tries to overcome language barrier" (Daily Press, 02/10/09)

Students share all their knowledge of multiple languages.

"Multilingualism Brings Communities Closer Together" (Science Daily, 02/10/09)

Learning their community language outside the home enhances minority ethnic children's development, according to research led from the University of Birmingham. The research, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found that attending language classes at complementary schools has a positive impact on students.

"Immigrants in Little Havana learn the language of community" (Miami Herald, 02/10/09)

What started out as a place for immigrant parents in Little Havana to learn English has become a launching pad to a better life in a new country.

"Foundation aims to help L.A. immigrants" (LATimes, 02/09/09)

The California Community Foundation plans a campaign to help L.A. immigrants become more active citizens by helping them learn English, improve job skills and increase civic participation.

"Immigrant Parents Push to Protect English Classes" (Wash Post, 04/05/09)

As the School Board seeks to close a $250 million budget gap, funding for the adult English classes could be trimmed and the course fee could increase, potentially by a few hundred dollars a class. Dozens of students born in China, Nicaragua, Italy and other corners of the world attended a public hearing last month to urge the School Board to maintain the funding that keeps the classes affordable to new immigrants.

"NUSD adapts to teaching mandate" (Nogales International 02/03/09)

In spring 2008, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) issued a mandate to all school districts: separate your English language learners (ELLs) for four hours a day of intensive instruction until they are fluent in English reading, writing and speaking.

It sounded like a good plan to the state Legislature. But it required schools to create more classes at each level, said officials of the Nogales Unified School District No. 1. Where was the money for more teachers?

"Programs for limited-English kids get mixed grades" (Houston Chronicle, 01/07/09)

About three in 10 Texas students whose native tongue isn't English are failing to make significant progress in mastering the language, according to a national report released Wednesday.

"Starting early with bilingual education" (Suburban Journals, 01/03/09)

Families in the St. Louis region can now enroll preschoolers in a bilingual school that teaches English and Spanish language skills.

Sharing Languages, Students Gain an Edge

An innovative bilingual language-immersion program called Two-Way Spanish, which is in its seventh year, integrates native Spanish-speaking students with native English-speaking students so that each can learn the languages, not only from teachers, but from each other. The Boston Globe, October 23, 2008

A New View On TV

In a paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics this year, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business economists Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro presented a series of analyses that showed that the advent of television might actually have had a positive effect on children's cognitive ability. The group's research suggests TV enabled an earlier generation of American children in non-English-speaking households to do better in school, helped rural Indian women to become more independent and contributed to lowering Brazil's fertility rate.

Golf Tour's Rule: Speak English to Stay in Play

Players in the Ladies Professional Golf Association will be required to be conversant in English by 2009. The New York Times, August 26, 2008

Testing Change Raises Scores

Northern Virginia's ELL students achieved better test scores this year when portfolios of their work were used for the assessment rather than the same standardized test all the other students took. The Washington Post, August 28, 2008