ESL (English as a Second Language) and Bilingual Education

Overview*

ESL or LEP (limited English proficient) students are defined as those students whose native or dominant language is other than English and who have sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing or understanding the English language. This interferes with the opportunity to learn successfully in English-only classrooms. Extremely high dropout rates have been reported for English as a second language students.

The United States is becoming a more ethnically and linguistically diverse society than ever before. When children with little or no previous exposure to the English language enter the public schools they are often unable to profit fully from English-language-based instruction. Many of these students can benefit from ESL instruction or bilingual education, in which instruction is provided in both English and the students' dominant language.

Statistics*

46% of all schools in the United States have English as a second language students, with certain states having large numbers of English as a second language students (for example, 87% of Arizona schools, 90% of California schools and 96% of Hawaii schools have ESL students). Only 18% of all schools offer bilingual education programs and 43% offer ESL programs. However, 27% of these schools find it difficult or impossible to fill these teaching positions with qualified instructors. Therefore, many English as a second language students are inadequately served and may benefit from supplementary approaches such as ESL and bilingual software products.

Resources*

There are many online resources for ESL and Bilingual Education. Here, we have listed our favorites:

*Data derived from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Center for Applied Linguistics.