Language Minority Students and Computers

Here is a major new volume that addresses the implicit connection between the level of language proficiency and academic achievement. Experts provide information, understanding, and practical guidance in instructional practices that benefit language minority students.

This is the first compendium of theoretical offerings, quantitative and qualitative research, and practical applications to address the learning needs and issues of language minority students within enrichment-based, technology-integrated classrooms at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels. Creative and scholarly in its approach, Language Minority Students and Computers serves as a convenient and fundamental basis for reviewing current practices and for contributing to further developments in theory, research, applications, and policy with respect to improving the language skills and academic achievement through computer-based instruction.

Chapters are written by some of the leaders in the field, including Jim Cummins, whose theoretical contributions to bilingual education and bilingualism are universally acknowledged, and Beatriz Arias, a well-respected authority in the area of Hispanic education issues and research. The book features several chapters that directly focus on students working and communicating with each other in dyads or small groups, within localized or across distant settings. Other chapters explore the degree to which language minority students involved in computer-supported learning activities are assisted in language development, offered enhanced education value, and provided access to and participation in learning activities from which they can derive meaningful educational benefits; address the writing developments in bilingual children at the early elementary level; discuss the problems and opportunities associated with culturally and linguistically diverse students within higher education; and examine the promise of telecommunications for language minority students.

In order to be fully prepared for the inevitable educational reform which must take place in response to the changing social realities of the next several decades, graduate and undergraduate students in bilingual education and language arts, primary and secondary educators, and school administrators and policymakers must read Language Minority Students and Computers.