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Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education

Educational Access In Lao P.D.R.: When Does Minority Status Matter For Hmong Students?, Leena Her Jul 2009

Educational Access In Lao P.D.R.: When Does Minority Status Matter For Hmong Students?, Leena Her

Leena N. Her

No abstract is currently available.


When Is A Student An English Learner?: An Ethnographic Account Of When Students And Educators Invoke The Institutional Identity "English Language Learner", Leena Her Dec 2008

When Is A Student An English Learner?: An Ethnographic Account Of When Students And Educators Invoke The Institutional Identity "English Language Learner", Leena Her

Leena N. Her

This article complicates the articulation of the achievement gap between native English speakers and English learners (ELs) as a problem rooted in English language proficiency. I challenge the institutional and popular imagination that 5.1 million ELs in the United States are "limited in English proficiency" and whose performance in school can be attributed to limited English proficiency. This argument is drawn from eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a northern California High School where students identified as ELs were not a homogeneous-ability group with similar language needs. Yet there were occasions when educators echoed the concerns of education reformers and …