Bilingual Glossary

The term currently used to describe children attending school in the United States who come from homes where a language other than English is spoken.

Source of proficiency level descriptions: Beginning to Advanced: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Inc., 1997, pp. 20-21.

A national-origin-minority student who is limited-English proficient.  This term is often preferred over limited-English-proficient as it highlights accomplishments rather than deficits.  English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual are components of ELL.   

the term used by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards in place of ESL or ESOL. 

A program to teach English to speakers in a non-English speaking setting.

Children who have some early literacy skills but are not yet fluent readers.

The knowledge and skills that are the forerunners to later success in reading and writing.

The development of two languages; same as bilingual-language development.

Also known as two-way or developmental programs, the goal of these bilingual programs is for students to develop language proficiency in two languages by receiving instruction in English and another language in a classroom that is usually part native English speakers and part native speakers of the other language. 

See Maintenance Bilingual Education 

The ability to decode the text is grounded in the understanding of the mechanics of text (concepts about print), the knowledge that spoken words consist of a sequence of individual sounds or phonemes (phonemic awareness), a familiarity with the letters in the language (letter knowledge), the knowledge that the letters in the written words represent corresponding sounds (alphabetic principle), and the ability to bring these elements together to decipher regular words.

A normal stage that all newcomers to the U.S. experience.  Being in a strange place and losing the power to communicate can disrupt one’s world view, self-identity, thinking system, actions, and feelings.  

Values, ideas, and other meaningful symbolic systems created and transmitted by a group of people.

The skills, background knowledge, and cognitive strategies that children transfer between the first and second language.

Criteria that indicate a student has attained the required level of English proficiency to exit a district’s LEP program: 

• Achieve at the proficient level (composite score) on the OTELA.
• After achieving at the proficient level on the OTELA, one year of successful classroom performance where the language of instruction is English, OR
• Attainment of proficient or above on the OAT or OGT in reading and writing taken after achieving at the proficient level on the OTELA.