In this theoretical-empirical textbook, Adamson presents an authoritative and critical overview of the application of behavioral and cognitive, psycholinguistic, and linguistic paradigms to the particular educational and linguistic needs of English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools. Each paradigm alone fails to fully account for the complexities of ELL instruction. To solve this shortcoming, Adamson applies the Vygotskian sociocultural model of learning and cognitive development, a model that integrates external behavioral and internal cognitive factors. Adamson's balanced writing includes the nation's social and political views of ELL education as well as the arguments of critics of ELL instruction, arguments he does not leave uncontested. A noteworthy dimension of this work is how the author strengthens his argument with his extensive English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language teaching experience in the United States and abroad as well as his research in the field, including the report of a year-long case study of ELLs enrolled in a middle school in Arizona. The discussions of the vignettes and of the case-study results afford readers the opportunity to learn about the variables and complexities of ELL instruction through the lens of a constructivist researcher.
Indisputably, the textbook is recommendable for all educators because it is informative and formative in matters of the education of ELLs, whose presence pervades the nation's classrooms and who reportedly now exceed five million (NCELA, 2006). Undergraduate and graduate students in introductory bilingual education and ESL courses would especially profit from the breadth of the text because it provides answers to important questions of second language learning, of language teaching and language learning models, and of linguistic variation, among other things. For the educator, the text is a source of pedagogical ideas and a repository of research-based ELL pedagogical findings. Prior to making decisions about specific language instruction methods, readers will be intellectually stimulated and encouraged to analyze the theory and research, past and present practices used in ELL instruction, and the viewpoints of nonsupporters of ELL instruction.
Although not a research methods text per se, researchers interested in second language instruction—in particular, researchers from the social constructivist tradition—will find the volume's theoretical-empirical organization to be a model for postmodern ELL studies. The volume's structure provides answers to questions related to the ways that constructivism can shape the design of a study of ELLs (Creswell, 1998). Thus, in reporting and analyzing his data, the author exemplifies how ELL qualitative studies informed by social constructivism can be conducted, how data can be collected and analyzed, and how researchers can evaluate this type of study. His vignettes of classroom interactions of ELLs and teacher interviews clearly model this type of academic activity.
To reinforce the contents of each chapter, an up-to-date suggested bibliography is included, with items that reflect both sympathetic and contrary views of the topics covered in the first chapters. In subsequent chapters, readers will find excellent suggested readings on theory, research methods, and the national history of bilingual education policy.
