Learning and Not Learning English

Focusing on the lives and experiences of four Mexican children in an American middle school, the critically acclaimed author of Con Respeto examines both the policy and the instructional dilemmas that surround the English language education of immigrant children in this country. Using samples and analysis of the children’s oral and written language as well as an examination of their classrooms, school, and community, this book addresses the difficulties surrounding the teaching and learning of English for second language learners. This comprehensive volume discusses:

• classroom activities
• the amount of time it takes to “learn” English
• how English language learning affects learning in other areas
• the consequences of linguistic isolation
• how ESL students are tested

It also presents exclusive data on academic English development at various stages in a two-year process that raise important questions about current ESL teaching policies.

Guadalupe Valdés is Professor of Education and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Stanford University. She received the 2022 LRA Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award.

“The strengths of this book are not to be missed…the case studies are compelling and revealing and they fill a critical gap in the literature about middle school students.”

—Modern Language Journal

"A rich qualitative and compelling case for attending to the complexity and power of acknowledging and being responsive to language learning inside and outside those places we call school."
—Eugene E. García, Professor and Dean, University of California, Berkeley

"Riveting, courageous, and forthright. Dr. Valdés exposes the inequities of the lack of access to knowledge that middle school and high school immigrant students face in the teaching and learning of academic English, and shows us that we need to seriously revamp how we teach English as a second language or we will continue to fail future generations."
—Barbara M. Flores, Professor of Education, California State University, San Bernardino

"Helps the reader see how access to English and to academic knowledge is denied by the same structures and policies that aim to help. In essence, Valdés documents how schools and children collude to not learn, the frustration of children when their motivation structures are shattered, and the structures that become the traps of the system."
—María E. Torres-Guzmán, Program in Bilingual/Bicultural Education,
Teachers College, Columbia University