The CATESOL Journal

While teachers always try to do what is best for their students, some teachers of bilingual students base instruction on assumptions that actually make learning harder and limit student potential. Such assumptions are: (a) Learning involves the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student; (b) oral language skills must be developed before literacy skills are introduced; and (c) learning proceeds from part to whole. This article examines each of these assumptions and shows the kind of classroom practices that follow from them. Then a second set of assumptions is introduced: (a) Learning is an active process of meaning construction that occurs during social interaction; (b) reading, writing, speaking, and listening develop interdependently; and (c) learning proceeds from whole to part. Extended examples of learning activities taken from classes in which the teachers ascribe to these assumptions are provided. The examples come from middle and high school classes with both Hispanic and Southeast Asian students. In classes based on this second set of assumptions, all students, but especially bilingual students, find learning easier.