October 30, 1996 Contact: Jennifer McNulty (408) 459-2495; mcnulty@ua.ucsc.edu

UC SANTA CRUZ EXPERT DISCUSSES BILINGUAL EDUCATION ON NOVEMBER 12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Barry McLaughlin, an expert on bilingual education, will give a free public talk titled "The Good News About Bilingual Education," on Tuesday, November 12, from 6 to 8 P.M. at Temple Beth-El in Aptos. The address is 3055 Porter Gulch Road. His talk will be followed by a discussion with a panel of local educators.

"The good news is that there are some very effective programs that are doing exciting things to challenge students who have limited capacity with English," says McLaughlin, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Some of the most effective features, revealed in a national study of effective programs for limited English speakers, include a curriculum that makes connections across disciplines, thematic learning, students working in teams, and teacher professionalism. Moreover, teachers in the most successful programs were fluent in the native language of the students and were trained in second-language learning.

"Many of the strategies we observed are used by teachers in schools in this area, but some of them will be less familiar," added McLaughlin.

Perhaps the best news is that what works with students who have limited English skills also works for native English speakers. "These methods are effective for all children," says McLaughlin. "These schools are doing good things for all of their kids, not just the bilingual students. What we're talking about is high-quality education."

McLaughlin is the author of Second-Language Acquisition in Childhood and Theories of Second-Language Learning. He was director of the Bilingual Research Center at UCSC and the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning. He is now directing a research project on bilingual vocabulary development with scholars from Harvard University and the National Academy of Sciences.

Refreshments will be served. Call (408) 459-3351 for more information.

This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist.html).

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