Critical Issue: Using Technology to Support Limited- English-Proficient (LEP) Students' Learning Experiences

This Critical Issue was researched and written by Asta Svedkauskaite, NCREL program specialist; Laura Reza-Hernandez, a doctoral student in educational leadership at the University of Texas, El Paso; and Mary Clifford, NCREL program associate. Editorial guidance was provided by Gil Valdez, Ph.D., chief officer, Learning Point Associates, and director, North Central Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Consortium. NCREL Program Specialist David Durian also contributed to this issue.

ISSUE: Since 1992, limited-English-proficient (LEP) student enrollment has nearly doubled. Most recent data from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA) indicate that there are close to five million students identified as LEP (NCELA, 2002). The number, primarily of Latino students, has doubled in the last ten years. These skyrocketing numbers of LEP students underscore the importance of ensuring that student academic success becomes a reality and that teachers provide them with every opportunity to excel.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) clearly sets a goal for LEP students to meet the same challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic content standards expected of all students. The law also states that every student should be technologically literate by the eighth grade, regardless of student background or family socioeconomic status. LEP students, moreover, will be tested in English after they have attended school in this country for three years.
With these rigorous requirements in mind, this paper will focus on the critical issue of using technology as a tool to enrich classroom practices for LEP students. Educational technology as a learning tool can increase opportunities for students. Developing effective and adequate strategies is critical as educators and policymakers look at multiple ways to integrate technology in LEP students' learning. A thorough research-based understanding of technology integration to support and extend LEP students' learning experiences is a necessity. This Critical Issue supports the view that academic content understanding, linguistic knowledge, and technological literacy should, ideally, develop simultaneously in order to:

• Increase strategic use of technology.
• Enhance LEP student orientation in content classrooms.
• Redefine teacher roles.
• Increase access and equity for LEP students.

Arising from the informed understanding of a variety of language instructional programs (see "Mastering the Mosaic"), this paper shows how technology can be beneficial and successfully used, regardless of whether the classroom setting is mainly bilingual or contains an ESL (English as a second language) component. We also look at research and examine diverse school settings from two areas where technology is used successfully with LEP students: one from high-poverty schools in El Paso, Texas, and the other from a more prosperous district of Schaumburg, Illinois. Together, development of these interrelated components offers a promise of making LEP student academic success a reality.