ABSTRACT
Refugee and immigrant children cannot succeed in American society without understanding the American system, its institutional organization and its philosophy. The acquisition of the English language is crucial to their adjustment to our society, their acceptance of new values and their participation in public life. How can one expedite the acquisition of English? What instructional and language policies, what educational philosophy and classroom activities can maximize the learning of English by new students? Recent publications have addressed these issues. Social, demographic and economic factors do affect English literacy acquisition. Low literacy levels in English tend to be associated with cultural conflicts, isolation and poverty (Trueba, 1987a, 1987b; Goldman and Trueba, 1987; Trueba and Delgado-Gaitan, 1988; Trueba, 1988a, 1988c, 1989).
