Accelerating the Literacy Performance of Bilingual Students

Georgia Earnest García, PhD, is Professor Emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She has held appointments at the Center for the Study of Reading, the RAND Reading Study Group on Skillful Reading, and the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth. Prior to obtaining her doctorate, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer, bilingual education teacher, English teacher, and ESL/EFL teacher. Dr. García has authored or coauthored several books as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles. After retiring, she served on the Educational Testing Service’s Dual Language Assessment Team and the WestED Reading Content Team, which updated the Reading Assessment Framework for the 2026 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Dr. García was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 2019. She continues to collaborate with bilingual teachers and schools and to conduct and publish research on the literacy development, instruction, and assessment of bilingual students..

1. Introduction to Teaching Emergent Bilingual and Dual-Language Students
2. Theories and Theoretical Insights Relevant to Bilingual Students and Bilingual Education
3. Second-Language (L2) Teaching Approaches to Advance Bilingual Students’ Learning
4. Instructional Activities to Promote Bilingual Students’ Oral Language and Literacy Performance
5. The Selection and Use of Texts with Bilingual Students
6. L1 Literacy Instruction and Early Reading Instruction in Spanish and Other Languages
7. Bilingual Students’ Beginning Reading Instruction in English
8. Reading Comprehension Instruction for Bilingual Students
9. Bilingual Students’ Writing Instruction
10. Increasing Bilingual Students’ Vocabulary and Academic Language Knowledge and Use
11. Disciplinary Literacy Instruction for Bilingual Students
12. The Language and Literacy Assessment of Bilingual Students
Conclusion: Pulling It All Together
References
Index