Effective Schools and Classrooms for Bilingual and ESL Students

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Pedagogy - Higher Education, Endicott College, course: Language Diversity in Education , language: English, abstract: The world is changing rapidly; people around the world are more interconnected than ever. They travel to all parts of the globe and communicate with each other for business, politics, social, academic and private purpose. Trade, ideas, knowledge, and technology flow from place to place, and a common language is essential to maintaining and improving the stream of communication (Nwaila 1997). All these trends have sparked great interest of second language learning all over the world. It seems that in this era, the mastery of a second language especially English as a Second Language, which is regarded as an international language in common use, is extraordinarily necessary. Based on this reality, many researches, aiming at finding the most efficient and effective way of learning English, have been conducted. Bilingualism has always been a hot topic in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) because bilinguals are present in every country of the world, in every social class and in all age groups.

Feriha Ramadan has more than 15 years of progressively responsible international experience. Among her significant positions, Feriha served as an IB CAS Coordinator. As a member of the school leadership team, she worked closely with curriculum leaders, key stage coordinators and college counselors. Quality assurance of teaching and learning, providing pedagogical leadership and promoting the IB ethos were critical elements of her role. She holds MEd in International Education from Endicott College in Beverly, USA and MA in Special and Inclusive Education joined degree offered by Roehampton University in London, Oslo University in Norway and Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Being part of the Erasmus Mundus Special and Inclusive Education Programme, Ramadan had an opportunity to explore, analyse and critically evaluate the effects of globalization in the conceptualization of 'special needs' and 'inclusion' in development of policies and practices across contexts. Ramadan is a member of the accreditation team of Council of International Schools (CIS) and New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and Co-founder & Vice President of BEYAZAY, Macedonia NGO for Persons with Disabilities