ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the major changes in British educational approaches to bilingual children over the last twenty years. It looks at some of the relevant research findings and discusses the main factors that must be considered when suggesting help for children of any age who are learning English as a second language (ESL). Although proficiency in ESL was seen as the key to the assimilation of immigrant groups into British society, there was little or no ESL teaching, and pupils were left to pick up English as best they could. In recent years research on second language acquisition has produced a number of interesting findings which allow a fuller understanding of these problems. It is clear that the main contribution of language specialists must be through working with, and alongside, mainstream colleagues, deepening their understanding of language growth and developing appropriate materials and strategies. The place for most of this work is the mainstream classroom.
