Recent research into the processes of children's first and second language development has yielded a number of insights which have been combined to create the communicative language teaching model. This model should be useful to English as a second language (ESL) teachers, both in planning their own instruction and in advising the increasing numbers of regular classroom teachers with limited English-speaking (LES) students in their classes. This article summarizes the central assumptions of the communicative language teaching model and specifies the potential difficulties that regular classroom teachers may face in adopting it. It then presents seven criteria to be used in organizing communicative classrooms and describes specific applications of these criteria to decisions about organizing classroom interaction and the physical environment.

Literacy is a complex process that takes place in sociocultural contexts and involves multidimensional development of knowledge of language, background knowledge, schema, motivation, interest, and auditory and visual skills. Though there are differing points of view on what approaches to literacy development are most effective, learners who are developing initial literacy in English benefit from a balanced program that integrates rich exposure to and engagement in meaningful, purposeful oral language and print, while providing instruction in required reading skills and taking into account the cultural context. Effective programs provide reading opportunities and instruction in a context that applies principles of best practice in English‐language instruction, including: providing culturally relevant instruction; providing literacy instruction in an active learning environment; differentiating instruction for learners' individual needs; setting and communicating clear goals and providing frequent feedback; making learning purposeful and meaningful, promoting learner ownership; and designing learning for success.

The E-Language Learning (ELL) project is an ongoing collaborative effort between the US Department of Education and the Chinese (PRC) Ministry of Education. Its purpose is to develop a free, online language-learning opportunity for students in the two countries. Developers in the US are now in the process of creating a program to teach English to the Chinese, while the Chinese are simultaneously developing a program to teach Chinese to English speakers. The authors, who served as the English language development team for the US in the initial stage, describe the curriculum development process for the program, addressing issues in meeting the challenges of developing oral/aural proficiency in language using an online platform. These include making limited use of voice recognition technology for assessment, integrating cultural elements for the targeted audience, developing a program with optimal learning potential, and making the best possible use of technology that is both technically and financially feasible. The authors also include descriptions of clarifying learning goals and curriculum and providing means to track both in order to provide direction for program development, making careful research-based decisions to inform development, and providing careful and ongoing collaboration between technicians, content developers, and language educators.

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