Learning English at school

"This book focuses on a common set of circumstances in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand in which increasing numbers of young children from minority language backgrounds are taught in mainstream English-medium classrooms. It provides a longitudinal ethnography of a group of children learning English in a Canadian school, from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of Grade 2. Throughout, sociocultural, poststructural and critical theories inform examinations of the children's classrooms as communities that have specific practices. Data collected in each of the three grades are used to explore how practices with respect to identity construction, resource distribution, and discursive organization affect the children's possibilities for learning English."--Jacket.