Teachers of English language learners (ELLs), however, were left to wonder if and how the findings
of the NRP applied to their students. How do you teach phonemic awareness and phonics in English
to students who can't yet hear and distinguish the sounds? How do you teach fluency to students
whose control of the structures of the English language is still limited? How do you teach them
grade-level vocabulary when their vocabulary knowledge starts so far behind that of their English speaking peers? How do you teach reading comprehension in English when they don't yet comprehend the English language?
Now there appears to be help. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education funded the National
Literacy Panel on Language Minority and Youth to survey, select, and synthesize research on
teaching language-minority students to read and write. Their report was published recently (August
& Shanahan, 2006).