Directions in Vocational Education for Limited English-Proficient Students and Adults. Occasional

The United States has a large and rapidly growing population of limited English-proficient (LEP) students and adults. This population presents a distinct challenge to vocational educators. Some insights learned during the past decade suggest beneficial approaches to this problem. Four trends in current second-language acquisition research and language teaching are particularly relevant to the delivery of vocational education to LEP persons. These trends are the development of competency-based, functional, and task-oriented language learning programs; the increasing specialization of language instruction and the concomitant combining of English and content-area instruction; the distinction between communicative and cognitive language skills; and the development of a theory of language that maximizes meaningful input as its basis. A great deal has also been learned during the past fe