A Note on Terminology

Numerous acronyms exist to describe those students who are learning English as an additional language (EAL). For example, "learners of English as a second language" (ESL) is often found in the literature to date. Both EAL and ESL refer to students as people first, much as we now term a person with a disability as "a person who is hearing impaired" rather than "the deaf person." Recent federal legislation continues to use the term limited English proficient (LEP). In our survey of recent literature we found English language learners (ELL) to be the most prevalent and widely accepted term. We use this term throughout this publication, except when referring to specific program models that use other terminology.