Table Of ContentEducational Linguistics
Luis Javier Pentón Herrera Editor
English and
Students
with Limited
or Interrupted
Formal Education
Global Perspectives on Teacher
Preparation and Classroom Practices
Educational Linguistics
Volume 54
Series Editor
Francis M. Hult, Dept. of Education, Sherman Hall A Wing, University of
Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
Editorial Board Members
Marilda C. Cavalcanti, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
Jasone Cenoz, University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain
Angela Creese, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
Ingrid Gogolin, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Christine Hélot, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Hilary Janks, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Claire Kramsch, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Constant Leung, King’s College London, London, UK
Angel Lin, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
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Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
Editor
English and Students with
Limited or Interrupted
Formal Education
Global Perspectives on Teacher Preparation
and Classroom Practices
Editor
Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
The George Washington University
Washington, DC, USA
ISSN 1572-0292 ISSN 2215-1656 (electronic)
Educational Linguistics
ISBN 978-3-030-86962-5 ISBN 978-3-030-86963-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86963-2
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I dedicate this edited book to all my students
with limited or interrupted formal education
who taught me how to be a better educator.
I also want to dedicate this book to my
paternal grandmother, Migdalia, and my
father, Juan, both of whom would be
considered adults with limited or interrupted
formal education in traditional school
settings. Thank you both for teaching me that
human ingenuity, intelligence, kindness, and
love transcend the confinements of formal
education.
Foreword
I first met Luis Javier Pentón Herrera at the 2019 TESOL International Association
Convention in Atlanta, GA. He was speaking about his experiences working with
high school students from Central America. His Teacher Tip session was being held
in the back of the cavernous exhibit hall, which was extremely noisy and distracting,
but his attendees were on the edges of their seats desperately straining to hear
because what he was sharing was of interest. Although the setting was certainly less
than ideal, the message held their attention and mine. After the Convention, I con-
tacted Luis to see if I could get a copy of his presentation since it was so difficult to
hear, and I knew I had missed some of what he said. From that session has grown a
professional friendship and partnership, which includes this book.
My experience with SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal
Education) began when I was teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at a
middle school in Columbus, Ohio. Our city had traditionally hosted a large number
of refugee families, but when large numbers of Somali families began arriving in the
1990s, we were unsure how best to meet their academic and social needs. So many
of the children had had few (or no) prior experiences within formal school settings
that our traditional programming was not sufficient. The district formed a task force
and researched best practices, creating a newcomer program for middle and high
school students (see Custodio, 2011). This experience led to personal research into
the field of SLIFE, but at the time, there was little information available.
In 2002, I eagerly devoured Closing the Achievement Gap: How to Reach
Limited-Formal-Schooling and Long-Term English Learners by Yvonne and David
Freeman, and Sandra Mercuri (Freeman et al., 2002). I began using their acronym
of LFS (Limited Formal Schooling) interchangeably with the acronym of SIFE
(Students with Interrupted Formal Education), which had been adopted by the
New York City and State Departments of Education in 1997 (see Advocates for
Children of New York, 2010). When my co-author and I wrote our book on SIFE
titled Students with Interrupted Formal Education: Bridging Where They Are and
What They Need in 2017 (Custodio & O’Loughlin, 2017), we used this term because
it was the term with which we were the most familiar.
vii
viii Foreword
The term SLIFE used in this edition was first coined by DeCapua, Smathers, and
Tang in their 2009 book, Meeting the Needs of Students with Limited or Interrupted
Schooling. This term has since become the most popular across the world to describe
these students because of the addition of the ‘L’ to the SIFE acronym, drawing
attention to the fact that some of the students in this category have had few (if any)
experiences in formal school settings prior to migration. The SLIFE acronym will
be used throughout this edited volume, showing how this term is now commonly
found in both P-12 and adult settings, but I point readers to Chap. 2, where Browder,
Pentón Herrera, and Franco raise important questions surrounding the acronym and
its use.
Over time, our understanding of the issues of SLIFE has expanded to include
more than simply linguistic and academic development. So many of these students
have experienced situations and conditions that have added physical, emotional, and
familial trauma that often add to or even overshadow their academic challenges. We
have discovered there is much an educator can do to ameliorate these barriers with-
out formal training through providing a welcoming environment, comfortable class-
room routines, and culturally responsive curriculum and mindsets (DeCapua &
Marshall, 2011; O’Loughlin & Custodio, 2021). The authors in the following chap-
ters will provide specific, practical suggestions for creating classrooms that will
meet the myriad academic and non-academic needs of SLIFE around the world.
A glance at the table of contents will quickly reveal that the topics and the authors
represent a diversity of location and student population. Educators from North
America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East share
authentic, practical teaching strategies grounded in the latest theoretical frame-
works. I believe that this volume will become an indispensable tool for teachers
looking for an essential resource on best practices for meeting the unique challenges
and obstacles that accompany so many of our students with limited or interrupted
formal education.
Ohio State University Brenda Custodio
Columbus, OH, USA
References
Advocates for Children of New York. (2010). Students with interrupted formal education: A chal-
lenge for the New York City Public Schools. https://www.advocatesforchildren.org/SIFE%20
Paper%20final.pdf?pt=1
Custodio, B. (2011). How to design and implement a newcomer program. Allyn and Bacon.
Custodio, B., & O’Loughlin, J. B. (2017). Students with interrupted formal education: Bridging
where they are and what they need. Corwin Press.
Foreword ix
DeCapua, A., & Marshall, H. (2011). Breaking new ground: Teaching students with limited or
interrupted formal education in U.S. secondary schools. University of Michigan Press.
DeCapua, A., Smathers, W., & Tang, F. (2009). Meeting the needs of students with limited or inter-
rupted schooling. University of Michigan Press.
Freeman, Y., Freeman, D., & Mercuri, S. (2002). Closing the achievement gap: How to reach
limited-formal-schooling and long-term English learners. Heinemann.
O’Loughlin, J., & Custodio, B. (2021). Supporting the journey of English learners after trauma.
University of Michigan Press.
Acknowledgements
I am eternally grateful to every single contributor of this edited volume. Thank you
for trusting me and for giving me the opportunity to learn from you and your work
during this journey. In particular, I would like to express my most sincere apprecia-
tion to Drs. Brenda Custodio, Andrea DeCapua, Heather A. Linville, Helaine
W. Marshall, Gilda Martínez-Alba, Kristiina Montero, Martha Young-S cholten, and
Ms. Judith O’Loughlin—you are all giants in the field and your support, open dia-
logue, and knowledge has been truly comforting.
I would also like to express my most sincere appreciations to my friends, co-
advocates, and colleagues Dr. Doaa Rashed and Mx. Ethan Trinh for translating the
appendix in Chap. 5 in Arabic and Vietnamese, respectively. In addition, I am for-
ever grateful to my dear students at The George Washington University, Siyu Shen
and Guanjie Wang, for translating the appendix in Chap. 5 to Chinese.
Lastly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Francis M. Hult, the
series editor of Educational Linguistics. Thank you for your encouragement, guid-
ance, feedback, and support since we first began to explore the possibility of turning
this idea into an edited volume.
xi
