Managing new arrivals in the mainstream classroom

‘Mainstreaming’ is a term used to describe learners immersed fully in the ordinary school system, in this case the English-speaking education system. There is much controversy on the success of mainstreaming. the answer to the question of whether Limited English Proficient (LEP) students belong in the classroom is no. LEP students do not belong in the mainstream English classroom because they do not have the communicative and necessary academic English language skills to be able to successfully learn through English. However, the reality is that there are thousands of LEP learners who are enrolled in mainstream all-English classrooms, with teachers and administrators who have no background or experience with those types of learners. ( Carrasquillo and Rodriguez, 1996 : 4)