Empowering EAL Learners in Secondary Schools: A Practical Resource to Support the Language Development of Multilingual Learners (Book Review)

Recent geo-political upheavals have increased migration to English-speaking countries, creating significant challenges for K-12 educators. The percentage of English as an additional language (EAL) students in U.S. public schools, for example, increased from 9.4 percent in 2011 to 10.6 percent in 2021 (National Center of Education Statistics, 2024). Similar trends have been reported in Canada, with the number of EAL students in Canadian K-12 schools continuing to increase (e.g., Le Pinchon et al., 2024). Supporting these students effectively in their academic pursuits is essential to helping them develop the skills they need in order to participate fully in society. Because many scholars (e.g., Grapin & Lee, 2022; Santibañez & Gándara, 2018) suggest that secondary teachers often fall short of the requisite knowledge to support these students, Joanna Kolota’s book Empowering EAL Learners in Secondary Schools: A Practical Resource to Support the Language Development of Multilingual Learners is a timely and relevant resource to address the status quo. The focus of this book is pedagogical strategies to help secondary (EAL) learners develop English language skills. [First paragraph of review]