English as a Second language

I am a teacher who teaches several students that are learning English as a second language. I was often told to encourage the parents of these students to speak in English to their children. I believe that as teachers we should encourage our students to learn English as well as maintaining their first language. It helps to build their students self confidence as well as helping them in their literacy skills. Hence, I encourage parents to speak their first language to their children.

Nicholette, I think the experts would agree with you. We had a blog post several months ago from one of our resident experts, Judie Haynes, on this very topic: http://edge.ascd.org/_What-Language-Should-ELLs-Speak-at-Home/blog/5314760/127586.html?b=