• From 1980 to 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau found that the ESL population grew 26 percent nationwide but 170 percent in North Carolina. This statistic gives North Carolina the fastest-growing ESL population in the Southeast.

• NC has the third fastest growing Hispanic population in the United States. According to a US Census projection for the Hispanic population increase between 1990 and 1999 is 128.9%.

• According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction there were a total of 28,580 students identified as needing English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction for the academic year 1997-98. This compares with 12,408 students in 1993-94. As long as North Carolina is an attractive location for jobs and business the number of LEP students will increase.

• According to a study done by the National Clearinghouse for English Language Aquisiation and Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA), “An estimated 4,416,580 LEP students were enrolled in public schools, representing approximately 9.3% of the total public school enrollment of students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. The reported number of LEP students enrolled grew by 27% since the 1997-98 school year, and their representation as a percentage of total school enrollment increased by 1.6%. Nearly 70% of all LEP students were enrolled at the elementary level, where they accounted for more than 10% of the total enrollment.”

• The native language of the majority of LEP students is Spanish (77%). Other languages include: Vietnamese (2.3%), Hmong (2.2%), Haitian Creole (1.1%), Cantonese (1.0%), and Korean (1.0%). All the other languages groups each represented less than 1% of the LEP student population.

Dave’s ESL Cafe- http://www.eslcafe.com/
                                     http://www.eslcafe.com/search/Lesson_Plans/

TESOL (organization for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages)-
http://www.tesol.org/index.html

Activities for ESL Students- http://a4esl.org/

Interesting Things for ESL Students- http://www.manythings.org/

Karin’s ESL Partyland- http://www.eslpartyland.com/

ESL Lessons- http://members.aol.com/Jakajk/ESLLessons.html

ASK Eric Lesson Plans- http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/

ESL Clipart- http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/JapanProj/FLClipart/

ESL Handouts- http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Handouts_for_Classroom_Use/

ESL Lessons and Teacher Tips- http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Lessons/

ESL Lesson Plans and Resources- http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/eslplans.html

Free Translations- http://www.freetranslation.com/
     *** Be careful with translation sites.  This is the best one I’ve heard of, but I’m sure it’s not perfect.  Helpful hint:  Use vocabulary that can only be translated one way.   DO NOT USE IDIOMS!

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/links/langcult/toplangs.htm
Educational, linguistic, and cultural web resources for the top languages/language groups of English learners in U.S. schools.

http://espanol.yahoo.com/
This website can be used by ESL students to do research.

http://www.csusm.edu/csb/english/
This website allows teachers or parents to search for books in Spanish or books in English written about Latinos. The website is available in English or Spanish.

http://www.eslflow.com/
This Web site includes extensive links to lesson plans and instructional materials for teaching natural science, health, business, and history lessons to ESL students. The lesson resources are indexed according to the English proficiency level for which they are most appropriate.

http://schools.monterey.k12.ca.us/~mainst/links/esl.htm
Soledad USD lists ESL sites for reading, writing, grammar, and general resources.

http://www.esl-lab.com/
This website has conversations that students can listen to and answer questions in order to increase their English proficiency. The site includes scripts for each of the conversations.

http://www.eduhound.com/espanol/bilingual_links.cfm
Links to tutorial sites for learning English.

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/
An extremely valuable website! NCELA collects, analyzes, and disseminates information relating to the effective education of linguistically and culturally diverse learners in the U.S. Has success stories from schools, databases, lesson plans, and much more.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/ELL/glossary.html
An online glossary of terms, court cases, and programs associated with ESL.

http://www.hmongnet.org/
Hmong information page

http://www.uwsuper.edu/library/hmong/hmong.html
Resources about the Hmong for Teachers

Centro Latino of Mitchell, Avery & Yancey Counties
Director, Vicky Ferradaz (828)284-2164 (day) (828)688-6714 (evening)
This organization serves the Latino community in many ways. Services include: volunteer interpreters, free seminars on topics such as immigration law, limited financial assistance, and general information, such as where adult ESL classes are available and other resources available. This particular group serves the three counties listed, but there are similar groups throughout the state.