For those of us who have been working with English learners for a long while, it often seems that the 'same old, same old' questions and issues are at work in international schools; specifically, the perceived deficiencies of English learners lead to a narrow focus on remediation through English-only or separate ESL content programs to 'fix' students. The image of EAL (English as an Additional Language) programs as remedial or a school's standards declining with the number of English learning students increasing has been so deeply ingrained, that it has bounded our perceptions of these students as problems to be overcome rather than as the positive forces so often stated in school mission statements.
