ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jim Cummins
is currently a professor in the modern language center and department of curriculum, teaching and learning of the University of Toronto. His research focuses primarily on the challenges educators face in adjusting to classrooms where cultural and linguistic diversity is the norm. He has published several books related to language learning and cultural diversity, including, in 1995, the highly acclaimed Brave New Schools: Challenging Cultural Illiteracy Through Global Learning Networks (with Dennis Sayers). Dr. Cummins received his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Anna Uhl Chamot is Associate Professor at George Washington University, where she coordinates the program for ESL teacher education. Previously she was Associate Director of the Georgetown University/Center for Applied Linguistics National Foreign Language Resource Center. She also managed two title VII Special Alternative Instructional Programs in Arlington, Virginia. Dr. Chamot co-authored two books with J. Michael O'Malley, Learning Strategies in second language acquisition and the CALLA Handbook: How to implement the cognitive academic language learning approach. She has also published numerous professional and instructional books and articles on ESL theory and practice, including The Learning strategies Handbook. She holds a Ph.D. in ESL and applied linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Carolyn Kessler is Professor of English as a Second Language/Applied Linguistics in the Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has given presentations at numerous major conferences and has published widely in journals and texts dealing with second language learning and teaching, bilingualism, and biliteracy. Dr. Kessler holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University.

J. Michael O'Malley was Supervisor of Assessment and Evaluation in Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia. He was a co-developer with Anna Uhl Chamot of the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) and was noted for his research on learning strategies in second language acquisition and for his work on assessment of language minority students. Dr. O'Malley held a Ph.D. in psychology from George Peabody College.

J. Michael O'Malley was a true leader in the field of learning strategies, assessment, and ESL instruction. He helped shape the future of ESL and contributed greatly to the way ESL instruction is given and monitored. He touched the lives of all who knew him and worked with him. Mike O'Malley died in 1998.

Lily Wong Fillmore is on the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. A linguist by training and an educator in practice, she has conducted a number of large scale studies of second language learners in school settings, and she serves on numerous advisory boards and committees for organizations such as California Tomorrow. Dr. Wong Fillmore holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University.