Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education in US Classrooms Andrea DeCapua Helaine W. Marshall Published online: 26 August 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract Considerable attention has focused on the challenges of English lan- guage learners without age-appropriate formal education and first language literacy. They are viewed here as students with high-context learning experiences and expectations (Hall in Beyond culture, Anchor, New York, 1976), and a collectivistic orientation, with a pragmatic, rather than academic way of looking at the world, who are marginalized and disoriented in US classrooms. Building on Ibarra’s Beyond affirmative action: Reframing the context of higher education, The Uni- versity of Wisconsin Press, Madison (2001) ‘‘cultural dissonance’’ construct, the two learning paradigms are contrasted, and a third, the mutually adaptive learning paradigm, is posited as a pathway to academic success for this population. Keywords ESL Á Culture Á High-context Á Collectivistic Á Limited/interrupted formal education Introduction It is universally acknowledged that the United States is experiencing record levels of immigration with a correspondent increase in school children who speak a first language other than English (US Census Bureau 2007). These children, the majority of whom are English language learners (ELLs), face the dual challenge of having to A. DeCapua (&) Multilingual Multicultural Education, Graduate School, The College of New Rochelle, 29 Castle Place, New Rochelle, NY 10805, USA e-mail: adecapua@cnr.edu H. W. Marshall TESOL/Bilingual/LOTE Programs, Westchester Graduate Campus, Long Island University, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577, USA e-mail: helaine.marshall@liu.edu 123 Urban Rev (2010) 42:159–173 DOI 10.1007/s11256-009-0128-z