EvAluATIng lIbRARy SouRCES 143enrolled in the United States for the first time when they were 12 or 13 years
old. It is my purpose here to use these youngsters’ lives and experiences as a
lens through which to examine the policy and instructional dilemmas that
now surround the education of immigrant children in this country. (p. 2)If you were looking for sources for a paper on the English only movement,
in particular the consequences of that movement for young students, you
might very well find Valdés’s words compelling and decide the book is
worth a closer reading.■ examine the table of contents and Index
After reading the introductory sections, you will find it useful to ana
lyze the table of contents to see how much emphasis the writer gives to
topics that are relevant to your own research. For example, the table of
contents to Learning and Not Learning English includes several headings
that may relate to your interest: “Educating English Language Learners,”
“ Challenges and Realities,” “Implications for Policy and Practice,” and
the “Politics of Teaching English.” You also should turn to the back of
the book to examine the index, an alphabetical list of the important and
recurring concepts in a book, and the page numbers on which they appear.
An index also would include the names of authors cited in the book. In
the index to Valdés’s book, you would find references to “ English language
abilities and instruction” with specific page numbers where you can read
what the author has to say on this subject. You would also find references
to “English only instruction,” “equal educational opportunities,” and
“ sheltered instruction.”■ check the notes and Bibliographic references
Especially in the initial stages of writing, you should look closely at writ
ers’ notes and bibliographies to discern who they feel are the important
voices in the field. Frequent citation of a particular researcher’s work may
indicate that the individual is considered to be an expert in the field you
are studying. Notes usually provide brief references to people, concepts,
or context; the bibliography includes a long list of related works. Mining
Valdés’s bibliography, you would find such titles as “Perspectives on Offi
cial English,” “Language Policy in Schools,” “Not Only English,” “Lan
guage and Power,” and “The Cultural Politics of English.”■ Skim for the argument
Skimming a book or an article entails briefly looking over the elements we
have discussed so far: the preface or abstract, the table of contents and the06_GRE_60141_Ch6_129_150.indd 143 11/11/14 2:46 PM