by Julia McGurk If you grew up in California, the chances are
you went to school with someone who would be categorized as
Generation 1.5, and the chances are that you wouldn’t be able to
pick them out from students who spent their whole lives in the
US speaking English. In fact you have probably never heard the
term. Who is Generation 1.5? The term is used to describe
students who are neither first nor second generation immigrants
- hence, 1.5. They live somewhere between those two traditional
terms and have a broad range of characteristics. Generation 1.5
students could have been born here, but do not speak English at
home with their parents. They might have moved to the US some
time during the K-12 system from a non-English speaking country,
or may have moved here from US territories where they grew up
speaking a different first language. Depending on when they
moved to the US, Generation 1.5ers may have limited literacy in
their first language and also have limited English, especially
for academic purposes