This resource brings together information about policy, second language acquisition theory and research, methods and materials for teaching adult English language learners, program design, and cross-cultural issues that effect learning in adult ESL classrooms. It also discusses the context within which adult ESOL instructors work and in which adult ESOL programs function. The framework for this discussion of context draws from the developing framework of standards for teachers of adult learners under consideration by TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.). This book is designed for faculty and students in adult education graduate programs and other TESOL preparation programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels that target adult learners. Other audiences are adult ESL program directors and policy makers as well as educators working in elementary and high school, many of whom are connected to populations of adult learners through the parents of the children they serve.