Hakuta, Kenji

He serves as co-chair of Understanding Language, an initiative that focuses attention on the role of language in subject-area learning, with a special focus on helping English Language Learners meet the new Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards (http://ell.stanford.edu).

Kenji Hakuta is an experimental psycholinguist by training, best known for his work in the areas of bilingualism and the acquisition of English in immigrant students. He is the author of numerous research papers and books, including Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism (Basic Books, 1986) and In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second Language Acquisition (Basic Books, 1994). He chaired a National Academy of Sciences report Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children (National Academy Press), and co-edited a book on affirmative action in higher education, Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education (Stanford University Press). Hakuta is also active in the policy applications of his research. He has testified to Congress and other public bodies on a variety of topics, including language policy, the education of language minority students, affirmative action in higher education, and improvement of quality in educational research. He has served as an expert witness in education cases involving language minority students. Hakuta received his BA Magna Cum Laude in Psychology and Social Relations, and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, both from Harvard University. He has been at Stanford as Professor of Education since 1989, except for three years (2003-2006) when he helped start the University of California at Merced as its Founding Dean of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. His latest web creations include a popular on-line resource for CLAD/CTEL credentialing for California teachers (ellib.stanford.edu) and WordSift, an on-line text and vocabulary visualization resource for teachers and students (www.wordsift.com).