McKay School of Education > ELL Symposium > Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore

Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore

Lily Wong Fillmore is considered an international authority on the education of minority students, the socialization of children for learning across cultures and the influence of native language on the communication between children and their parents; the passing forward of social cultural traditions and the their relationship to development of academic language. Through her continued research and advocacy over more than 35 years, she is a strong voice for bilingual education and support of the maintenance of native language between children and their parents as a way to support family relationships, passing forward cultural traditions and academic learning. She earned a bachelor's degree in English and linguistics from San Jose State University and a Ph.D. from Stanford.

Not truly retired (in the eyes of those who know her as a continuing advocate and researcher), she received Emeritus status in 2004 from University of California, Berkeley where she was a professor in the Department of Language and Literacy, Society and Culture in the Graduate School of Education.

As part of her interest in revitalizing native languages in the United States, she recently conducted research in Yupik villages along the lower Yukon River in Alaska investigating “Village English" and academic English in native enclaves. She also directed a University of California, Berkeley, doctoral program for American Indian leaders in several pueblos in New Mexico.

Fillmore’s latest publications include "What Teachers Need to Know about Language," in What Teachers Need to Know About Language (Center for Applied Linguistics in 2002); “Language in Education” in Language in the U.S.A. ( E. Finegan and J. R. Rickford, Eds., Cambridge University Press, 2004); and “ELLs and High Stakes Testing: Enabling Students to Make the Grade” with Brian Bielenberg in Educational Leadership, 2004.