SUCCESS IN ANY LANGUAGE; BOOK PUBLISHER FINDS NICHE IN BILINGUAL TEXTS.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Joan Ashkenas is breaking down the language barrier from a small office in her home.

Ashkenas is editor and publisher of JAG Publications, an independent press specializing in English as a Second Language texts. JAG grew out of Ashkenas' longtime interest in languages - and her difficulty in finding good, usable texts when she was an ESL instructor.

``I felt there ought to be good, interesting reading material and there just wasn't anything for me to order (for) my students,'' she said. ``That was one of the real motivating factors in my publishing.''

Now in its 12th year, JAG publishes two or three titles annually from about 40 or so manuscripts that land on Ashkenas' desk. The books are used in middle school through adult education courses.

The volumes range from compilations of stories, histories and plays to two collections of captionless cartoons by MAD magazine artist Sergio Aragones, an Ojai resident. The Aragones books are used in language classes to test students' ability to verbalize their thoughts.

The two dozen titles in her catalog sell about 1,000 to up to 5,000 copies per year and rack up about $500,000 in annual sales for JAG.

``I publish only materials that I myself would want to use in the classroom - that is my one true criterion,'' she said.

And those numbers could rise if Proposition 227, the ballot measure that would end bilingual education in California's public schools, is passed by voters June 2. Under the measure, native-language teaching would be replaced by a single year of specialized English instruction.

Passage of the measure could push more people into ESL courses that use texts like those published by JAG, said Betsy Lampe, executive director of the National Association of Independent Publishers in Lakeland, Fla.

This could be particularly true of adult ESL classes, as parents try to catch up with their children who have developed their English-speaking ability, she said.

Ashkenas began teaching ESL after graduating in 1974 from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in Spanish language and literature.

In 1987, she and writer Judith Bailey published a compilation of easy to read short stories and other material. ``Begin in English: Vocabulary-expanding Short Stories for Launched Beginners'' has since gone to three volumes.

She also publishes ``Comics and Conversation'' and ``More Comics and Conversation,'' the two collections of cartoons by Aragones that she said have been useful in ESL classes, Advanced Placement foreign language classes in high schools, and even to teach sign language in schools for the deaf.

Aragones said the project sounded ``logical'' when Ashkenas first approached him about publishing his work for the ESL market. Indeed, he was delighted that his work could be used in the classroom.

The multipanel vignettes amount to short stories that the students can interpret in their own way.

``She chose very good examples of cartoons that can be used for educational purposes,'' he said. ``It's a good way to teach - with a little laughter.''

Ashkenas most recently published ``A Different Angle: Co-operActivities in Communication,'' the first ESL text by Michelle Buehring, a Moorpark resident and ESL instructor at Soka University in Calabasas.

Buehring, an ESL teacher for 23 years, said she submitted the book to 22 publishers, including several major companies she admits she was holding out for.

Meanwhile, Ashkenas - who received the manuscript in January - pursued Buehring, who in turn had used JAG-published texts in her own classes and was finally won over by Ashkenas' persistence.

``I thought if she's taking so much time and trouble to get me, maybe she'll do the same for the book,'' she said.

So far, she has. The book was introduced at a big trade conference in Seattle about two months ago where a healthy 50 copies were snapped up by paying teachers who often try to get complimentary copies of books from publishers.

In addition, a teacher just purchased a set of 10 for use in a class. ``The fact that 50 or 60 teachers actually paid for this is pretty good,'' Buehring said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Drawing

PHOTO (1--Color) Joan Ashkenas of Studio City is publisher of JAG Publications, which racks up about $500,000 yearly in sales.

David Sprague/Daily News

(2--Color) The two dozen titles in JAG's catalog sell thousands of copies per year.

DRAWING: Silly speak