This digest draws on a set of linguistic autobiographies written by Asian-American college students in classes at the University of California at Berkeley over the last several years, and examines the pattern of language shift that takes place in the young first- and second-generation student and why this shift takes place. It also looks at the…

People have strong ideas about children growing up with a second or third language. These ideas influence how they look at other people's children, and influence how professionals such as teachers, doctors, and speech therapists advise parents of children growing up bilingually. This digest seeks to dispel some of the myths about children growing…

The number of languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a small number of languages serve as important link languages or languages of wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world's approximately 200 countries…

This digest reports on a study that examined the impact of participation in a two-way immersion program on the language and achievement outcomes of former program participants and on their current schooling path and college plans. The study explored outcomes for three groups of students: (1) Hispanic students who began the two-way program as…

This digest presents information on bilingual-bicultural education for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The premise of bilingual-bicultural education is that all children who are deaf or hard of hearing should develop communicative competency and that they need to be bilingual in order to function successfully in the family, school, and…

This digest presents eight principles drawn from theory and research on second language acquisition and culturally sensitive instruction to guide teachers who work with linguistically and culturally diverse students. Each principle is accompanied by a brief explanation and suggestions for classroom techniques and activities. They are: (1)…