Level 2 Maori medium programmes with 51-80% Maori language instruction make an important contribution to developing Maori language skills and lifting Maori student achievement, yet these programmes are largely hidden from discussions about Maori education attainment. Offering lower levels of Maori immersion than kura kaupapa Maori and being…

This Eurydice report provides a short overview of policy efforts made across Europe in support of the teaching of regional or minority languages in schools. It firstly presents the reference made to regional or minority languages by top-level education authorities in official documents. It then illustrates some of the policies and measures related…

Schools throughout the world teach in several languages, but few reach the level of linguistic proficiency of Hamelin-Laie International School in Mongat, Barcelona, Spain. This school begins instruction in English, Catalan, and Spanish and at grade one, adds a fourth language as a World Language. Factors that impact the success of this school…

In the United States, English is not the official language but the dominant one. But for many students, the dominance of English instruction has come at the expense of losing their first language. For much of our history of schooling in the United States, students have been forced to leave their heritage or home languages at the door when they…

Papahana Kaiapuni is a K-12 public school program in which the Hawaiian language is the medium of instruction. In 1987, parents and language activists started the program in response to the dwindling number of speakers that resulted from a nearly century-long ban on the indigenous language. This study examined how participation in this indigenous…

Describes the development since 1939 and the success of Ysgolion Cymraeg, bilingual schools in the anglicized areas of Wales which seek to revive and maintain the Welsh language by using it as the chief language of instruction up to age 7. (SJL)

Describes some of the inequities and obstacles faced by speakers of creoles termed "nonstandard" or minority dialects in formal education. Outlines proposals for dealing with these problems and describes initiatives that have already been taken--such as developing resources for teachers, running public awareness campaigns and using the students'…

Individual summaries of each of the 76 Illinois school districts with state-funded transitional bilingual education programs are presented. Each summary provides information on the number of students, language groups served, funding, grades served, staffing, number of school buildings, number of students in each language proficiency category,…

Examines three myths about bilingual education and issues related to them. Topic areas include: types of bilingual education; maintenance, enrichment, and transitional programs; language choice in the bilingual classroom; second language development; and criteria for mainstreaming, the goals of bilingual education, and the linguistic…

Presents results of a survey on the content, organization, staffing, participants, and perceived effectiveness of 14 bidialectal language arts programs (those that use a child's indigenous dialect in the instructional process, usually to demonstrate contrasts with standard English). Suggests that more guidelines for developing and evaluating such…

The purpose of the study was to assess the relative mathematics achievement of English-speaking pupils enrolled in grades 3, 6, and 9 in regular English or French immersion programs during the 1981-82 and 1982-83 school years. The data were obtained as part of a 2-year evaluation of a system-based mathematics program developed by an Ontario school…

A study of nine federally funded Special Alternative Instructional Programs for language-minority students in which English was the primary language of instruction showed that the incorporation of students' native languages in instruction need not be an all-or-nothing phenomenon. The complexities of using students' native languages in schooling…

This report presents an overview of three major research projects on the instruction of French as a second language. The projects are being carried out in the schools of the Ottawa Roman Catholic Separate School Board, the Carleton Roman Catholic Separate School Board, and the Carleton and Ottawa Boards of Education. The projects are concerned…

In the European Schools model, linguistically and culturally diverse students receive most of their education in their first language but must learn at least two other languages. Content teaching of other subjects in the target languages and the regular mixing of different language groups promote multilingual proficiency and cultural pluralism at…

Since the mid-1980s two-way bilingual education programs have attracted renewed interest as an effective way to educate both language-minority and language-majority students. This report, which describes and assesses the current state of such programs in the United States, is based on data collected from 169 schools during the 1991-92, 1992-93,…