Sociocultural implications of ethnicity are explored in this paper. Three main questions are discussed: (1) What is ethnic?, (2) Who wants to be ethnic?, and (3) Why be ethnic? The author notes that in 1960 the ethnic diversity of the U.S. population was such that some 185 foreign language newspapers, 1,660 radio programs broadcast in the foreign…

A fair number of empirical, scholarly studies of West African languages have been published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the study of West African languages was in these years overtaken and nearly overwhelmed by a racist reaction. In the 1930's linguistics began to assume its substantially modern form and scholars…

This paper examines the contradictory data of research studies on bilingual education from the viewpoint that such data will make sense only if we consider bilingual education as the result of societal factors rather than as the cause of certain behaviors in children. Schermerhorn's theoretical framework for research on ethnic relations (with the…

This comprehensive handbook on bilingual education, designed to aid administrators primarily, presents program guidelines, procedures for program initiation, and an annotated bibliography. Based on analyses of some 2,000 reports on bilingual and bicultural education, the work stresses social, cultural, and psychological concepts in sections…

The problem of teaching culture in language classes is reflected in the criticism directed to the current Part 4 section of the Regents foreign language examination given in the State of New York. This paper, the result of a panel discussion on culture, proposes changes in the examinations and proposes new directions in the study of culture.…

This report integrates instructional materials and concepts on the teaching of culture in foreign language classes in three major areas. Part 1 deals with the description of sociocultural concepts of Spanish peoples with emphasis on the basic features of Latin American Culture including: (1) the family, (2) family events, (3) social peculiarities,…

Reports on a study of social relationships, parental characteristics, academic achievement, and occupational expectations among 205 secondary-level Mexican-American high school students in California. Suggests that bilingualism may provide special advantages in obtaining the institutional support necessary for school success and social mobility.…

English in Third World countries characteristically possesses an ambivalent, even ambiguous character, relating uneasily with feelings of nationalism and of tolerance towards grassroots multilingualism on the one hand, and with the not-so-blind desire of common people to acquire the White people's language on the other. Many different kinds of…