Based on the author's experience teaching in a multicultural classroom in England, this paper suggests that children's home languages are valuable not only in terms of linguistic and cognitive increment but also as part of a broad provision of multicultural and antiracist education. (10 references) (Author/LB)

Describes ways in which Hawaii's Kamehameha Prekindergarten Education Program (PREP) considers culture in developing program components. PREP makes connections to the home culture an ongoing process. Incorporating culture into educational activities for preschoolers occurs in three areas: making connections through familiar materials, language,…

Discusses the declining role of Spanish at every level of the teaching profession. Although Spanish is the most-studied foreign language in the United States, the increasing trend is to use English instead of Spanish, even in upper-level and literature classes and in scholarly writing about Spanish. (CNP)

Examines the sociocultural context in Singapore to determine the existence of an examination culture there. Argues that an examination culture has important repercussions for the introduction and implementation of innovative practices into the education system. Examination focuses on the 1991 English-language syllabus and how the introduction of…

Contrasts a bilingual Austrian school, which has German-speaking and English-speaking students and German and English as equal languages of instruction, with an independent school in the United Kingdom where German is taught intensively to students of all age groups. Focuses on the status of foreign languages, teacher recruitment, teaching…

Through interviews and direct observation, examined how 120 Toronto (Ontario) children understand and experience kindergarten in ten English first-language (L1) and ten French immersion second-language (L2) classes. Results indicate the similarities between the groups were greater than the differences, contradicting suggestions that L2 immersion…

The bilingual education debate often focuses solely on quick mastery of English versus native language maintenance, ignoring the more important issue of overall academic success for English language learners. Research suggests that the effectiveness of late-exit bilingual programs may be related to their provision of long-term academic support and…

From 1949 to 1957, the Chinese Communist Party's language policy took a pluralistic approach. A Chinese-monopolistic language policy was dominant, 1958-77. A pluralistic approach was again adopted from 1977 to the present. The Chinese experience illustrates how language minorities everywhere must balance maintaining their home language with…

Scaffolded reading experiences provide a practical, research-based framework that teachers can use to support their English language learners. The Scaffolded Reading Experience framework consists of a set of Prue-, during-, and postreading activities to use with any genre of texts. Prereading strategies include building background knowledge,…

"Thinking schools" will be sites of learning for everyone declared the Singapore Prime Minister, Goh Chok and Minister of Education Teo Chee Hean's in 1997 also spoke on the model of "thinking schools, learning nation". Gardner's model was used for the thinking school model in Singapore, in order to develop critical and…

Fiji is a multilingual country in the South Pacific with English, Fijian and Hindi being the official languages. As is inevitable in multilingual societies, language use is functional with Fiji Hindi and Fijian being the mother tongues of the two main ethnic groups in the country, the Indo-Fijians and the Fijians. English, because of Fiji's…

Since Reunification of French Cameroon and British Cameroons in 1961, the country has adopted French and English as its joint official languages and recommended the promotion of bilingualism in these two foreign languages in official domains. This paper focuses on the primary school level in the francophone sub system of education and examines the…

The paper addresses a key issue in language planning of the third world countries, specifically Pakistan, a country that remained under the shackles of Colonialism till 1947. But, still the country does not have a clear cut language policy. Being richly multilingual and multicultural, it had to cope with the problem of a second language, the…

This study determined the effectiveness of an early literacy program that embeds skills-based instruction into meaningful contexts, documented children's engagement in the instruction, and obtained insights into how language of origin (Spanish or English) influences performance in instruction in two languages. The program, Systematic and Engaging…

The International School of Geneva was founded in Switzerland more than 75 years ago to serve the needs of diplomatic families. Today it is a large, complex academic organization, with three campuses educating more than 3,400 children from ages 3 to 18, representing 110 nationalities and speaking about 80 mother tongues. The school offers…