Management schools are expected to educate future professionals with the necessary skills to operate successfully in a global business environment. In this paper, the authors analyze and reflect on an experiment in interdisciplinary cooperation undertaken by business faculty at a US university and language faculty at a French School of Management.…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the framework for implementing multilingual language education (MLE) countrywide in Nepal. I outline key tenets of MLE, explain the rationale for implementing it in the Nepali context, and describe the MLE framework that formed the basis of trainer workshops. The framework is divided into 7 topics: 4 of…

From classroom teachers to researchers, education professionals have raised questions about how best to assist students who face the significant dual challenge of acquiring the content knowledge necessary for academic success and simultaneously developing their English language competency. This document addresses these questions by looking at key…

In contrast with debates over language pedagogy or aptitude, this paper examines seven societal obstacles which impact the success of classroom language learning and the development of intercultural competence in American language classrooms. These include expectations for teacher preparation, language proficiency and target language use;…

The evolution of Rwanda's language policies since 1996 has played and continues to play a critical role in social reconstruction following war and genocide. Rwanda's new English language policy aims to drop French and install English as the only language of instruction. The policy-makers frame the change as a major factor in the success of social…

Since 1995 I have been engaged in consultancies and since 2001 in research dealing with the language of instruction policies in Africa. To what extent are the policies being implemented? What is the role of research and consultancy when it comes to language policy? What happens when researchers or consultants come up with recommendations which do…

This research explored the experiences of owning and using laptops among three secondary school teachers in Malaysia. They were granted personal laptops by the Ministry of Education through the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English, or known as Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI)…

During an investigation into the L2 proficiency and L3 acquisition skills of 10- to 12-year-olds in Irish primary schools, questions of metalinguistic awareness and cross-linguistic influence were raised. Do children who are more balanced bilinguals develop a higher sense of metalinguistic awareness than less balanced bilinguals? What evidence of…

In the postcolonial era, a cultural nationalist movement has sought to elevate the status of St. Lucia's creole vernacular, Kweyol, and with some success--it is now the most visible symbol of St. Lucian national identity. This relatively new development has altered somewhat the historic linguistic status quo between the official, high status…

The Italian-Slovenian border represents a dynamic vantage point from which to observe how cultural and linguistic contact takes place and how minority groups have created educational strategies to preserve their cultural and linguistic diversity while striving for respectful coexistence with the dominant society. Slovene-medium schools have been…

This article addresses an area of international concern, the need to enhance the development in reading comprehension for English Language Learners. We report results of an intervention to raise achievement in English (L2) in Samoan bilingual classrooms for 9-13 year old Samoan children. The general aim was to examine patterns of biliteracy and…

Globalisation processes, often accused of imposing uniformity the world over, also open up opportunities for minorities (including linguistic ones) to exploit a variety of spaces for self-definition and self-expression. The expansion in the use of minority languages in public signage is one consequence of this present phase of reorientation in…

It has been increasingly recognised that classroom discourse plays an important social role as a semiotic mediator of knowledge construction with respect to curriculum content. The assumption is that through active verbal engagement with a topic of interest, students are enabled to master the modes of language use associated with schooling--the…

This paper focuses on the situation of Basque in education in the Basque Autonomous Community. First, it provides statistical information about four crucial aspects of bilingual education: (1) Parental choice regarding the linguistic model, that is, the use of Basque, Spanish or both Basque and Spanish as languages of instruction over the last 20…

This study was an ethnographic case study that investigated oral and written language learning in a first grade classroom in Kenya. The languages used in this classroom were Swahili and English only. Kamba the mother tongue of the majority of the children, was banned in the entire school. In this classroom there were 89 children with two teachers,…