The United States has seen a tremendous growth in dual-language programs over the last decade. This rapid growth brings up questions about the congruency between labels and implementation. Our experiences observing some of the programs and listening to teachers talk about the programs in New York City led us to propose that many of the…

This descriptive study of language use examined the extent to which bilingual Hispanic young adults used their two languages in varying aspects of their lives and analyzed the extent to which they maintained the use of Spanish in these domains. A convenience sample of 202 undergraduate, Hispanic university students completed the Language and…

Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) was chosen as the national language to unite the linguistically diverse groups in Malaysia in the mid-1950s. This choice brought about a total change in education policy, whereby Bahasa Malaysia became the medium of instruction for all subjects (other than English) in public schools. The decision saw a complete…

Narrowing the achievement gap between students who are native English speakers and those learning English as a second language is one of the biggest challenges facing U.S. educators. This article discusses the approaches used by the Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools in narrowing this achievement gap. Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Schools has one of…

This report describes a pilot study of the attitudes and personal estimates of progress of students who have spent 4 or more years in the Amigos two-way bilingual program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The program currently enrolls about 300 students: 50% native Spanish speakers and 50% native English speakers, approximately half of whom are African…

Based on the author's experience working with the French minority in the Yukon, this study investigated the contributions of the school and of the family to the success at Ecole Emilie-Tremblay, a school of children from exogamous families (those with parents from different language groups). Three areas of parental involvement were…

This paper reports on an investigation into the communication activities in a multicultural elementary school classroom in England. In the first exercise, the whole class worked in groups of three, each group led by a bilingual child, to devise a doctor-patient dialogue in that child's foreign language. When the dialogue was presented to the…

A study assessed and compared the effectiveness of two distinct approaches of bilingual education used within a single school district in El Paso (Texas). The program designs, one a traditional transitional bilingual and the other a bilingual immersion, were implemented under similar conditions of resources, school year length, class size, and…

As an introduction to a 1992 symposium of educators, administrators, researchers, and legislators concerned with the education of minority students, this paper reviews the overriding issues related to diversity and American education reform in the context of Goal 3 of the National Education Goals. Framed in a context of economic uncertainty,…

Issues in the debate in Ireland over Irish language instruction in the schools are reviewed in light of the establishment of the European Economic Community. In the first chapter, three points of view are compared: results of research on Irish, attitudes of the general public, and those of language interest groups. The second chapter provides a…

A study investigated the extent to which all-Irish primary schools in the Dublin (Ireland) area: (1) provide opportunities for parents not using Irish at home to send children to an all-Irish school; (2) provide impetus for an increase in Irish use in homes of attending children; (3) increase interaction among Irish-speaking families; (4) are…

This International atlas of language vitality offers a cartography of language functions, based on a quantitative measure of the vitality of each language. It covers the constitutional languages of India, and offers maps, graphs, and data tables illustrating the vitality ratings of 14 languages by state, domain of usage (religion, schools, mass…

This book describes over 2,100 academic programs (at least one academic quarter in length) sponsored by accredited U.S. postsecondary institutions or developed for U.S. students by foreign universities and other organizations. Entries are based on a 1993 survey. While most programs listed are available to undergraduates, many programs are also…

A study examined the experiences of 60 Japanese immigrants to Hawaii (Niseis), aged 61-80, who attended Japanese-language schools as children. Using a case study oral history approach, the study gathered oral testimonies through semi-structured interviews. Historical documents were also used as primary sources of information about the schools.…

Ethnocentrism has permeated the European-American educational establishment for nearly 500 years. Native students have been subjected to a barrage of assimilation tactics designed to destroy their cultures and languages. Only 206 Native languages remain (about a third of the original number), and about 50 of these are near extinction. Language…