In this investigation of education, conducted in South West Africa/Namibia, it was found that the medium of instruction was one of the basic causes of the teaching and educational problems experienced at schools. In South West Africa/Namibia, several languages, including English and Afrikaans as official languages, are involved in the…

This study was conducted to examine the basic conceptual knowledge and understanding of physics possessed by students enrolled in introductory physics, mechanics and waves and optics courses at John Abbott College (JAC). The study used a 36-item multiple-choice test of physics preconcepts developed by Halloun and Hestenes. The Halloun and Hestenes…

An introductory textbook in English as a Second Language, commonly used in Egyptian schools, was evaluated for the degree to which its stated principles for classroom use of Arabic corresponded to instructions given in the lesson notes. A computer concordance program was used to extract relevant passages from the teacher's introduction and the…

A study investigated the use of horizontal instruction to teach Spanish-speaking secondary students an inferential English reading skill. It looked at (1) the relationship between the students' class-inclusion skills and their ability to identify the implied main idea, (2) the effect of sequentially-developed classification lessons on the…

An exploratory study was conducted to identify the degree of language performance in native and bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking children under circumstances of native and bilingual language instruction. The study is a first step in testing the hypothesis that the underachievement of children in English-as-a-second-language programs and…

Research literature concerning the effects of incorporating the heritage languages of minority students into the regular school curriculum either as subjects or as mediums of instruction is reviewed. Program evaluations from Canada, the United States, and Europe consistently show that the use of a minority language as a medium of instruction for…

This volume contains the proceedings of the symposium on African language, culture and society held at Ohio State University. Six of the papers deal with the related issues of language reform and language planning, including such aspects as the choice of national and official languages. They include both general proposals for theoretical models as…

There is an urgent need to formulate a new set of goals, methods and concepts for instruction in English as a second language (ESL) if it is to remain viable and make its potential contribution to American education. The present work draws on recent developments in linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and language pedagogy in an attempt to…

This report presents results of research conducted in conjunction with a Swedish project focused on the bilingual instruction of immigrant children. The main aim of the project was to construct a model for teaching children with a mother-tongue other than Swedish (in this case, Finnish) in a way that would provide them the same educational and…

In a background statement identifying what is unique about Canada and the issues it currently faces, this paper begins by discussing the concurrent movements toward Canadian nationalism and Quebec nationalism as an illustration of the problems caused by large size and great diversity. It then focuses on unique aspects of Canadian education,…

The Spanish/English Language Performance Screening (S/ELPS) was designed to assist the preschool and early elementary classroom teacher in objectively determining each child's dominant oral language for initial instruction. This report summarizes the development and testing performed in order to revise and validate the measure. After an intensive…

This research concerns the French immersion program and the program of 60 minutes of French instruction daily introduced by the Ottawa Roman Catholic Separate School Board at the first grade level. A longitudinal evaluation of the effects of these programs compares language proficiency, linguistic development, social maturity, academic…

This report summarizes the results of a research project on the cost of providing instruction in French to students enrolled in French language instructional units in Ontario. Case studies were carried out in seven Ontario school boards consisting of four secondary and seven elementary panels chosen to present a range of geographical environments,…

This article reports on the language planning efforts in the non-Russian republics of the USSR, where the Turkic languages spoken are highly divergent from Russian. Specifically described are the cities of Baku in Azerbaijan, the language in question being Azerbaijani, and Ashkhabad, in Turkmenistan, the language being Turkmen. The chief language…

Analysis of the language policy in Kenya, including consideration of language in education, language of the press, and the politics of language, suggests that language policies cannot be successfully formulated without analysis of and extensive debate among those groups and complex social processes whose interests are reflected in specific…