A major challenge facing the prekindergarten-12 education system in the United States is the fact that as the population changes, the particular needs of children change with it. One of the largest demographic shifts over the last ten years is the sharp increase in the number of students in public schools who speak English as their second language…

In our rapidly changing global culture, students' social worlds are becoming increasingly multilingual and multimodal, yet school practices do not often reflect the complexities or diversity of students' literacy and language practices. Valuing students' experiences with language and culture is important in creating supportive learning…

This paper uses data from the 2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2000) and the 1996 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01) to examine some behaviors and outcomes for immigrants and/or students who spoke a primary language other than English as children as compared to those of other citizens and English…

The persistent gap between the performance of mainstream students and racially and linguistically diverse students--for example, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans--on standardized tests may well signal problems with procedures for the development and use of standardized tests in general, and for their use with culturally…

Three studies of language brokering among linguistic minority (LM) children are reviewed and discussed. In child language brokering, children act as linguistic mediators, not translators or interpreters, for their limited-English-proficient parents and relatives. The purpose of the studies was to describe brokering in LM communities and to examine…

Failure to include nonnative English speaking students in a testing program, something that is especially important in a state where a high school graduation test is administered, can cost students the opportunity to practice for the test, as well as the opportunity for diagnosis of educational attainment and feedback about their progress. For…

This paper describes the Imazighen of North Africa, known in the West as Berbers; threats to their language and culture from schooling and the dominant Arabo-Islamic culture; and recent effects of mass media. As the indigenous people of North Africa, the Imazighen have been invaded frequently during the last 3000 years, but only the Arabs…

This paper discusses the potential of bilingual education and its possible implementation in Kyrgzystan, focusing on why bilingual education can be useful in solving linguistic tension in Kyrgzystan and which organizational questions must be considered to make bilingual education effective. The paper begins by examining and refuting common…

"Focus on Basics" is the quarterly publication of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. It presents best practices, current research on adult learning and literacy, and how research is used by adult basic education teachers, counselors, program administrators, and policymakers. "Focus on Basics" is dedicated to…

Developed in the early 1980s, the Hill Areas Education project provides basic education to children and adults of Thailand's six ethnic minority groups, who live in the remote mountainous region of northern Thailand. The project delivers a locally relevant curriculum, equivalent to the six compulsory grades of the formal education system; promotes…

About 10 million inhabitants of Germany are of non-German origin and use German and one or more other languages in their everyday life. The number of foreign students in German schools is constantly growing. About 25 percent of Germany's foreign population are citizens of other European Union states. The largest group of minority language speakers…

It is argued that the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in public schools requires teachers to be more sensitive to how children maintain effective cross-cultural communication, and be aware of barriers that affect interaction in culturally diverse classrooms. Sociocultural factors that shape the perspectives of all students should be…

At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, ethnic Latvians were only 52 percent of the total population of Latvia, and official use of the Latvian language had greatly diminished while Russian had become the dominant language. It took 15 years to develop the legal instruments necessary for stabilizing the official status of the Latvian…

Parental involvement has been promoted by politicians and educators as the cure all for academic ills in the American educational system. Programs have been funded and structured to involve all parents in schools in ways valued by middle class parents to the exclusion of language minority families, their language, and their culture. These middle…

Canada's Constitution guarantees the right to the English-speaking minority in Quebec and the French-speaking minority elsewhere in Canada to have their children receive K-12 public education in the language of the linguistic minority of that province. A working group recommended a guarantee to Francophones of a distinct right of management and…