Between 1898 and 1948, English was the language of instruction for most post-primary grades in Puerto Rican public schools. Since 1949, the language of instruction in all grades has been Spanish. We use this policy change to estimate the effect of English-intensive instruction on the English-language skills of Puerto Ricans. Although naive…

Describes immersion program in foreign languages at Boston College which allows students to select a standard curriculum from courses in many departments but to have curriculum taught in a foreign language. Provides brief description of program and its history, explains how it works, and gives assessment of the past year and a prediction about the…

Discusses three reasons for using mother tongue in education including preservation of cultural traditions, development of creative thought, and links between school and home. Describes creation of language-neutral materials developing graphic and symbolic skills other than writing as way to minimize cost. (Author/BK)

Discusses the language used in mathematics classrooms and states that appropriate language is based not only on the words we say but also on how those words are being perceived. Indicates that teachers should give students time to develop the meaning of numbers, operations, or problems. (ASK)

Reports on a microethnographic study of a number of classrooms in different areas of Negara Brunei Darussalam, a small Malay Islamic Monarchy on the Northern coast of Borneo, Southeast Asia. Focuses on one classroom in a small up-river school away from the malay center and in one of the few areas in the country where a form of Malay is not the…

Discusses the impact of language policies on students and communities in Lebanon, with special emphasis on policies pertinent to the choice of the language of instruction. These policies are examined in the light of the country's political history, highlighting their impact on students and communities at the socioeconomic and educational levels.…

Locates the success or failure of language revitalization programs in a framework of solidarity and power. Focuses on the implementation of the language revitalization program within language-in-education planning. (Author/VWL)

Proposes a combined implicit and explicit approach to Spanish grammar teaching, in which the instructor would exclusively use Spanish for grammar teaching over most of the class time, with limited explanation followed by supporting practice, and then use English at the end of the class to confirm and clarify understanding. (CB)

Explores the arguments surrounding the debate over the language of instruction in Hong Kong schools, and examines their practical implications. The rationale for stronger emphasis on Putonghua in the school system is discussed in detail, and the main options available to policymakers at both the institutional and territory-wide levels are…

As the mobility of Europeans increase, multicultural education, especially the issue of the language of instruction, becomes a great challenge. Spanish examples demonstrate that of the models of management for cultural diversity, unity through pluralism is the most desirable. (SK)

Describes a newly implemented dual language immersion program that exists and operates in Phoenix, Arizona. Examines the practices of dual language teachers at an elementary school and reviews the challenges teachers in six classrooms met. (SLD)

Examines the extent to which the shifting ideological discourse on multiculturalism in Australia affects the personal attitudes and perspectives of bilingual and bicultural Australian born and educated parents of Hellenic background with regard to the education of their children. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that the education of most minorities, particularly in the West, is organized in ways that counteract sound scientific evidence and violate linguistic human rights, especially in relation to the wrong choice of medium of education. Substantiates this claim with recent developments in linguistic human rights in education, with special…

Discusses the relationship between language instruction and language policy. Looks at language policy and language instruction in different countries and focuses specific attention on U.S. policy. (Author/VWL)

Many "alternative primary education" programmes operating in the developing parts of the world use children's first language as the medium of instruction. Programme sponsors often base their vernacular language policy on literature that highlights the cognitive and other benefits that accrue from using children's first languages as the medium of…