In a demographic shift that is ahead of the state as a whole, but representative of many small towns in the region, Hispanics make up nearly 27 percent of the enrollment in the 800-student Hennessey school district, up from 18.2 percent in the 2000-2001 school year. In response to those changes, the district has adjusted how it teaches…

The ongoing debate between advocates of bilingual education and advocates of English-only instruction often fails to acknowledge classroom realities. The author, who has taught native Spanish speaking students in a variety of settings, draws on her experience to explain that not all bilingual programs are the same and that no program will…

This article is one among a series of studies on the acquisition of patterns of linguistic variation observable in the speech of native speakers of Canadian French by French immersion (FI) students. The present study is centered on deletion of the central vowel schwa, a widespread feature of casual spoken French. In this study, FI students are…

In response to the American Association of Applied Linguistics' presentation of the Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award for extraordinary contributions to the fields of language learning, teaching, and testing in May 2004, Merrill Swain described her own work as "moving in cycles of research, theory and practice." These "spirals" ("cycles…

One of the aims of Maori-medium education is to address Maori language loss. One of the challenges facing Maori-medium educators is to identify configurations that acknowledge the substantive importance of English language instruction without detracting from the priority that must be given to the regeneration of the Maori language. Issues…

This paper examines the bilingual and biliteracy development of a group of children from Samoan and Tongan families over the transition to mainstream English-medium schools in New Zealand. The children attended Pasifika Early Childhood Education Centres in Auckland, New Zealand, which provided full immersion programmes in their L1 (either Samoan…

In November 2000, Arizona voters passed Proposition 203, a law that replaced bilingual education with a 1-year program known as Structured English Immersion (SEI). Although SEI has little support in the educational or applied linguistics research literature, all English-language learners (ELLs) in Arizona are automatically placed in SEI…

How can the "revolving door" at the nation's high-poverty schools be slowed down? How can diversity be taught in teacher preparation that relates to teaching and learning? How can teachers learn to use the diverse urban classroom as a rich asset? By focusing on reconceptualizing general education studies, addressing key urban understanding and…

In this article, I--a White, French-immersion teacher-researcher--engage in a reflective examination of my research and teaching practices involving African American students. My critical reflection of my research examines the instruments used in my comparative study of African American students' experiences in the French-immersion context and the…

Despite the importance of the integration of English language learners with native English speakers for social, academic, and linguistic purposes, few models of integrated bilingual education, other than two-way immersion programs, exist. This article describes one district's effort to design a K-5 late-exit bilingual program with an integration…

A study in two El Paso (Texas) elementary school two-way bilingual education programs investigated factors in learning through first and second language, analyzed teacher development in a context of complex change, and identified promising school structures for collaborative professional development for these teachers. Of the 24 participating…

A study in five schools investigated issues in the integration of language-minority students from bilingual education classes and native English-speaking students in academic subject area classes. Participating teachers, six grade-level teachers and six bilingual teachers, the latter selected for their experience with transitional bilingual…

This paper describes the design of a new Maori, early childhood, immersion teaching diploma program at the University of Waikato (New Zealand). The program incorporates a strong focus on developing both the adult students' fluency in Maori, as a second language, and their skills for facilitating fluency in young children, many of whom will also be…

A study investigated parent attitudes toward a dual-language (Spanish/English) immersion program of bilingual education, in which both English-speakers and non-English-speakers are participating students and English is used no more than 50 percent of the time for instruction. The 20-item (agree/disagree format) survey elicited opinions from 200…

The brochure, intended for the parents of children in elementary school or younger, answers common questions about second language learning and instruction for children. In question-and-answer form, the following issues are addressed: the benefits of knowing a second language; why it is better for a child to learn a second language in elementary…