This is the first international and interdisciplinary handbook to offer a comprehensive and an in-depth overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early childhood language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. The contributions by leading scholars and practitioners are structured to…

This article presents a comparative analysis of a metasynthesis of Israeli and US studies on parental choice of two-way bilingual education. My analysis reveals that the reasons majority-language and minority-language parents expressed in the US and Israeli studies converge in some aspects but, significantly, also diverge. I argue that the…

The purpose of this study is to compare Korean and Mongol minorities in the People's Republic of China in terms of their native language preservation and educational experiences at the higher education level, and to investigate differences and similarities between Korean and Mongol minorities' language issues. Content area experts on Chinese…

In 2000, voters in the US state of Arizona passed Proposition 203 "English for the Children," effectively abolishing bilingual education services in favor of a submersion approach termed Sheltered English Immersion. In this discussion, I use an ethnographic lens to highlight the logistical complexities involved in the negotiation of…

This volume is the first to comprehensively examine Chinese's affirmative action policies in the critical area of minority education, the most important conduit to employment and economic success in the People's Republic of China after the economic reforms begun in the late 1970s. This book contains four parts. Part I, "Debating China's…

The author of this chapter argues that the failure of Spanish language education policies in the United States to educate both Latinos and non-Latinos has to do with the clash between three positions--(a) the English language, characterized by U.S. educational authorities as the unique and powerful lingua franca; (b) the Spanish language, as…

The vitality of most Indigenous languages in North America, like minority languages in many parts of the world, is at risk due to the pressures of majority languages and cultures. The transmission of Indigenous languages through school-based programs is a wide-spread approach to maintaining and revitalizing threatened languages in Canada and the…

Although generally acknowledged as complex and multidimensional, bilingual education, when successful, plays an important role in maintaining and developing bilingualism, resulting in numerous benefits to those who undertake it. This essay will discuss the necessary components and principles of what is required to make a successful bilingual…

Traces the United States Bilingual Education Act (BEA) from its inception in 1968 through its most recent reauthorization in 1994 as the primary federal legislative effort to provide equal educational opportunity to language minority students in the United States. (Author/VWL)

This book examines the solutions that various members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations have attempted to the question of whether schooling of immigrant and language minority children should be organized with the intention of assimilating them into the dominant culture, or whether their cultural and…

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…

The aim of this book is to investigate the motives for action on language behavior, whether this means corpus, status, or acquisition planning. It examines such questions as why individuals, groups, and governments try to influence their own or others' language behavior or language attitudes, and what drives authorities to try to control, favor,…

Addresses three critical issues challenging South African and U.S. efforts to improve teacher quality: equity, demographics, and violence. Both countries want education to ameliorate long-standing racial inequities by improving teacher qualifications; both face increasing enrollments and teacher shortages; and both have high crime rates. (Contains…

"Multicultural Education Policies in Canada and the United States" uses a dialogical approach to examine responses to increasing cultural and racial diversity in both countries. It compares and contrasts foundational myths and highlights the sociopolitical contexts that affect the conditions of citizenship, access to education, and…

This book focuses on the minority languages of Europe, those other than the national languages of European Union member states, by looking at the demographic, sociolinguistic, and educational aspects of both regional and immigrant languages. Empirical evidence for the status of these other languages of multicultural Europe is brought together in a…