This systematic literature review examines the panorama of interculturality in rural contexts of bilingual education in Latin America. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in Latin America and identify key themes, challenges, and gaps in the field. The review highlights the importance of recognizing and…

Focuses on the legal framework supporting the development of bilingual education. Reviews minority language issues and relevant issues from international law and regional law establish the legal parameters of its promotion. Practical ramifications of this are illustrate with reference o Scottish Gaelic. (Author/VWL)

Argues that bilingual education in developing countries represents an encouraging facet of efforts to improve primary schooling both quantitatively in terms of participation and qualitatively in terms of learning processes. Using examples from Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Mozambique, and Bolivia, demonstrates advantages of bilingual programming in…

A discussion of public policy concerning bilingual education looks at why and how policy should be re-focused on helping Limited English Proficient (LEP) students make academic gains. It first examines some characteristics of the highly diverse and rapidly growing LEP population, including varied academic background, tendency to reside in small…

The paper examines some critical issues regarding the Spanish language proficiency of bilingual education teachers, primarily those from the Spanish-language-origin community. Recent longitudinal studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between sustained native language instruction and student achievement. Because this finding is…

A teacher of deaf children responds to a treatise recommending expanded use of American Sign Language (ASL) in deaf education by addressing the immediate problems that parents, teachers, school authorities, and linguists will need to carefully consider in implementing an ASL-based bilingual approach to educating young children. (CB)

This paper discusses literacy, language education, language achievement, and bilingual education policies and practices in Japan. The paper first describes the Japanese writing system (consisting of the "kana" and "kanji" scripts) and notes that students typically study English from grade 7 to the first 2 years of college. The…

This survey of research on bilingualism focuses on a controversy over methods for teaching reading, namely, should non-readers achieve literacy in their native language before learning to read a second language? As a report of the results of various studies shows, both proponents of prior native language literacy and proponents of prior second…

This review of research considers how best to teach English-language learners. A realistic appraisal of the empirical database indicates that research findings have failed to provide answers to questions about the importance of native language instruction and the best age and best methods for introducing academic instruction in English. The review…

Presents an overview of the history of Navajo language literacy. Discusses efforts of missionaries to transcribe a written Navajo language, early native language instruction using the Bible and religious texts, the first Native teachers, development of Navajo dictionaries and grammar books, and memories of the school experiences of a present-day…

Schools in the United States that have always conducted classes in an ethnic language were studied in an attempt to correct a long-standing oversight in the development of bilingual education theory. Chapters are devoted to the critical examination of five of the assumptions that have guided ethnic communities in institutionalizing ethnic-language…

Recent research and program evaluations show that the poor academic performance of many bilingual children was caused not by their bilingualism but by the school's attempts to eradicate that bilingualism. These findings demonstrate that bilingualism can positively affect minority children's development when their first language is promoted by the…

Literature on current methods of teaching language in bilingual education is reviewed and a new approach is suggested. It is suggested that a specialized sequence of native language courses should be offered to populations of language minority students with the same vernacular language. The approach proposed integrates bilingual education, English…

Literacy in South America must be understood in terms of the linguistic diversity there, where only 2 of 14 nations and territories are monolingual. Oral traditions, standardization of indigenous languages, nonstandard varieties of colonial languages, bilingual education and mother tongue literacy, literacy teaching, and politics are discussed.…

This report summarizes advances in bilingual education that help linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) students reach high levels of achievement and performance. Factors to be considered include the native language, bilingualism and academic achievement, curriculum, parental and community influences, and programmatic evaluation. The reports…