This scholarly investigation delves into the metamorphosis of China's language policies across three distinct epochs spanning over two millennia, tracing from ancient China to contemporary times. Employing a sociolinguistic lens, the analysis elucidates the historical trajectories of these policies, accentuating their theoretical and pragmatic…

The status of pluralistic languages in the United States may be traced back to attitudes and policies developed in medieval England, where Norman French, Old English, and Latin were each associated with certain contexts and certain populations. English finally achieved dominant status in all domains, but this achievement came about through…

A synthesis of research on the Franco-Ontarian school environment focuses on the maintenance of French by Franco-Ontarian students, their French language proficiency, and their native language instruction. The relevance of these issues in other French language minority settings is discussed. (MSE)

Provides a survey of the Sami languages in present-day Norway. A brief overview highlights the historical and current position of Sami, discusses two often-overlooked examples of Sami language and culture, Lule Sami and Southern Sami, and explores the current position of these latter two examples and the various language and education initiatives…

Discusses the role of the school in supporting minority group identity, particularly through language maintenance programs. While language shift may not be countered by schools acting in isolation, identity can be maintained through periods of language shift. (Author/CB)

Examines the move toward federal constitutional rights for minority language populations and the trade-off considerations of implementing such a move. It is argued that minority language populations benefit from maintenance of decentralized language policies and that state bureaucratic agencies are more protective of language minority rights than…

Explores several models of cognitive and structural perspectives involving minority-language situations, and attempts to integrate them into a framework of predictive propositions that elaborate psychosocial climates of maintenance, majority-minority encounter, and interactive strategies. (65 references) (Author/CB)

Discusses the arguments frequently made against bilingual education: equal opportunity and public identity. The assertion is made that the opportunity and public identity that we hold out for individuals of other cultures can be broadened to allow them to bring the strengths of their own cultures with them. (SED)

Provides a contrastive analysis of effects of two official policies geared toward promotion of indigenous populations, the Evenki in Siberia and the Oroqen in Northern China. Explores why the the Soviet and Chinese policies failed to buttress Evenki and Oroqen against encroaching languages and why the loss of the Oroqen language occurred faster…

Describes contact linguistic backgrounds in three distinct sociolinguistic areas in Old Belgium, illustrating the importance of ecological approaches in analyzing areas in which one or more languages or varieties are in danger of dying out. Data collection methods that discover, rather than conceal, linguistic realities are revealed. 29…

A brief description of factors affecting the generally neglected study of reversing language shift (RLS) is presented. and An eight-step model for building and planning such research, taking into consideration such influences as community and neighborhood, family, and school, is described. (CB)

Discusses the maintenance initiatives taken up by the Karelians, an indigenous Finno-Ugrian minority in Russia. Suggests that Karelian, despite its Russian influence, has preserved its basic structure and feasibility, and that future maintenance depends on active use. (Author/VWL)

Discussion of language minorities and language maintenance focuses on three issues: the meaning of the terms "minority" and "maintenance" in this context; the centrality of group identity to most minority-language issues; and initial attempts to address minority issues in more cross-disciplinary and intellectually complete ways. A seven-item…

The goals of language policies in Marxist-Leninist states tend to be applied in three stages: (1) pluralism, (2) bilingualism, and (3) monolingualism. The language policies in Bulgaria, particularly as applied to the Turkish minority, fit this pattern. A pluralistic language and education tradition in Bulgaria, inherited from the Ottoman Empire,…

Discussion of languages in Australia looks at the multicultural makeup of the society, the role of English, dynamics of language contact situations (community language change, intergenerational language shift, other factors in maintenance and shift), societal and individual multilingualism, and support for multilingualism (language policies,…