Makin and Jones Diaz (2002) suggest that young children's early literacy is most strongly supported when early childhood educators, children's families, and the wider community develop shared understandings about literacy--what counts, what is valued and validated, and whose voices are heard and whose voices are silent. Researchers such as Haas…

Efforts by Canada Natives to put their languages into standard written formats and to use Native languages with their children are discussed in this review of the Stoney Indian Language Project. The Stoney community is centered at Morley, Alberta (Canada), and the population of the three bands--Bear's Paw, Chiniki, and Goodstoney--is nearly 2,700.…

Describes a course that used e-mail to improve the German and Spanish written language skills of Canadian Foreign Service Officers. To lower attrition rates, the course required completion of authentic professional tasks, exposing participants to formal, technical, and informal language. Though initial interest was high, attrition was also high,…

The 1986 report by the Canadian Task Force on Aboriginal Languages, which recommended that the writing systems used for the northern Dene languages be standardized within 10 years, resulted in the 1987 Dene Standardization Project. The mandate for the project was to make recommendations on orthography standardization as the first step in the…

Discusses the language problems in Roch Carrier's French Canadian short stories, as well as his concise, nostalgic writing style. The article gives examples of vocabulary in his characters' dialogue; reviews the evolvement of French in Quebec and the question of "joual," in particular; and focuses on expressions posing difficulty for…

Describes weaknesses in the sociolinguistic competence of second-language (L2) learners as documented by research in immersion contexts. The article discusses findings with reference to adolescent native speakers' use of question forms, conditionals, and second-person pronouns across two levels of formality in written and oral productions. (48…

It took 25 years to develop and arrive at a consensus for a standard orthography for the language of the Innu, or Montagnais, who live in Quebec and Labrador. The principal obstacle to standardization came from dialect diversity. An effort at standardizing the spelling system in the 1970s failed because speakers were not ready to let go of the…

Reports on the training experiences of workers from linguistically diverse backgrounds via a focus on their learning activities in community college apprenticeship programs. A survey identified areas of linguistic difficulty that students were experiencing in their coursework and ways in which instructors could reduce these barriers to success.…

Information on the Ontario Test of English Achievement is presented. Attention is directed to the background and objectives of the test, test development, subtest characteristics and properties, validity, and recommendations concerning test use. The objective of the test was to determine the language competence of incoming students to assist…

The Aboriginal Language Standardisation (ALS) Project's task is to develop quality literacy materials in order to help preserve aboriginal languages of Canada. The Canadian Assembly of First Nations, a group of tribal leaders, recently called for the establishment of standards for written and oral languages by approving terminology, developing…