The paper focuses on the communication of three bilingual couples, each speaking a different lingua franca (LF). Positioning theory offers a methodological framework to explain language choice in interactive positioning within personal contacts. A comparative view of the couples' storylines benefits from the differences between them. The analysis…

This comparative curricular study examines the educational functions of the Swedish Sámi nomad school curricula before and after a central school reform in the 1960s. Due to the reform, the nomad school, a boarding school system for the Indigenous Sámi people in Sweden, was formed to bring about systemic changes in the education of Sámi children,…

Since the post-Soviet context is not particularly well known to the majority of readers, the author uses this introduction to provide a general background against which developments in particular post-Soviet countries can be better understood. The author begins by placing these developments in the sociohistoric context of language policies of the…

Compares two different types of bilingual education programs--the Canadian immersion programs, designed primarily for foreign language enrichment, and the European School bilingual education program, designed primarily for language maintenance. Achievement scores for both approaches were comparable, pointing to the importance of environment and…

Presents an analysis of the opinions of two generations of Asian parents, one from a 1970-74 survey, and one from a 1995 survey, regarding their children's education. Reveals increasing satisfaction with their children's education; greater mother participation in educational activities; and greater concern with teaching mother tongues in schools.…

National language planning involves four interdependent processes that ideally constitute a cycle: fact-finding, policy formation, implementation, and evaluation. Each of these processes is more difficult in the relatively young but highly pluralistic nations of Africa. A community-based model of language planning offers ways to alleviate or…

Focuses on language restoration in a situation where people start again to use a language as the language of the home and to speak it to newborn children after a period when these uses were extinct. Specifically considers the conditions accounting for Hebrew language revitalization and compares this situation with efforts to revitalize the Maori…

The core of the case for bilingual education is that the principles underlying successful bilingual education emphasize the same factors that underlie successful language acquisition in general: understanding messages and obtaining comprehensible input; using background knowledge; and the development of literacy. The importance of the first…

Promoting diversity has become a prominent goal in language-in-education policy discourse in two broad contexts. On the one hand, language policies take on the challenge of maintaining and developing "de facto" linguistic and cultural diversity through language acquisition planning; on the other hand, they portray themselves as active…