An objective of the federal government's action plan for official languages is to double the number of high school graduates who have functional knowledge of the second official language. Yet without a clear definition of what constitutes bilingualism, or a consistent approach to assessing language proficiency, how will we know if that goal has…

This paper examines why Maori language needs to be taught accurately at the early stages of initial teacher education programmes and continue for the duration of a teacher education student's degree. If teacher education faculties are permitting their students to mispronounce Maori names or words, they are in fact doing a disservice, not only to…

Webtools provide language students a uniquely authentic audience with which to share their creativity and growing proficiency in the target language. Students tend to write/speak more--and better--when using these tools in the language classroom. Webtools form an enjoyable and pedagogically sound way of getting students to create and have fun with…

Since Do Coyle and Hugo Baetens Beardsmore published their Special Issue on "Research on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)" in the "International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism" in 2007, there has been a great deal of interest and debate about the approach, which under the umbrella term of Content…

This regional dossier aims to provide concise, descriptive information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific region of Europe--Malta. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well as…

Developing the ability to speak in a foreign language is an arduous task. This is because it involves the mastery of different language subsystems, simultaneous focus on comprehension and production, and the impact of a range of social factors. This challenge is further compounded in situations in which learners have limited access to the target…

Firth and Wagner (1997) questioned the dichotomies nonnative versus native speaker, learner versus user, and interlanguage versus target language, which reflect a bias toward innateness, cognition, and form in language acquisition. Research on lingua franca English (LFE) not only affirms this questioning, but reveals what multilingual communities…

Terminology is a central theme of debate about language shift in Malaysia's judicial system--sometimes seen as the last bastion of the colonial language. Advocates of more Malay in courtroom argument and professional practice often point to the Institute of Language and Literature's creation of thousands of terms to equip the national language for…

Discusses the Basque Government's policy requiring its employees to learn the minority, co-official language. Presents reasons for the plan's deficiency, including a lack of incentives for workers, and points to a more comprehensive plan for Basquisation. (16 references) (Author/CK)

This study reports on Japanese university-level EFL teacher N50 and student N660 reactions to the notion of making English an official language, as proposed by an advisory board to Prime Minister Obuchi in 2000. The study also reports on beliefs about English language learning and teaching in general in terms of goals, proficiencies of Japanese…

The need to develop and encourage the use of local, national and official linguistic codes in Nigeria for both domestic and international usage cannot be overemphasised. In order to achieve a rapid political, economic and sociocultural change in the country, all academic and specialised institutions and corporate organisations in the local and…

The construction, administration, and scoring of the Teachers Oral Proficiency Interview for South Africa (TOPISA) are described, and issues in its use are discussed. The test was developed to help standardize English proficiency levels of teachers in the post-apartheid, multicultural society. The rationale for a standardized test in this context…

Examines the status of English second language instruction in Dutch-speaking Flanders (Belgium), particularly as concerns these areas: education (teacher education, language certification, types and intensity of English courses, materials and methods); Flemish society and daily life; its image and the quality of its use; and status in competition…