Language diversity should be viewed as an asset to schools rather than a liability. Educators should capitalize on the situation and adapt early by developing a bilingual education program. Three levels of decision-making are discussed, with alternatives and criteria described for each. (1) Program decision-making involves a range of choice from…

This anthology of articles is intended to encourage broad study in the field of bilingual education as a basis for the acquisition of knowledge which will enable practitioners to make intelligent decisions about the programs in which they participate. An overview is provided of the policy and legal factors which had an impact on the efforts to…

Bilingual education in American Samoa is hampered by several factors: lack of native language materials, inconsistent support for materials and program development, the prominence of English in the modern culture, and teacher discomfort with teaching in Samoan. In the process of developing curriculum and materials, the existing materials were…

This paper proposes an educational study to determine the best way to educate Mexican American children. It suggests an experiment comparing the traditional approach, the English as a second language approach, and a bilingual-affective approach as described by the authors. The detail of the proposed program are presented, and the three language…

The bilingual education program in a given community should be based on a sociolinguistic assessment of that community, and community members should be involved in assessing the surrounding bilingual reality and in deciding whether they wish to mirror that reality in the biliteracy program. This paper presents alternatives for bilingual programs…

This handbook is designed for school administrators, teachers, parents, and community groups who are interested in establishing a bilingual education program in their school. Since it is intended to be a practical, step-by-step guide to bilingual education, the handbook emphasizes the process of developing a program, pointing out alternatives…