Indigenous people in North America and around the world are in dire circumstances with respect to language maintenance and cultural continuation. However, Indigenous communities are also taking back increasing control of the education of their children. In so doing, they are frequently exploring culture-based education and language immersion…

Language teacher education is widely identified as one of the most important areas that needs addressing in order to improve early language instruction, yet research into teacher education for early language teachers remains relatively sparse. This volume responds to this gap by compiling studies with diverse methodological tenets from a wide…

With disasters on the rise, counselors need to increase their cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills to work with affected communities. This study reports outcomes of a four-week immersion experience in southern Africa with six counselor-trainees. Data sources for this qualitative study were: daily journals and demographic forms. Outcomes…

Standardized tests have been selected as a key assessment factor in expanding the academic achievement of the national student population. However, these tests position immigrant students at the risk of academic failure, leading education experts to search for new strategies and teaching models. The "Handbook of Research on Assessment…

This research originated from the need for a speech and language therapy assessment in te reo Maori for a particular child who attended a Maori immersion unit. A Speech and Language Therapy te reo assessment had already been developed but it needed to be revised and normative data collected. Discussions and assessments were carried out in a…

Indigenous scholars have debated the impact that researchers and the act of researching have on Native and Indigenous people and communities. Although literature on this subject has grown, little has been written explicitly laying out "the doing" of research with these communities. The authors seek to articulate their "doing"…

The paper offers a retrospective evaluation of recent evaluative studies of bilingual programs in the Australian state of Victoria, in an attempt to determine how successfully the evaluation process met the dual criteria of external accountability and development. The programs in question were located in primary or secondary government schools and…

The evaluation of bilingual education programs is complicated by such factors as the diversity of evaluation methodologies and program goals and the reliability of instruments for minority language students. Three bilingual program evaluations in foreign countries are described in terms of their different contexts and approaches in order to raise…

Reports the results of a comparative evaluation of an early total immersion program, a delayed immersion program, and an all French program for English-speaking language majority students in Montreal, Canada. (33 references) (Author/OD)

In this paper, I discuss current interest in educational reform in Puerto Rico, the need for better and more appropriate assessment tools, the growing realisation in the USA that two-way bilingual programmes can provide an effective vehicle for fostering the development of bilingual proficiency, bicultural competence and subject-matter knowledge…

One of the aims of Maori-medium education is to address Maori language loss. One of the challenges facing Maori-medium educators is to identify configurations that acknowledge the substantive importance of English language instruction without detracting from the priority that must be given to the regeneration of the Maori language. Issues…

Cognitive, behavior, achievement, and English/French speaking skills were correlated with ratings of oral French ability for third-grade francophone and anglophone immersion students. Teacher ratings correlated with achievement and cooperativeness, but independent ratings didn't. Objective evaluation procedures should be developed to minimize the…

This paper discusses the use of the LISREL computer program to compare two groups of Ontario students who studied French as a second language in either a regular or an immersion program. Longitudinal data on growth in mathematical ability, from grade 4 to grade 6, are analyzed using seven different mathematical models. The paper illustrates the…

The guide, entirely in French, is intended as a resource for regular elementary and early secondary school classroom teachers of reading to both native speakers of French and French immersion students in Canada. An introductory chapter describes the guide's organization, gives background information on its approach to reading instruction, links…

This special report on the assessment of French immersion students in Alberta focuses on critical issues and methodological problems with testing methods. After an introduction, the second section gives an overview of these issues and problems. Issues discussed include the following: whether students instructed in French immersion programs should…