Focuses on model for implementing a primary language program in Australia. Parameters of this model were: an intensive beginners' course introduced at year 5 level; the language program be part of the mainstream curriculum and be allocated at least six hours per week; the language taught be Indonesian or French; and a maintenance program of at…

Draws on sociocultural theories of language and learning and research on bilingual families to examine home language practices of trilingual-immersion students. Ethnography was used to explore daily language use at home, children's views of their identity as trilingual, families' values of maintenance and additional language learning, and reasons…

Concerns a study of the views of the bilingualism of a group of Asian children and youth. Within the context of a semi-structured interview, subjects reflected on the role of their languages in their lives. They noted their lack of proficiency in their Asian languages, their parents' efforts to support those languages, and the importance of these…

Patterns of language maintenance among immigrants have been researched widely, and lie at the core of daily life for immigrant families. The present study reports on a questionnaire developed to assess various aspects of language maintenance, focusing on parent-child communication. Parents and children of 307 immigrant families living in Sydney,…

Since Sweden will never again be a monolingual, monocultural country, new approaches to language instruction in the schools must be developed. Instruction in Swedish and in Swedish as a Foreign Language should be provided for all pupils for whom Swedish is truly a foreign language. Instructional programs should be designed to prevent the…

Semilingualism is discussed as a sociolinguistic concept and is viewed as a mediating variable when the society reproduces the class structure and vocational structure of suppressed minorities. A Finnish group of immigrant children in Sweden is the minority considered. It was found that the longer the Finnish children were educated in Finnish, the…

Discusses the concept that one must work from within bilingual education outward toward other disciplines rather than from the outside, or from the pursuit of other disciplines inward toward an understanding of bilingual education. (Author/HP)

A survey of francophone parents in Monckton, New Brunswick enrolling their children in either English-language or French-language schools revealed the reasons for the enrollment choices, satisfaction with the choice, perceptions of their children's linguistic competence and ethnic identity, their own linguistic assimilation, home and second…

This paper aims to reassess conclusions drawn in 1975 about the prospects for survival of the Navajo language. A study done at that time uncovered evidence that there was increasing knowledge of English among Navajo children, although knowledge of English was highly, positively correlated to the level of isolation from Navajo speakers. As a result…

Discusses measures language teachers can use to maintain and develop their communicative language ability. Introduces strategies teachers can adopt and mentions ways in which educational systems and universities can assist teachers. The model presented is relevant to teachers of any language. (13 references) (Author/CK)

Argues that universities in Australia have done little to assist in the preservation of Aboriginal languages. The article maintains that provision by the government of adequate financial support to universities would enable them to make a significant contribution to the cause of saving endangered languages from extinction. (Author/CK) (17…

This paper explores issues of teaching and learning Chinese as a heritage language in a Chinese heritage language school, the Zhonguo Saturday School, in Montreal, Quebec. With a student population of more than 1000, this school is the largest of the eight Chinese Heritage Language schools in Montreal. Students participating in this study were…

This monograph describes the language planning situation in Nigeria, one of the most multilingual countries in Africa. It is divided into four sections. The first section presents the language profile of Nigeria and provides a background of the general language situation in the country. The second section discusses language spread and use. It…

This anthology of sociolinguistic/anthropologically-oriented articles on ethnic bilingualism and bilingual education seeks to understand bilingual education outside of the methodological-pedagogical issues involved, that is, from a theory and research, rather than classroom, perspective. Bilingual education is seen as the result of societal…

In a case study, a child's acquisition and maintenance of Chinese (as a first language) and English (as a second language) were documented. The child brought to the United States at age 3.5, acquired English in 2 years and was encouraged to maintain his Chinese skills through a family-based education program. For 6 months the boy was given Chinese…