This report summarizes advances in bilingual education that help linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) students reach high levels of achievement and performance. Factors to be considered include the native language, bilingualism and academic achievement, curriculum, parental and community influences, and programmatic evaluation. The reports…

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…

A study investigated the nature of college students' English-as-a-second-language self-concept using a hierarchical, multidimensional model of self-concept. Subjects were 306 students in a Hong Kong higher education institution responding to a self-concept questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) replicated previous findings that a global…

A discussion of the education of West Indian immigrant students in the New York City public schools focuses on identification and assessment of this population's needs. It is noted that West Indian students represent the fastest-growing immigrant population in the city, but no educational policy has been established in the city or state to address…

A case study examined the similarities and differences in the background characteristics, the nature and causes of the English language-based problems, and the coping strategies of two foreign students at Indiana University, Bloomington. Subjects were selected because they represented two different nationalities (Malaysian and Indonesian),…

Transparency theory is a view of learning and skill acquisition that grew out of the tradition in psychology that emphasizes the functional and holistic aspects of human perception and action. It emphasizes the tacit skill aspects of language acquisition and the functioning of language as a tool of social interaction as well as the more…

While it is clear that this is an era of global interdependence, the ideology of single language learning persists in the United States. We need to re-examine the view that learning a particular foreign language satisfies global communication needs. It is not sensible to have students spend hundreds of hours studying one foreign language and…

The purpose of this paper is to argue that though the Communicative Approach to Language teaching in its original sense has long been theoretically dead, it has for an almost equally long time at least potentially existed in a new form, and continues to thrive. By no means here for the first time is this sort of proposal made, but what remains to…

A guide on foreign languages is presented for counselors, administrators, teachers, and parents. An introductory section discusses reasons for foreign language study, college entrance or exit requirements, foreign language and SAT scores, careers that use foreign languages, myths about learning foreign languages, and information about French,…

A fair number of empirical, scholarly studies of West African languages have been published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the study of West African languages was in these years overtaken and nearly overwhelmed by a racist reaction. In the 1930's linguistics began to assume its substantially modern form and scholars…

Pupils in South African Bantu schools spend one third of their time in Standards (Grades) 1 and 2 learning the official languages, English and Afrikaans. Nearly as much time is given to the learning of their own Bantu mother tongue, the language of instruction from Sub-Standard A (Preprimary) to Standard 6. In the Lower Primary schools, through…

It is not sufficient for students in foreign language classes to simply internalize the sound system and grammatical structure of the target language or to memorize the vocabulary. Speaking is not merely a linguistic event, but rather involves an extensive system of norms for the social interaction. The relationship between speaking and social…

The modern view suggests language be approached through speech. It is therefore customary that the first stages of language learning are spent on oral drills in order to make the sound system and the basic structures automatic habits. In countries where classes are big and the time spent on foreign language learning is limited, spending too long a…

Examines the extent to which foreign language use should play a prominent part in a course. The article discusses subject knowledge; factors affecting students' language skills; course objectives, structure and content; student reaction to questions about tutor input and the topics appropriate for teaching in the foreign language; and perceived…

Examines a series of naturally-occurring phone calls between a young child and his grandmother in the child's second language (L2), Portuguese. Notes that during the calls the child's L2 appears to increase in complexity, but is subsequently abandoned. Argues that this abandonment requires an examination of the language's role in the larger…