The research on language dynamics in the context of migration and integration has been dominated by applied linguists and educators, who described and measured native language attrition and emerging bilingualism among immigrants and their children. In parallel, sociolinguists discussed the role of language ideology/policy of the host society and…

The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), developed by Lewis and Simons and based on work by Fishman, provides a means of rating "language vitality"--the level of development or endangerment--where "development" is understood as adding or preserving functions and "endangerment" as loss of…

This essay suggests a companion term to "literacy sponsors" that better mirrors the practice and protection of traditional literacies evident in the cases of two Dakelh elders. "Literacy steward" introduces a theoretical means to describe community members whose rhetorical decisions depend on traditions that are alternative to…

On the basis of a ten-month ethnography of a Raramuri school and community, this article contributes to the understanding of the role of sociolinguistic and socioeconomic contexts in creating Indigenous-language maintenance programs. Employing concepts of micro- and macrolevel variables in language endangerment and language vitality scales, it…

In an effort to revitalize the Cherokee language, Cherokee Nation launched an immersion program for preschool and elementary children in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Central to the curriculum is literacy in the Cherokee writing system known as "syllabary". This study focuses on sociocultural and sociolinguistic evidence toward an understanding…

Discusses the sociolinguistics of literacy with reference to three examples: the history of Jewish education and attitudes toward literacy, the Rock Point Community School bilingual program, and the Pacific Northwest Indian Reading Program. (EKN)

Defines and discusses the concept of small languages. Topics addressed include political status; official status (e.g., as a national language); distinctiveness; robustness or the degree of feasibility; social function; education to support the language; functions of literacy; and appropriate technology for use with particular languages. (12…

This book introduces the general reader to the mosaic of American Indian languages and cultures as they exist in time and space, and supplies limited technical linguistic orientation to encourage further exploration of language interrelationships, cultures, and other ways of knowing. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the status, diversity, and…

This bibliography lists 1,679 doctoral dissertations and master's theses on Native American languages. The entries represent graduate work completed at colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom between 1892 and 1992. Citations for this bibliography were gathered through an extensive search of the printed…

Fundamental issues in language policy and planning are discussed: language death, language survival, language change, language revival, language shift and expansion, language contact and pidginization or creolization, and literacy development. (Contains 21 references.) (LB)

Using a discourse-centered approach to ethnography, this book provides an empirically based, contemporary overview of a rapidly changing First Nations village in northern Ontario (Canada). Data were collected in the 1980s during a 2-year residence and follow-up visits in the Severn Ojibwa community of Lynx Lake, a remote subarctic village in which…

This collection of articles on second language learning includes: "Action, langage et discours. Les fondements d'une psychologie du langage" ("Action, Language, and Discourse. Foundations of a Psychology of Language") (Jean-Paul Bronckart); "Contextes socio-culturels et appropriation des languages secondes: l'apprentissage en milieu social et la…

This book documents goals, challenges, and prospects in contemporary efforts to develop alphabetic literacies in traditionally unwritten languages, using case study examples of indigenous language development in the Americas. An introduction and conclusion by Nancy H. Hornberger, "Indigenous Literacies in the Americas" and "Language…

The issues of reading in bilingual education are examined with a primary focus on the contemporary classroom in the United States. Within bilinqual education, concern for reading has seldom reflected current research and theory, and little research has focused on reading within bilingual programs. In addition to focusing on the specifics of the…

The second of three volumes that present the three basic factors of the bilingual education equation--public policy, theory, and technology--this volume focuses on the theoretical aspects of bilingual education. Papers from the areas of language, culture, neurolinguistics, and pedagogy include: (1) "Ethnic and Linguistic Processes: The Future…