At the intersection of social studies and world language curricula are opportunities to explore students' prior learning with vocabulary-rich content designed to support language acquisition goals. "Funds of knowledge" is defined as socio-cultural, economic, and historical knowledge from home and community settings. The instructional…

The present study examines the nonroutine problems that eight Anglo-American principals encountered in managing three elementary bilingual immersion schools in the Northwest United States. Using qualitative inquiry to collect data, I employed the multisited ethnographic research model. The principals reported nonroutine problems in the following…

The Sabal Palm Elementary School in Miami, Florida, cooperated with Florida International University to develop three innovative language programs: (1) Spanish, employing a modified immersion technique for kindergarten and first and second grades; (2) Latin, emphasizing the Latin origin of English for grades five and six; and (3) Shakespeare's…

Six papers presented at a conference on early childhood first and second language acquisition sponsored by the California state legislature's Child Development Programs Advisory Committee include: "Bilingual Development and the Education of Bilingual Children During Early Childhood" (Eugene E. Garcia); "An English-Only Preschool Program" (William…

A project at Indiana University of Pennsylvania to improve the speaking skills of 36 secondary school French and Spanish teachers is described. The project consisted of a total immersion workshop for strengthening oral skills, learning classroom techniques, and developing innovative curricula, and teacher projects to incorporate innovations into…

A two-year program, designed to improve the elementary school Spanish language partial immersion program in the Minneapolis Public Schools, is described. Program objectives included the improvement of teacher skills and satisfaction, preparation of instructional materials in science and language arts, enhancement of student learning and…

Dickinson College (Pennsylvania) has established an immersion language program for high school foreign language teachers at its French, Spanish, and German overseas sites. The program focuses on political and cultural life, history, art, industry, and preparation of a new curriculum to implement at home. Greater self-confidence and more classroom…

In a 3-year, federally-funded program, faculty at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) have developed a series of behavioral and natural science courses in which students with at least the fourth semester of foreign language do a portion of the course readings in the second language and meet once a week to discuss them in that language with the regular…

This book is designed as both a methods text and practical guide for school districts and teachers involved in foreign language instruction at the elementary and middle school levels (grades K-8). Its primary concern is with majority-language speakers and with beginning-level classes. Brief introductory sections outline key concepts for success.…

The development and coordination of interdisciplinary immersion programs in French and Spanish at Boston College are chronicled, and some issues of federal grant support are discussed. The programs, currently involving the history, theology, philosophy, fine arts, management, and sociology departments and soon including political science, consist…

The first ten years (30 issues) of the newsletter for Iowa teachers of foreign language in the elementary school (FLES) contain a variety of articles on both curricular and extracurricular FLES programs and teaching. Topics addressed include: teacher certification; summer language camps; multicultural education and cultural awareness; program…