Seventy educators and community members in six northern Saskatchewan Aboriginal communities were interviewed to examine policies and practices related to Native language planning and education. The language circumstances in the six Cree, Dakota, and Dene communities are discussed in terms of Fishman's eight-stage scale of language disruption and…

Examined the extent to which foreign student families view attrition of the first language (L1) and academic skills as a serious issue for their children, and what steps they take to maintain these skills. Suggests foreign-student parents are concerned their children are losing L1 literacy and academic ability and are supplementing their…

Explores the loss and maintenance of Spanish in Hispanic children in Vancouver from the perspective of parents. Focuses on the experiences of Hispanic parents of children either developing bilingually (Spanish-English) or monolingually (English).(Author/VWL)

Reviews sociological analysis of the transformation of the link between language and identity among Soviet Jewish immigrants in Israel, focusing on their common desire for Russian language maintenance after their immigration to Israel. Argues that although the immigrants acquire fast, the former Jewish intelligensia's perception of the dominant…

The cultural resource specialist at Glacier Bay National Park (Alaska) explains the collaborative efforts of park staff and the Hoonah Tlingit to overcome language and cultural barriers in documenting park place names and clan oral history and traditions. The new park-community relationship, which follows decades of conflict, includes training…

Discusses suicide among American Indian youth. Examines Indian youth suicide rates, general characteristics of Indian suicides, behavioral characteristics and environmental stresses, guidelines for planning interventions, the use of American Indian culture to engage at-risk youth, and the high risk status of Indian foster children in non-Indian…

The Rediscovery foundation provides advice and training to Native American and other indigenous communities for establishing and operating wilderness camps to rediscover their ancient ways and connection with the land. Describes a 2-week camping trip in British Columbia with members of the Nuxhalk Nation during which they established a new…

Language is easiest to learn before age 5. The Cherokee Nation supported production of a toy that teaches young children basic Cherokee words. When figures that come with the toy are placed into it, a computer chip activates a voice speaking the name of the figure in Cherokee. Learning takes place on visual, auditory, and tactile levels. (TD)

School-community partnerships create empowered communities that become actively involved in the academic educational process and pursue lifelong learning. Examples of community education efforts involving American Indians include a community learning center at a reservation school, tribal language and dance courses, Internet use, distance…

One of the challenges facing Aboriginal education is how to enhance Aboriginal students' achievement through culturally responsive pedagogies. The issue involved is not merely that of methods of teaching and learning but of acquiring the necessary tools for shaping and implementing a socially and culturally oriented curriculum that recognizes…

Each month, "American School & University" provides a mix of thought-provoking features, how-to-articles, industry reports, exclusive surveys, new sections, insightful columns, new product introductions and case histories to assist education officials in better performing their jobs. This October 2004 issue includes the following:…

Extensive evidence exists demonstrating the utility of Curriculum-Based Measurement in reading (R-CBM) for progress-monitoring purposes; however, most studies have evaluated R-CBM from a traditional psychometric perspective, which allows for variability in individual student's data that is not a function of increased skills (i.e., measurement…

Responding to Johnston's projections for the future of Australian Sign Language (Auslan), I analyzed school enrollments in American educational programs and found similar trends. There are fewer deaf and hard of hearing children in school now than twenty years ago, with the largest decline, approximately 50 percent, among children with profound…

This article investigates the effects of the maintenance of Japanese as a heritage language on English and overall academic achievement. The interrelationships among Japanese oral and writing proficiency, SAT I Verbal, SAT I, and high school grade point average (GPA) were examined. The participants were 31 second generation Japanese-American…

Who wins in sociolinguistic research undertaken in minority ethnolinguistic communities? This is a question that might at first glance seem an odd one. In fact, however, the concept of winning--with the concomitant themes of games and gamesmanship, plays and players, gains and losses, rewards and punishments, and so on--is an apposite one wherever…