Describes a technique developed over the last 15 years in conjunction with South Carolina school districts to help them set priorities when addressing school building needs. Identifies five factors that are used to measure the overall impact of an individual facilities project in relation to other projects, thereby ranking projects according to an…

Describes two major events--mass migration to New Caledonia in the 1950s and the conversion from a protectorate to a French overseas territory in 1961--that have confronted Wallis and Futuna (Central Polynesia) with the same sociolinguistic problems that have beset other Pacific islands for decades. (Author/CB)

A Federal Government Policy in Nigeria aimed at unifying the country through the use of three major languages (Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo) has been inhibited because there are no teachers. Resistance from speakers of other languages to the enforced learning of one of the major languages also seems likely. Maintenance of English is suggested as the…

Presents a historic overview and analysis of the Sardinian language (actually a system of dialects), and defines diglossia and bilingualism. A discussion focuses on research conducted in two junior high schools to determine the differences in linguistic behavior in two contrasting situations (village and city) in regard to Sardinian and Italian.…

Study of native language maintenance of 10- and 11-year-old children of Lebanese immigrants in Australia found that most could speak but not read or write Lebanese. Lebanese competence depended on subjects' parents' literacy level and interest in language quality, and actual use reflected children's opportunities or necessity to speak Lebanese.…

Four students, aged 15-19, with moderate mental retardation learned to cash checks and use an automatic teller through either a decreasing prompt hierarchy or time-delay procedure. Both strategies led to acquisition of target tasks and were equally effective in producing performance maintenance; however, the decreasing prompt hierarchy was more…

The study with three sixth-grade learning-disabled students found that a self-instructional strategy to facilitate the generation, framing, and planning of argumentative essays had a positive effect on the students' writing performance and self-efficacy. Effects were maintained over time and transferred to a new setting and new writing genre.…

Alarming findings were reported in a recent study of facility conditions. Two of the more common terms for describing the facilities problem are "capital renewal" and "deferred maintenance." How and why higher education reached this critical point is discussed. (MLW)

Functional analyses of problem behaviors were performed with three individuals with severe intellectual disabilities. Results indicated that the problem behaviors were maintained either when the behavior resulted in escape from difficult tasks or when the behavior resulted in access to preferred items. Training in functionally equivalent…

Hearing undergraduates (n=155) watched a videotape showing positive images of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals working in 8 different occupations. Positive attitude changes were found between a pretest questionnaire and a posttest. The attitude change was maintained at a second posttest 30 days later and generalized to other occupations. (DB)

Effects of videotaped self-modeling on acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of the contractible copula "is" with preschool children with delayed language were assessed. All three participating students made and maintained clear gains in acquiring the target behavior and applying it in normal conversational usage. (Author/PB)

Describes the large Asian Indian community of Northern California and observes how this relatively recent immigration has generated a rich and diverse array of organizations, business enterprises, and community events. Subcultural and transnational practices are discussed, as is the reformulation of India in the San Francisco Bay Area. (GR)

For 20 years, Robert Mestas, a Native American biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has devoted his career to the study, conservation, and management of endangered birds of prey. The study of his own Yaqui culture and of other traditional Indian cultures has deepened his conviction regarding the cultural significance of preserving…

Sixteen students with learning disabilities or at risk of failure in foreign language study participated in a peer tutoring program with Spanish vocabulary. The classwide reciprocal peer tutoring system was found to be a feasible component of foreign language instruction, as high levels of Spanish words were learned and maintained, and incidental…

This study evaluated procedures used to train 10 supervisors in a residential setting to provide feedback for maintaining direct-service staff members' teaching skills with people who have severe disabilities. A combination of classroom-based instruction, on-the-job observation, and feedback that targeted supervisors' feedback skills was found to…