A preliminary study was conducted by the National Center for Bilingual Education on the Korean community living in the United States. The study focused on Korean Americans residing within the Los Angeles Long Beach area of southern California, one of the largest Korean communities in the United States. This report includes: (1) a history of the…

Describes the use of Arabic in the news media, worship places, and schools of Arabic-speaking immigrants to the United States in the early 1900s and in the 1980s. Predicts that Arabic usage among 1980s immigrants will follow a pattern, noted among early immigrants, in which Arabic usage gradually diminishes. (KH)

Discusses the history of the decline of the use of Irish in Ireland since the 12th century and how present government policies and citizen attitudes have affected this decline. Government actions include establishing a Gaelic Board, setting nominal Irish qualifications for civil servants, and teaching Irish in the primary schools. (SED)

Examines the current revival of Welsh language and culture arguing that the traditional socioeconomic context of a Welsh-speaking environment is being eroded at the same time that the formal incorporation of Welsh into the parapublic sector (e.g., education) is being realized. (DMM)

The unstable linguistic situation in Algeria resulting from official "normalization" in a country in which French has strong colonial roots is discussed, as well as its effects on the status of French instruction. (MSE)

Rhaeto-Romansh is a Neo-Latin language with three varieties. Occidental Rhaeto-Romansh (Romansh) is spoken in Switzerland, in the Canton of the Grisons. Central Rhaeto-Romansh (Dolomite Ladin) is spoken in some of the Italian Dolomite valleys, in the Province of Belluno, Bozen/Bolzano, and Trento. Oriental Rhaeto-Romansh (Friulian) is spoken in…

Tribal cultures in South India are extremely varied. This paper examines different indicators of modernization, such as the degree of urbanization and the spread of literacy among the tribes, focusing on how modernization affects the tribal mind set and how this awareness is reflected in various processes of acculturation (e.g., claiming one's…

This paper discusses the use of metaphors in describing relationships with indigenous languages, focusing on native and newly-fluent speakers of Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Data come from interviews with male and female Maori speakers age 19-44 years who discussed their commitment to becoming fluent speakers of Maori and used a range of…

This paper discusses the concept of Bulgarian national mythology, a secondary mythology that emerged around the late 18th century based on the fundamental opposition Chaos-Cosmos, near-far, up-down, good-evil, God-Satan, and human-non-human. The new mythology redefined self-images and images of the Other, the main figures, and narratives about…

This study addressed how to maintain "use or lose" language skills among Department of Defense linguists. The study, which involved over 300 linguists at 61 installations worldwide, supported the Air Force strategy of global engagement by regularly providing pedagogically sound language maintenance materials in small doses and…

Argues that language shift appears to correlate highly with the development or nondevelopment of political movements based on language issues. Three major Celtic languages are described to illustrate this: Scottish Gaelic, Irish, and Welsh. Degree of politicalness of language issues seems to correlate inversely with the rate of language shift.…

Explores the moral and political issues involved in the concept of language rights. Examines language diversity as well as insights into the relationship among language, human existence, and culture; elaborates the concept of language rights; and discusses the moral and political philosophy of language rights. (34 references) (Author/CK)

Considers language acquisition, language maintenance, and language instruction among ethnolinguistic minorities through the unique perspective of writers who belong to ethnolinguistic minorities and write in a language other than their mother tongue. Focuses on the works of Tahar ben Jelloun and Sayed Qashu. (Author/VWL)

Discusses common issues in indigenous education worldwide: indigenous peoples' struggle for control of their education, which is inevitably situated in larger indigenous struggles for self-determination and social justice; revitalization and transmission of indigenous cultures and languages; problems of defining "indigenous;" and the legitimacy of…

Examines the role of cultural identity and heritage language maintenance among the lives of 40 second-generation Korean-American university students in the United States. Analyses of questionnaire data showed that most second generation Korean-Americans achieve some level of Korean proficiency, but they overwhelmingly agree that it is not enough.…