India's rich multilingual, multicultural society creates a complex challenge to the Government as it attempts to address the educational needs of its tribal communities. Although access to schools has increased and enrolment rates are improving, the dropout rates are still alarmingly high and achievement levels are low compared to their non-tribal…

This paper explores ways in which language ideology is linked to maintenance of Korean as a heritage language by Koreans in America. The data for this ethnographic study come from three separate sources: 1) a Korean language program at an American university; 2) a community-based ESL program for Korean seniors; and 3) a recently immigrated Korean…

Established in 1983 by a group of parents and teachers, the 'Aha Punana Leo ('APL) was formed. A grassroots organization, 'APL was established to respond to the dismal plight of the Hawaiian language. Just a mere 25 years ago, the Hawaiian language was on the verge of being lost forever. Through the dedicated efforts of a small group of friends…

English teaching in Colombian primary schools became a requirement because of the promulgation of the Law of Education in 1994. Taking into account that this decision produced some difficulties in the schools, a study was conducted to diagnose the state of English language teaching in primary schools in Pasto, Colombia. Data were gathered through…

Despite the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) government's determination to implement the "mother tongue education" policy amid strong social resistance one year after the handover, English remains a prestigious language in society. The need for Putonghua (Mandarin/Standard Chinese) is also increasing following ever-expanding…

Remarkably, little academic attention has been given to the phenomenon of Chinese language schools in the UK. This paper aims to address this important gap in knowledge through the development of a detailed mapping of the population and practise of Chinese complementary schooling in England. The paper draws on ethnographically informed…

The goal of this study was to describe what motivates adult women enrolled in a community college to pursue higher education. Utilizing profile analysis and multiple regression analyses, this study investigated the extent to which gender, English as a first language, and age predicted the seven factors of the Education Participation Scale (A-form)…

Although Communicative Language Teaching is accepted by many English teachers in China as one of the most effective approach in English language teaching, there are still a number of misunderstandings about it. By comparing Johnstone; Sato and Kleinsasser and Thompson as well as Spada, this article focuses on four of the main misunderstandings,…

The unique needs, goals, and constraints of heritage language learners in U.S. higher education and the multiple ways that they differ from those of second and foreign language (L2) learners have been well documented (Brisk, 2000; Chevalier, 2004; Grosjean, 1982; Kagan & Dillon, 2003). Each population uses its two languages in diverse ways, for…

Originating from many different sources, Russian as a heritage language in Finland displays a spectrum of developmental tendencies: both attrition and maintenance can be observed in various degrees. The Finnish educational system allows for the organization of bilingual pre-schools and schools when there are sufficient numbers of potential pupils.…

In honor of CALICO's 25th anniversary, this study looks at the presence and collocations of the term "theory" across issues in 25 volumes of the CALICO Journal. Utilizing the electronic versions of articles now available to all subscribers and the built-in search engine on the CALICO website, 244 articles in which the word "theory" appeared were…

The focus of this article is to examine the notions of language learning, heritage (referring to tradition) and ancestry (descendants & properties passed on), and cultural identification for Urdu-speaking immigrant children now living in Canada. This article provides a detailed ethnographic account of an innovative language program developed…

This article addresses the situation of lower-proficiency heritage language learners of Spanish in terms of their linguistic similarities to second language learners. The analysis highlights grammatical and lexical features in the oral discourse of Spanish heritage and second language learners at intermediate and advanced levels of study,…

This article, based mainly on specific examples from the author's ethnographic fieldwork, outlines the state of bilingual education in Xinjiang and reviews its development. First, a broad outline is presented of the overall circumstances of bilingual education in China and Xinjiang. Next is an introduction to the present state of bilingual…

"Cheating" is a form of resistance in pedagogy for bilingual educators. Bilingual educators "cheat" in classes where English as the only language of instruction is strictly imposed by school or district officials, but these teachers "cheat" by using the native language of their English language learners because they know they must. But, for many…