A revised approach to teaching French orthography should aim at error prevention and emphasize differences between teaching spelling in the native language and in French. An analysis of spelling errors in the third, fourth, and fifth years of French yields some suggestions for evaluation and error prevention. (IFS/WGA)

The effectiveness of adult literacy education in Botswana is limited by centralization, lack of teacher and learner input, and the national literacy campaign's conventional rather than transformative approach. A critical approach that involves learners in planning, uses native languages, and enables teachers to select materials can better achieve…

Suggests the increasingly transnational character of many immigrant communities necessitates changes in educational policy. Using the Dominican neighborhoods in New York City, examines the economic, political, social, cultural, and linguistic evidence of the transnationalism of this community. A case is made for bilingual, bicultural programs that…

Reviews the history of English and education in the Samoas. Discussion focuses on the social, political, economic, and educational factors that relate to levels of English and native language literacy in the two Samoas, and that help to explain the decline of native language literacy in American Samoa over the past several years. (Author/CB)

Discusses the results of research to determine the success of the efforts currently being made in schools to teach pure Italian to the second generation of Italians in Australia in order to replace Italian Australian, a mixture of Italian dialects, Italian, and English. 33 references. (CFM)

Semiotics can be a useful tool for analysis in language learning situations. This is particularly true for delineating student comprehension and the familiarity/strangeness aspects of discourse or texts. Use of semiotics can help differentiate the problems facing learners of French as a native language from those facing learners of French as a…

Reviews a number of issues from the Namibia World Literacy Consultation (October 1990): the legitimacy of nongovernmental organizations, definitions of functional literacy, mother tongue versus bilingual and bicultural literacy, funding, and war and occupation. (SK)

Examines efforts to reverse language shift in two indigenous communities of southern Ecuador. Findings are presented from ethnographic work that investigated language use, language attitudes, and language instruction in two Andean communities that are attempting to revitalize their once-native Quechua.(Author/JL)

Focuses on the application of critical pedagogy at El Barrio Popular Education Program, a community-based adult-education program in New York City. Committed to the development of bilingualism and biliteracy, the program integrated Spanish-language literacy and basic education with English as a Second Language, computer and video technology, and…

This article answers some frequently asked questions about bilingual education. Suggests that a large percentage of the public is unaware of the benefits of bilingual education. (Author/VWL)

It had been a long 12-hour journey. As the passengers around us snored in slumber or pecked away at their laptops, we shifted in our seats for what seemed like the hundredth time and wondered (again, for what seemed like the hundredth time) if we were ever going to get to our destination. A low rumble issued from beneath our feet and finally, we…

This paper describes how more than 40 languages gained and retained legitimacy as subjects for graduation from upper secondary schooling and for tertiary entrance selection in the South Australian educational system. Essentially the process required conforming with administrative, curriculum and community structures and fitting the mould of…

Language shift among New Mexico Pueblo Indians threatens the loss of their oral-based cultures. Language revival for many Pueblos has resulted in school programs in which students are easily accessible and teachers are accountable to tribes rather than the state. Finding "Pueblo space" for the Native language in school, where it was…

This article explores the long-standing problem of ascribing meaning to individual acts of codeswitching. Drawing on ethnographic data from bilingual classrooms in Corsica, I situate the analysis of codeswitching within the more general question of the interpretation of speaker stance, which is defined as speakers' positioning with regard to both…

In response to an evaluation conducted by the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education of the nation's elementary schools, the Institute for Educational Development and Advice (Christelijk Pedagogisch Studiecentrum, CPS) undertook a 3-year intervention to revitalize 5 schools experiencing problems with student achievement, curriculum,…