Overviews issues affecting Native American and bilingual education including the unique cultural, linguistic, and educational needs of different Native American groups. Suggests that Native American communities need to gain control of their children's education to ensure the integral use of American Indian languages in tribal schools. Addresses…

Examines strategies used by Hmong adults learning to read and write in their first language. Data collected through classroom observation and translation from Hmong research assistants identified cooperative learning behavior, learning through example, concern with explicit direction and reluctance to perform in front of others as predominant…

Examines the myths surrounding the introduction of native language instruction in American Indian communities. Despite the concerns of many parents, such instruction does not "hold back" students, and in fact empowers them to succeed in school. Parent-community involvement is essential for dispelling myths and for reinforcement of the…

Describes how indigenous students in a remote Mexican village learned ways to document their culture and history; how teachers in this same village learned to teach reading and writing in Ayuuk, their native language; and what a Foxfire teacher learned as an instructor in the teacher workshop. Includes the Foxfire "core practices" in…

Discusses the use of "buddy journals" between pairs of native and nonnative English-speaking students to help develop the English literacy skills of both groups of students. Guidelines are provided for matching student pairs, evaluating student writing, and allowing for midcourse changes, as well as sample journal topics. (15 references) (MDM)

Thirty-eight bilingual (Spanish-English) first graders with language delays were compared on rate of receptive acquisition of English prepositions and pronouns. Subjects who received instruction in Spanish prior to instruction in English acquired the English prepositions and pronouns twice as rapidly as subjects who received instruction in English…

Examines how rural-urban, nonconformist-Anglican dichotomies characterized Welsh educational history. Discusses how nineteenth-century industrialization and social status encouraged Anglicization of Welsh schools and society. Analyzes subsequent developments that reawakened national consciousness, and demands for Welsh language instruction, now…

Discussion of the possibilities that information technology and mass media offer to learning environments focuses on small linguistic societies, especially Iceland. The role of schools is examined, characteristics of information technology in schools are described, teaching the mother tongue is discussed, and future possibilities are suggested.…

Explores the development of a multicultural literacy project designed to develop literacy both in English and the students' individual native languages. The intervention fostered collaborative relationships among researchers, teachers, parents, and students. (37 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates effect of computer-aided instruction (CAI) on acquisition of communication skills. Sketches a tutorial of the basic communication structure. Recommends confining CAI to cognitive learning because CAI cannot advance communication skills. Maintains that integrating CAI in social arrangements will allow the computer to remain an…

Among 187 Arizona Mexican-American children with limited proficiency in both Spanish and English, participation in a maintenance bilingual education program during grades K-2 produced significant gains in oral language acquisition for both languages. Students with the lowest proficiency scores in kindergarten showed the greatest gains. (SV)

Discusses a study of grades six, eight, and ten students in the Netherlands to whom grade-appropriate measures of reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge were administered in their native language, Dutch, as well as in English. The aim was to explore relative contributions to native language and foreign language reading comprehension of a…

A study assessed an intensive fluency intervention for low-achieving at-risk beginning Spanish readers in grades 1-2. Data from 53 first- and second-graders in bilingual classrooms in southeast Texas indicated that implementing intensive reading fluency interventions in bilingual classrooms is feasible and valuable if conducted with fidelity and…

Advocates change in the way American Indian languages are taught in schools and by tribal elders, specifically that they should be taught orally in the classroom. Asserts that American Indian languages must be taught in the context of everyday conversation, not as isolated words, and that new words should also be invented in response to the…

This book is about native English speakers teaching English as a global language in non-English speaking countries. Through analysis of naturally occurring dialogic encounters, the authors examine the multifaceted ways in which teachers and students utilize diverse communicative resources to construct, display, and negotiate their identities as…