Discusses the limitations of immersion programs for minority-language children and examines submersion, transitional bilingual education, and reverse immersion approaches according to three criteria: theoretical consistency, fairness to children, and empirical support. Reverse immersion in which children acquire literacy skills in their native…

Compares bilingual education programs in the United States and West Germany, emphasizing instructional models and political and social influences. Summarizes current debate about the role of the home language in the education of minority-language children and points out general problems with home language instruction in the West German context.…

The Naskapi language is unique in northern Quebec because of the Naskapi people's late contact with Europeans, their geographic isolation, and the high proportion of Naskapi speakers in their territory. For the last two decades, a language development strategy has been emerging in the community as outside language specialists have been invited to…

A Senate committee hearing received testimony on the educational needs of Native Hawaiian families and young children and on existing programs that serve them. Oral and written statements were presented by Senators, parents, teachers, school and program administrators, and organizations concerned with Native education and culture. These statements…

Since the late 1970s, the New Zealand government has instituted educational reforms to increase Maori participation and success in education. These reforms required Treaty of Waitangi principles to be incorporated into school policies, devolved responsibility to local boards of trustees with community representation, required Maori culture to be…

This paper presents some preliminary findings from an opinion survey on the nature and depth of language and cultural studies to be included in school curricula as required by the Navajo Tribe's Language and Culture Mandate (1984). A 10-question survey was sent to 20 elementary and secondary schools in the Navajo Nation in New Mexico and Arizona.…

This paper illustrates how the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is exploring a new paradigm of evaluation that is responsive to the claims, concerns, and issues of stakeholders involved. Known as culturally responsive evaluation, this alternative conceived by the Initiative for Culturally Responsive Evaluation (ICRE) is considered more appropriate than…

Since 1984 the Navajo Nation has mandated instruction in Navajo language and culture in K-12 schools within its boundaries. In 1998-99, a survey and follow-up interviews with 48 individuals in 20 Navajo communities examined community attitudes and beliefs about the value of Navajo language and culture studies and the extent to which the schools…

This digest briefly reviews the impacts of assimilationist education for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) and describes recent examples of successful AI/AN schools that incorporate students' native language and traditional culture into the curriculum. Beginning in the 1870s, federal policy emphasized assimilation as the goal of AI/AN…

The report, entirely in French, describes Alberta's curriculum for ninth-year French native language instruction, as revised in 1998. An introductory section offers background information on the curriculum's design, links between the core curriculum and French native language instruction, underlying principles of language instruction, the…

This guidebook is intended for parents of French-speaking students in Alberta. It describes French-as-a-first-language education in Alberta and provides information to help parents, in collaboration with school personnel and the wider francophone community in Alberta, to preserve and develop their children's identity as speakers of French and as…

The teaching of Spanish to Hispanic bilingual college students, viewed as a distinct field within language education, is growing. It calls for greater emphasis on planning, coordination, and integration of what has developed into an interdisciplinary research area that touches on both first and second language acquisition paradigms, bilingualism,…

Discusses the relationships among bilingual education, biliteracy, diglossia, and native language maintenance. Pedagogical research in Latin American indigenous languages and Navajo indicate that indigenous language literacy instruction and bilingual methods also contribute significantly to literacy development in the national language (English or…

Traumas from the Canadian residential school system have been transmitted through generations of Canada Natives, which has interfered with learning. Curricula need to be developed by and for First Nations people. Strategies are presented for working with Native learners and for developing language instructional materials. To become fluent in…

Provides a conceptual framework and concrete guidance for Navajo language teaching that follows an immersion approach. Explains key theoretical starting points for immersion instruction and program development; then describes in step-by-step fashion how to go about implementing immersion language teaching in various classroom contexts. (Author/TD)