During the spring and summer of 1975, 666 Mexican Americans in 3 Southern California cities were surveyed to examine the relationship between various social, economic, and cultural aspects of the Mexican American population and their contact with mental health services. Sixty-three of the respondents were considered to have had contact with mental…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of the Spanish-speaking people living in the United States as expressed in their prose, poetry, and drama. The scope of the paper includes the literature of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Mexican Americans in the United States written between 1960 and 1973. The literature is surveyed to uncover…

The major hypothesis of this study is that a significant relationship exists between English language ability (as measured by the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) Full-Scale score) and language-modeling by the mother (as measured by the Mother-Child Interaction score on the Language Model Matrix), and between English language…

The main problems confronting teachers of Mexican American children are the language and cultural barriers. Mexican American children are often limited in communication skills in both Spanish and English and hold different values and life styles than the Anglo American teacher. The "live now" attitude, which is characteristic of Latin cultures,…

This document presents a comparative study of two approaches to English as a second language and cultural education for immigrant children recently arrived in Canada. Both approaches have the same basic philosophy that the child should learn language and culture together, at his own pace, stimulated by his curiosity and his growing awareness of…

This booklet is comprised of three articles. (1) Ethnicity in American Life: The Historical Perspective, by John Hope Franklin, recounts the trends in the last three centuries. It is contended that ethnicity has extended and continues to extend beyond race; that at times it meant language, customs, religion, and national origin, but that it has…

First through twelfth graders' beliefs concerning the social distances between people differing by race, sex, or race and sex were assessed. Sexual social distances are larger for boys than for girls, increase during pre-adolescence, and decrease during adolescence. Racial social distances are larger for blacks than for whites, and increase with…

Changes in the social organization and context of education were studied in a rural Illinois school district experiencing a rapid influx of Hispanic students. The local meatpacking plant closed, then reopened under a new name and began an aggressive campaign to recruit immigrant and migrant workers who would work for lower wages. In the next 3…

This paper discusses the need for systematic school-wide support of the use of indigenous languages among those who learn them at home and of approrpriate instruction in the same languages for those who do not. The school's role in keeping indigenous languages alive must go beyond native language instruction to encompass dissemination of…

Noting that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of West Indian immigrants to the United States, this paper discusses factors affecting the acculturation of Jamaican immigrant children in the American educational system, highlighting factors relating to poor performance of these immigrant children. The paper first provides an…

The International Communication Division of the proceedings contains the following 18 papers: "Press Freedom in Asia: New Paradigm Needed in Building Theories" (Jiafei Yin); "Entertainment East and West: A Comparison of Prime-Time U.S. and Asian TV Content Using the Methodology of the National Television Violence Study" (Anne…

This collection of papers reports research on the effects of bilingual learning on the ability to speak two languages and the ability to acquire full literacy in both. There are 12 chapters in 4 parts. Part 1, "Background," includes (1) "Assessing the Effects of Bilingualism: A Background" (D. Kimbrough Oller and Barbara Zurer…

Discusses the development of bilingual education policy in Britain from the 1960s to the present, focusing on assimilation versus pluralism, multicultural education, the 1985 Swann Report on education policy, and the role of English in the national curriculum. Argues that more needs to be done to promote bilingual education in Britain. (17…

In recent decades, Quebec has been continuously examining its educational values, addressing in particular the effectiveness of traditional educational methods and curricula, role of institutional culture in academic success, and value placed on ethnic integration. Priority should be given to cognitive development and systematic evaluation but…

Uses a sociocultural perspective that acknowledges the many resources for children beyond school for language acquisition to describe how research about children' communities can be used to enhance bilingual instruction. Argues for the redefinition of researchers' and teachers' roles for a collaborative working relationship to bring about…