Includes three documents arguing in favor of mandatory foreign language study in Australia's core curriculum. These statements are in response to the Curriculum Development Centre's recommendation that foreign languages "not" be mandatory. (EKN)

Describes the threshold-level movement in European language teaching. Objectives are not defined in terms of what material is to be covered but in terms of what behavior is desired. The movement's application to Australia is discussed from three perspectives: (1) social justice, (2) linguistic resources, and (3) multiculturalism. (PJM)

Reports on a microethnographic study of a number of classrooms in different areas of Negara Brunei Darussalam, a small Malay Islamic Monarchy on the Northern coast of Borneo, Southeast Asia. Focuses on one classroom in a small up-river school away from the malay center and in one of the few areas in the country where a form of Malay is not the…

Shows how language policies may superficially remain the same over a short period of time, while their meaning or value may change. Using the University of Cyprus as an example, shows how within the same country, different policies can be claimed to serve the same function and how the same language policy can be interpreted differently, depending…

Discusses the intricate connections between local education cum literacy policies in Africa and the global economic, cultural, and political forces that impact them. (Author/VWL)

Interviews with six Australian adult basic education students confirmed the social nature of literacy, the social networks involved in literacy practices, and the multilingualism of students. Results suggest the need for a curriculum that recognizes and makes explicit linguistic and cultural differences. (SK)

Discusses linguistic insights that may be pertinent both to reconsidering the desirability and tenability of the principle of plurilinguistic equality and to the day-today practice of multilingual institutional communication. (Author/VWL)

Highlights the reintroduction and renativization of Hebrew in Israel, and examines commonly made assumptions about Hebrew and its place in Israeli life. Topics include linguistic homogeneity, Jewish multilingualism, and Hebraism. (32 references) (Author/CB)

Kachru suggests that it is time to reevaluate the dominant paradigms in second-language acquisition research from a bilingual/multilingual perspective. Sridhar suggests a reality check in the reevaluation of second-language acquisition theories. (45 references) (JL)

Reviews a book that presents the proceedings of three round-tables and descriptions of the goals and aims of the Language and Society section at the Moscow Institute of Linguistics (1988-90). (six references) (LT)

As the mobility of Europeans increase, multicultural education, especially the issue of the language of instruction, becomes a great challenge. Spanish examples demonstrate that of the models of management for cultural diversity, unity through pluralism is the most desirable. (SK)

Belgium's German-speaking community feels the need for multilingualism more than most. Since 1990, French language instruction has been seriously promoted in elementary school, as much for teachers as for students. A six-year curriculum plan takes students from early exposure to creative and autonomous language use. A pilot program is under way.…

Discusses the ethnographic investigation of a multilingual adolescent peer group in which various forms of second/other-language learner status had considerable social significance. The study illustrates the ways a repertoire of languages and language learner statuses serve as differentiated resources adolescents draw on to define community and…

Examines to what extent negotiation of meaning can be useful in reading instruction in order to make written input comprehensible. Finds that negotiating the meaning of unmodified written input led to higher comprehension than premodifying the same input. Suggests guidelines as to the role teachers should play when input is negotiated in the…

Other languages in Israel, such as Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, and Judeo-Persian suffer from a serious lack of well-prioritized efforts in accord with their specific language planning needs. This current insufficiency of funds and effort may lead to the early demise of most Jewish languages other than Hebrew in Israel, with the exception of…