A discussion of language in preschool education reviews research findings on children's language acquisition and its relationship to their general development and examines issues to be considered in making decisions for each community and program. The first section summarizes basic knowledge about preschool language development, facilitating…

Three successful school program models designed to help language minority students conserve the language skills acquired in their homes and continue normal native language development are described. The programs were developed to counteract a trend toward wasting valuable existing language skills and resources. The programs include: (1) an…

A cultural and linguistic textbook on the Tolowa Indians of Northwestern California and Oregon provides a history of the tribe, a Tolowa Unifon chart and pronunciation guide, map of tribal lands with place names in Tolowa and English, stories, prayers, songs, genealogy, commonly-used words grouped topically, explanation in English of cultural…

A survey of the language usage patterns in Zaire begins with an overview of usage of French as the official language and Swahili, Lingala, Ciluba, and Kikongo as the four national languages used both in their respective regions and as part of the mixture of languages used for official and unofficial communication purposes. The systematic study of…

A survey of the status of language usage in South Africa begins with an overview of the distribution among the population of the official languages, Afrikaans and English, and the principle languages of the Black majority: Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Nothern Sotho (Pedi), Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, and Venda. The influence of apartheid policy on…

This article discusses the varieties of bilingualism, types of bilingual programs, goals and program implementation, measurement and evaluation of bilingual/bicultural programs, teacher preparation, the impact of the ESEA Title VII Bilingual Education Act, sample programs, the question of language "standards," and studies about program outcomes.…

This book provides comprehensive information on all aspects of sociolinguistics. It includes 285 articles, of which 80 are short biographical entries. Fifty of the biographies and 42 other articles are entirely new, while the remaining entries are revised and updated from the "Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics." The book provides…

The papers included here examine issues related to the role outside specialists, such as linguists, educators, or media professionals, can play in the preservation of endangered languages. Language communities must continue to use their mother tongues if the languages are to survive, and this has led to questions about whether outside…

Since independence, the government of Botswana has allowed only the use of English in government circles, excluding the other 26 languages represented in the country and allowing only limited use of the national language, Setswana. Since 1995, however, restrictions have been relaxed and non-government organizations are developing the use of other…

This paper considers the additional uses of CALL in the Endangered Language (EL) context. It briefly reviews ELs and reports on CALL for ELs in general. It then reviews the extra uses of CALL for ELs; these include changing negative attitudes towards the language, arousing interest in the language and contributing to language maintenance and…

The newsletter is devoted to description of a 5-day conference on "Teaching Spanish to Southwest Hispanic Students" funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and held at New Mexico State University on July 14-19, 1993. It lists the middle and high school teachers from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas who…

This study on Basque language learning is part of a project investigating alternative curriculum designs to promote native language maintenance in the Basque Country of Spain. The study measured the level of Basque and Spanish language proficiency in second- and fifth-grade students in three bilingual education program designs (Basque taught as a…

Selected writings by Richard Lambert on languages and international studies include the following: "Foreign Language Planning in the United States"; "Southeast Asian Language Instruction"; "Implications of the New Dutch National Action Plan for American Foreign Language Policy"; "Distance Education and Foreign…

Created by children in grades 5-8 who were enrolled in a year-long Hupa language class, this computer-generated, bilingual book contains descriptions and illustrations of local animals, birds, and fish. The introduction explains that students worked on a Macintosh computer able to print the Unifon alphabet used in writing the Hupa language.…

Five papers presented at two academic seminars are collected in this document which deals with the survival of American Indian tribes, focusing on language maintenance, tribal government, and intergovernmental relations. Robert Dumont and David Kaudy note the remarkable way in which the written English word has been incorporated into the core of…