Describes alternative educational innovations at all educational levels, developed by the Maori of New Zealand in response to the dual crises of educational underachievement and the loss of language, knowledge, and culture. Major intervention elements are validating cultural identity, incorporating culturally preferred pedagogy, mediating…

Describes the Niitsi-tapi Teacher Education Project, a joint effort established by Red Crow Community College in conjunction with the education faculty at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. This teacher education project relies heavily on the use of the Blackfoot language and other cultural components, and addresses the people's…

Promoting diversity has become a prominent goal in language-in-education policy discourse in two broad contexts. On the one hand, language policies take on the challenge of maintaining and developing "de facto" linguistic and cultural diversity through language acquisition planning; on the other hand, they portray themselves as active…

A program at Edith Cowan University (Australia) to develop a teacher training curriculum supporting bidialectalism in the schools is described. Underlying principles of this approach to bidialectal education are the acceptance of Aboriginal English, creation of a bridge to standard English, and cultivation of Aboriginal ways of approaching…

This paper examines current usage, educational initiatives, and future prospects for survival of three Canadian Aboriginal languages--Odawa (frequently called Ojibwe), Mohawk, and Inuktitut. The presentation centers around the direct insider stories of Mohawk and Odawa coauthors, with comparative commentary by an outsider with long-term experience…

A collection of essays on linguistic human rights includes: "Combining Immigrant and Autochthonous Language Rights: A Territorial Approach to Multilingualism" (Francois Grin); "On the Limits of Ethnolinguistic Democracy" (Joshua A. Fishman); "Linguistic Human Rights and Educational Policy in Russia" (Alexei A.…

Central Mexico is home to over 20 indigenous languages whose speakers still occupy their original ancestral communities. In this region, acute language conflict between Native languages and Spanish, the official state language, greatly affects elementary school students such as those in San Isidro Buensuceso Tlaxcala and Mision de Chichimecas in…

This study examines the conditions under which Spanish proficiency is associated with self-esteem among Mexican American adolescents. The study questions the validity of a gross relationship between Spanish proficiency and self-esteem and postulates that the link is stronger: (1) for youth whose significant others prefer speaking Spanish; (2) for…

The report describes a study of a multilingual group of six adult literacy students, five women and one man, enrolled in an English literacy class at an Australian college. Subjects' countries of origin include Afghanistan, Indonesia/China, Lebanon, Iran, and China. The study examined factors affecting subjects' daily literacy practices and…

The report, entirely in French, presents a study of the instructional approaches used for French native language instruction at the elementary and secondary school levels in five regions of Ontario (northwest, northeast, mid-north, central, and east). It examined the nature and degree of linguistic heterogeneity and the distinctive traits of the…

The processes used by the Defense Language Institute (DLI) Foreign Language Center to develop proficiency-based nonresident courses in Czech, Polish, and Russian for language maintenance is described. Based on needs assessment and analysis of Department of Defense endusers, DLI provided the concept and design for the Proficiency Improvement…

This paper traces the history and development of Yupik, the first language for almost 14,000 Native Alaskans, and reports findings of the Bilingual/Bicultural Needs Assessment survey conducted in 1983. Yupik remains one of the strongest Native American languages, despite historical factors that have increased English usage among Native Alaskans.…

Bilingual immersion programs combine second language immersion for language majority children and bilingual education for language minority children. The programs are based on the underlying assumption of the immersion model: that a second language is best learned as a medium of instruction, not as the object of instruction. However, they are not…

An experimental program financed by the Commission of the European Communities in two primary schools in Cassis, France, an area with a stable Portuguese immigrant population, involved intercultural education and the use of a Portuguese mother tongue teacher who served not only as a classroom teacher but also as a school-community liaison. The…

The essays in this volume cover a range of sociopolitical aspects of Indian language planning (i.e., the politics of dialect, the role of the linguist, and the historical foundations of contemporary language problems), problems faced by the actual experiences of Indian language renewal efforts, and the relationship of Indian language renewal and…