Recent national security concerns and global trade interests have led many to claim that there is a foreign language "crisis" in the US. Some argue that heritage and community language (HL-CL) speakers in the US constitute a resource waiting to be tapped to solve this crisis. This article addresses the issue of whether heritage and community…

This article focuses on the identity accounts of a group of Chinese children who attend a heritage language school. Bakhtin's concepts of ideological becoming, and authoritative and internally persuasive discourse, frame our exploration. Taking a dialogic view of language and learning raises questions about schools as socializing spaces and…

Learning to read and write is a psycholinguistic and social process. That is why mother-tongue speakers of minority African languages find learning to read in the language they speak is a qualitatively better learning experience than learning to read in a language they are unfamiliar with. However, reading methodologies used for teaching reading…

In this comprehensive effort to study Indian education policies, the report categorizes the policies of five Northwest Region states based on 13 key policies identified in the literature and describes the legal methods used to adopt them, such as statutes, regulations, and executive orders. The study found that six of the key policies had been…

In 2008 the Council of Australian Government (COAG), which comprises the Prime Minister, State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers, agreed to a new reform agenda to ensure that all Australian school students acquire the knowledge and skills to participate effectively in society and employment in a globalised economy. In order to advance its…

Testimony concerning Senate Bill 1595 includes statements submitted by Senator Daniel Inouye, from the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, and S. Timothy Wapato, Commissioner, Administration for Native Americans, Department of Health and Human Services. The bill in question aims to preserve and enhance the ability of Alaska Natives to speak and…

A collaborative research effort to investigate the relative strengths of selected vocabulary development techniques was conducted by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Taiwan Provincial Institute for Elementary School Teachers' Inservice Education. Parallel studies of children in grades 4 through 6 compared the two prior knowledge…

A primer for teaching Hmongs to read and write in their own language contains 67 lessons. It teaches literacy in the Roman alphabet used by Hmongs throughout the world, and is intended for students who have already learned to recognize and write the letters of that alphabet. The book uses spellings of the White dialect of Hmong (Hmoob Dawb) but…

This science unit is designed primarily for newcomer Chinese students and for those who are continuing in the Chinese Bilingual Pilot Program, sponsored through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title VII. It is designed for limited and non English speaking students. The unit is on kinds of soils and how poor soil is made better.…

This science unit is designed primarily for newcomer Chinese students and for those who are continuing in the Chinese Bilingual Pilot Program, sponsored through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title VII. It is designed for limited and non English speaking students at the middle school level. The three sections of the unit cover the…

A study of Nigerian bilingual (Yoruba and English) students supported other research indicating that primary education in the child's mother tongue is most effective for the learning process. An experimental group taught and tested in a structured bilingual medium performed significantly better than one taught and tested in English. (Author/GC)

The Danish concept of integration is intended to enable the minority group child to function as well as possible in a strange society, in a foreign language, without being forced to give up his or her identity, without losing his or her roots or forgetting his or her language. (PS)

Latin American scholarship is flourishing in universities, but there are some conspicuous weak spots; the need for increased teaching of Portuguese and indigenous languages, the difficulties of maintaining up-to-date bibliographies, and a need for greater funding to enable Latin American area specialists to get into the field more frequently. (KH)

Reviews the state of South Asian studies in American universities. Focuses on language instruction, a trend toward specialization in particular countries or regions, and the decline of popular interest in South Asia. Reports on the need for new funding to replace the Federal Program, PL 480, whose excess currency fund of rupees is almost…

Supports the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in response to recent arguments against it. Also endorses the teaching and use of the mother tongue in the classroom and suggests that it is an area in which many EFL teachers have a contribution to make. (EKN)