Applies constructs of language as economic and symbolic capital, transnationalism, investment, and imagined community to analysis of interviews with immigrant parents living in Vancouver, Canada. These parents promote multilingualism by maintaining their family language and enrolling their children in French immersion programs. Argues they view…

Examines cooperative learning in relation to goals for second language (L2) development, first language (L1) maintenance, and content learning. Investigates how Chinese immigrant students perceive these goals and how they use the L1 and L2 to acquire content knowledge during cooperative learning activities. (Author/VWL)

Notes that the Maori Language Commission of New Zealand promoted 1995 as a year to celebrate that language. Points out that the Commission endeavored to encourage the Maori people to use their language; to celebrate the historical status of the language; and to generate goodwill toward the language among the general populace. (seven references)…

Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith--Maori researcher, educator, and activist--discusses key moments in the journey toward decolonization of Maori education, the impact of her book about decolonizing research methodologies, the concept of postcolonialism, challenges to the sustainability of social and educational change, disrupting the power relation…

Examines the language planning situation in South Africa, where language has been instrumental in the country's transition from colonialism to apartheid to democracy. Addresses, diachronically and synchronically, the issues of language spread and use, language policy and planning, and language maintenance and shift. (Author/VWL)

Discusses endangerment of the Navajo language, blaming schooling, but noting several other factors that weaken language loyalty. Explains that vernacular literacy, traditional and introduced religion, and political structure have failed to establish a counterforce to language loss. Economic changes have led to new living patterns that, together…

Surveys administered to 823 Chinese in Taiwan to measure the extent of language maintenance of mother dialects and shift toward use of Mandarin revealed a substantial shift toward the use of Mandarin. Successive family generations increasingly used Mandarin, and Mandarin was generally recognized as a common language for intergroup communication.…

A study examined the relationship between language experiences of Italo-Canadian students at home and school and their perceptions of group vitality and ethnic language maintenance. Subjects were in grade eight integrated and non-integrated heritage language programs. (58 references) (Author/MSE)

The history of Esperanto, a language created to promote international communication, is chronicled. Discussion focuses on the origins and development of the language, early attitudes toward its adoption, patterns of use and recognition, the development of a literature in and of Esperanto, the culture associated with the language. (Author/MSE)

In a sociolinguistic study of nonpathological language loss, residents of German-speaking background who arrived in Australia between 1970 and 1981 were interviewed. Quantitative findings show an insignificant difference in favor of the second language, whereas qualitative feelings of competence in the first language had decreased. (Contains 27…

Reviews recent research on language maintenance and language loss, focusing on the loss of a second language in a first language environment, the linguistic aspects of loss, and relearning a "lost" language. An annotated bibliography discusses nine important works in the field. (43 references) (MDM)

Examines the resilience of small languages in the face of larger ones. Highlights include the concept of one dominant language, such as Esperanto; the threat of television to small visual-language societies; the power of visual media; man's relationship to language; and the resilience of language. (LRW)

Properties of the maintenance and loss of Spanish/English bilingualism were investigated in 308 high-school students of Mexican background. Variables investigated included actual and self-reported proficiencies in Spanish and English, self-reported language choice behavior in various settings, and language attitude. (JL)

A response to an argument that Canadian language policy prevents the self-defense of minority languages through exclusive territorial control (LaPonce, 1984) addresses the relative neglect of research concerning language and territoriality in the European context and contrasts the contemporary multilingual situations in Spain and Switzerland to…

Presents findings of research investigating first-language attrition of Turkish speakers in Australia and the role of subjunctive ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions in that process. Examines the relationship between societal factors and individuals' perceptions of the language contact situation as reflected in their speech behavior. (Author/VWL)