This book focuses on the practice and ideology of the languages of Israel, examining the extent to which the present linguistic pattern may be attributed to explicit language-planning activities. The chapters give balanced analyses of the history and current status of the revitalized national language, Hebrew; of the other official language,…

Outlines the European Economic Community's (EEC) plan for the maintainance of national languages among immigrants. Describes the variety of objectives behind the EEC's linguistic policy as incompatible with the creation of a unified instructional approach. Emphasizes that dialects spoken within immigrant families create additional problems in…

Provides an overview of the approximately 1200 Ethnic Community Mother Tongue Schools (ECMTS) in the United States, describing some of their salient characteristics and noting relationships between these schools and the United States bilingual education movement. Explains six assumptions commonly made by ECMTS teachers and leaders. (Author/SB)

A study examined Spanish-speaking children's attitudes about being and staying bilingual. Classroom observations and interviews with 15 fifth-grade students, 12 parents, and 2 teachers at a Texas elementary school indicated that despite being in a supportive bilingual environment, students believed they would have to struggle to maintain their…

Examines the potential for autonomous learning programs to address the problems of first (minority) language loss. The article outlines personal, political, and practical arguments for preventing such loss during second-language acquisition; describes an autonomous program in Canada addressing these issues; and discusses the implications of these…

Examines the history of White-Indian relationships in Latin America and North America and the corresponding fluctuations in loanword borrowing into English from Native American languages. Explores 20th-century attitudes toward Native Americans and the impact of these attitudes on borrowing today, particularly in Alaska where Natives are resisting…

Surveys of 105 U.S.-born, Chinese-American and Korean-American students in southern California high schools found that those who adapted to the mainstream culture while maintaining their heritage language and culture had higher academic achievement than those who wholly adopted mainstream values and lifestyles. (Contains 21 references.) (SV)

Three psycho-educational principles are outlined (additive bilingual enrichment principle, interdependence principle, and sufficient communicative interactive principle) to illustrate research on the maintenance of Frisian among native speakers and the development of Frisian fluency among native Dutch speakers. (Author/CB)

Presents findings from case studies of adult Canadians who successfully maintained the French second-language skills they first learned at school. Results suggested that higher initial proficiency and amount of second-language use were both positively related to the level of retained proficiency. Subjects were virtually unanimous on seeing regular…

Discusses the influences of mass media and other communication technologies on small linguistic communities using examples from the Catalan and Occitan/Aranes communities of Spain. Highlights include hardware, linguistic software, national character sets and sorting, spelling checkers, automatic translation, multilingual software, networking, and…

Contends that accepting a paradigm shift by universities means learning to respect culturally diverse students and recognizing cognitive style differences. Argues for systematic change in colleges and universities to redefine themselves as culturally plural. Contends educators must develop cross-cultural communicative competence for effective…

Presents a breakthrough in the transition from the process of the expatriate-centered approach towards the development of indigenous education in Papua New Guinea. The indigenous people were encouraged to take an active role in establishment of their vernacular elementary school. They were able to syncretize Western values and indigenous values…

Historically, the Pakeha (European) New Zealand government's educational policies have subjugated the Maoris' destiny to its own needs. However in the last 20 years, an intensified political consciousness among Maori has resulted in schooling initiatives that maintain their culture. Discusses the success of Maori-language preschools, development…

Reports two years of ethnographic research on efforts to use online technologies in Hawaiian language revitalization programs. Issues discussed include the Internet's role in promoting or hindering language diversity, relationship of multimedia computing to non-Western patterns of civilization, Internet use for exploring cultural and social…

A 4-week program in Vancouver (British Columbia) used traditional and academic formats to connect Aboriginal communities throughout British Columbia with each other and with Maori participants from New Zealand. A conference, a symposium and graduate courses covered the role of Aboriginal art, politics of transforming education, revitalization of…