Increased use of English in Singapore, a multiracial, multilingual country, especially its use for cultural purposes, has met with some controversy. This article traces the historical development of Singaporean literature in English and the sociocultural and political problems such literature faces in a country where the official languages and…

This paper presents a cultural model of deafness, describing the experiences of a deaf child as enculturation into a deaf world. The implications of this view on social, cognitive, and linguistic development are explored through description of BoMee, an adopted Korean deaf child being raised in a multilingual, multicultural environment.…

Over the past decade, the concept of "community" has been at the center of reform in literacy education. Most literacy educators agree that community-oriented environments are critical for students' literacy learning, yet many have difficulty building these communities in multicultural and multilingual classrooms. In this article we draw upon the…

Although Chinese has become the third largest mother tongue in both Canada and the USA, Chinese/English biliteracy development has received little attention in educational research. This article explores three Chinese-Canadian first and second graders' biliteracy (Chinese/English reading and writing) and trilingual (Mandarin, Cantonese, and…

Although the majority of New Zealanders speak English, and only English, the 1987 Maori Language Act and immigration from both Asia and the Pacific have had a significant impact on New Zealand society. Because increasing numbers of children are entering school with limited English language ability, students are arguably the group with the most…

This paper considers the issue of non-target language representations analysing data from the acquisition of novel English synthetic compounds by bilingual (Basque-Spanish) speakers. Past research indicated that English L1 acquirers do not include regular -s inflection within compounds, whereas they do include irregulars (*"clawsmarks" versus…

This article reports on an exploratory qualitative study on 37 students' acquisition of language and literacy. The study closely analyzes a linguistics assignment written in English, the dominant language, given to students at University of the Western Cape belonging to groups speaking English, Afrikaans, or an African language. The study…

This document consists of the first six issues of a newsletter that addresses the concerns and needs of foreign-born parents living in the United States. Spanish-language editions of numbers 4-6 are included. Topics addressed include school and community; bilingual education and home environment; demographics; global learning; leadership; and the…

The proceedings of a Swiss conference on languages in education include: a brief preface about the conference topic; summaries in French, Albanian, German, English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese; background information on the conference; statistics on the home and community languages of Swiss elementary and secondary school students; the…

Essays address the relationship between second language education and intercultural communication in several countries. Following an introduction are the following papers: "Second Language Learning in Belgium" (Ludo Beheydt); "Foreign Language Education in Bulgaria: Present-Day Situation and Future Tendencies" (Madeleine…

Kiswahili was declared the national language of Kenya in 1968 and since then has also been established as the language of parliamentary debate. There are, however, inadequate instructional materials in this language, particularly at the primary level of schooling. Since there are almost 20 different languages, or dialects, in Kenya, Kiswahili must…

A study of illiteracy in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji) brings together current statistics and projections on illiteracy and schooling and interprets them in light of sociocultural and sociolinguistic factors. An introductory section describes Melanesia's sociolinguistic background and linguistic…

A study examined the production of lateral consonants in seven male university students bilingual in Spanish and Catalan who had studied French in elementary and secondary school. A questionnaire elicited information about the subjects' use of each language with parents, with friends, at home, and in school. Each subject then read a 775-word text…

A review of the situation of modern language teaching in western Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, West Germany, and the United Kingdom) looks at the demography and multilingualism of the region, the organization of school systems in those countries, and the status of school-based modern language…

Papers in this collection were presented at a 1982 symposium convened to address the question, "What is the best way to provide school education for immigrant children?" The papers (and their authors) include (1) "The Social and Ideological Context of Multicultural Education in Immigrant Countries" (Ronald Taft); (2)…