This qualitative study investigated the writing processes of eight emergent bilingual children as they composed stories in two languages in a Writing Workshop (WW) context. The research was situated in two grade 1 classrooms in a Spanish/English Two-Way Bilingual Education program in the north-eastern USA. For six months, researchers observed…

The educational system in a multilingual society needs to reflect the authentic patterns of language use by the individuals in that society. A person who knows three or more languages presumably uses each of these languages in different contexts, for different purposes and at varying levels of proficiency. The school curriculum should aim at…

This study investigates whether the age at which English becomes dominant for Western Armenian bilinguals in the United States affects their vowel production in Western Armenian. Participating in the study were ten Western-Armenian bilinguals who learned English before age 8, ten bilinguals who did not learn English until adulthood, and one…

This paper discusses whether the rapidly growing Hispanic segment of the United States population will speak one language or two. A review of statistics on this population group notes that it is comprised of many subgroups; that more than half of the Hispanic population has lived in the United States for 12 years or more; and that in the areas of…

This study claimed that the ability of bilingual children to solve metalinguistic problems depends upon the demands of a given problem for analysis of knowledge or control of processing. It examined two hypotheses concerning bilingualism and metalinguistic problem-solving: (1) that bilingual children would be more advanced than monolingual…

This paper examines the usage of testing instruments to identify the language and dialect dominance of children. In order not to misuse language assessment tests, a careful distinction must be made between the terms "language proficiency,""language preference," and "relative language proficiency." Differences in the several types of language…

The model shows how the essential components of a bilingual instructional setting can be interwoven with the concepts espoused in Management Engineered Teacher Education to provide a systems example that is adaptable to any classroom by the bilingual teacher. Implementation of the system begins with an assessment of the child's language…

The research design and analytic approaches used in the national evaluation of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title VII Spanish/English Bilingual Education Program are described. This study evaluated the entire program, as opposed to individual projects, and had four goals: to (1) determine the cognitive and affective impact of…

The development of the English as a Second Language Assessment Battery (ESLAB) was based on needs indicated by achievement and placement statistics. The selection of the proficiency skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) was supported by changing views in language assessment and by legislation. Andrew D. Cohen's language model was…

A book on second languages in primary education, designed to assist both classroom teachers and language specialists, is presented. The following topics are addressed: (1) reasons for studying a second language; (2) reasons for children to learn a second language; (3) language choices; (4) qualifications of teachers; (5) FLES, bilingual education,…

Language use among linguistic minorities of the Northern Calotte (areas of Norway, Sweden, and Finland that lie above the Arctic Circle) is reviewed from the perspective of history and ecology of language. Two case studies examining language shift in these areas, where Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Sami are spoken, are also considered.…

National evaluation of Head Start bilingual curriculum development project indicated bilingual children receiving bilingual preschool services made greater preschool gains than comparison group children receiving regular English-language preschool services; English-preferring children placed in bilingual classrooms achieved similar preschool…

Summarizes some of the findings of recent study of tests designed to determine the English language proficiency of nonnative speakers. (CFM)

Describes the development and implementation of EL Paso Community College's model Intergenerational Literacy Project, which brings Spanish-speaking parents and their children together in the classroom in an effort to improve the two groups' literacy skills in English and Spanish. (BB)

Discusses language intolerance in the United States and its relation to the culture wars now emerging. Responses to nine questions raised by those who want English to be the official language of the United States are presented to untangle the issues and correct the misconceptions behind the question. (GR)