Evaluates methods used by New Zealand researchers on language maintenance and shift among ethnic minorities to collect data on community languages. Points out that there are many communities in that country whose patterns of language use are mostly unknown. Makes a case for the social, cultural, and educational benefits of research on community…

Suggests that in order to develop innovative and alternative approaches to educating Native Americans, it is important to understand and define pre-Columbian Native American culture and values. Emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the role and function of elders and ceremonial people, and the use of Native languages as a manifestation of…

Addresses the issue of language use by German bilingual pupils in a German minority school in South Jutland (Denmark). Fieldwork indicates that pupils experience difficulty with respect to competence in acquisition of standard Danish. Suggests application of model based upon English "Language Awareness" program as potential solution for…

Overviews issues affecting Native American and bilingual education including the unique cultural, linguistic, and educational needs of different Native American groups. Suggests that Native American communities need to gain control of their children's education to ensure the integral use of American Indian languages in tribal schools. Addresses…

Examines the myths surrounding the introduction of native language instruction in American Indian communities. Despite the concerns of many parents, such instruction does not "hold back" students, and in fact empowers them to succeed in school. Parent-community involvement is essential for dispelling myths and for reinforcement of the…

Describes how indigenous students in a remote Mexican village learned ways to document their culture and history; how teachers in this same village learned to teach reading and writing in Ayuuk, their native language; and what a Foxfire teacher learned as an instructor in the teacher workshop. Includes the Foxfire "core practices" in…

Saskatchewan French immersion high school graduates were asked what influence that experience had on career/college choice, maintenance and/or improvement of French skills, self-assessment of French capabilities, assessment of and suggestions for the program, leisure time use of French, and placement of their own children in the program. Results…

Discusses a nationwide study of language shift among language-minority children in the United States. Immigrant and American Indian families were surveyed to determine the effects of children's learning of English in preschool on their family language patterns. Findings suggest that primary language loss can be very costly to the children, their…

Among 187 Arizona Mexican-American children with limited proficiency in both Spanish and English, participation in a maintenance bilingual education program during grades K-2 produced significant gains in oral language acquisition for both languages. Students with the lowest proficiency scores in kindergarten showed the greatest gains. (SV)

Among the topics examined in this research review of issues in bilingual and bicultural education are (1) demographic and educational trends that point to growing numbers of bilingual and bicultural children; (2) continuing misconceptions about how young children learn a second language; (3) successful approaches in early childhood bilingual…

The Canadian federal government mandates that First Nations bands adopt provincial curricula as a requirement for assuming control of their education. This mandate perpetuates Eurocentric cognitive imperialism in Aboriginal schools and the marginalization of indigenous languages and culture. Indigenous languages, culture, and knowledge are…

Discusses cases of indigenous/immigrant languages that are in danger of disappearing because they are not being transmitted to the next generation, including languages of South America, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Wales, New Zealand, Turkey, and native languages of California. Such cases provide evidence that language policy and education serve…

Advocates change in the way American Indian languages are taught in schools and by tribal elders, specifically that they should be taught orally in the classroom. Asserts that American Indian languages must be taught in the context of everyday conversation, not as isolated words, and that new words should also be invented in response to the…

Language rights embedded in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Department of Justice, 1982) and implemented in the provincial education system have allowed parents to choose French language schools over their English alternative. But creation established by law does not fully protect the continuation of such a school. The image that it…

Language loss is a concern for the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma. As part of language revitalisation efforts, in 2001 Cherokee Nation opened the Cherokee Immersion Preschool in which teachers use only Cherokee throughout the day with their monolingual English-speaking students. Based on a study of the Immersion Preschool that spanned…