A study of 55 Anglo-American middle school teachers investigated their recommendations for student inclusion in gifted programs. Results found the teachers did not nominate any students with limited English proficiency, emphasized the verbal skills of students, and tended to select members of their own culture. (CR)

Studies show a positive correlation between parental involvement and academic achievement, but the involvement of immigrant or poor parents is lower than that of native-born, middle-class parents. Reasons may include socioeconomic status, level of instruction, language fluency, status of immigrant community, years of residency, relations between…

Latin American models of "intercultural-bilingual" education may be inappropriate for multilingual, interethnic regions such as Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast, where five indigenous and Afro-Caribbean minorities interact in overlapping territories. Examination of one such program and of Coast people's complex linguistic and cultural…

A response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia looks at the situation in Singapore, in which the government created policy supporting development of selected languages, and examines the positive economic consequences of the policy. Effects on educational and manpower policy are also considered. (MSE)

Describes the development of procedures, strategies, and resources to welcome new students into a British elementary school. Parent visits to the school and supporting the child's language needs were important features. A truly multicultural school is welcoming and accepting of diversity from the child's first entrance. (SLD)

Uses an attitude/motivation battery and matched-guise procedure to examine Kazak, Uygur, and Yi subject's ratings of Putonghua (PTH) and Chinese ethnic minority nationality (EMN) languages and 12 variables in PTH learning. Shows among other things that integrative orientation of Beijing people are the best predictors of EMN's instrumental…

Language policies targeted at schools, such as California's Proposition 227 and Arizona's Proposition 203, are often based on rash assessments of public opinion or personal biases, with no consideration of long-term consequences for heritage-language speakers. Excerpts from interviews with over 100 Spanish speakers reveal how harsh English-only…

Examined the effect of differential feedback (corrections, commentaries), and a combination of the two) on the journal writing accuracy of minority- and majority-language students being educated in the same classrooms. Journal writing samples were collected from 112 fifth grade students over 4 months. Outcomes of the study are discussed in light…

The validity of the SAT as an admissions criterion for Latinos and Asian Americans who are not native English speakers was examined. The analyses, based on 1997 and 1998 UCSB freshmen, focused on the effectiveness of SAT scores and high school grade-point average (HSGPA) in predicting college freshman grade-point average (FGPA). When regression…

Despite its multilingual heritage, the USA has a history of linguistic intolerance. Arizona, in the country's desert Southwest, is decidedly anti-bilingual although it has significant non-English-speaking groups, especially Spanish-speaking Mexicans/Mexican-Americans and indigenous groups such as the Navajo, Hopi and Yaqui tribes, among many…

This contribution documents the strategies bi/plurilingual children spontaneously develop when confronted with a task that demands comprehension of texts in a third language. To illustrate these strategies in context, the paper draws from classroom interaction excerpts: small groups of children (ages 8-10) discover meaning in a text in a language…

In 1995, the Kadazandusun language was created as a standard form of all the Dusunic group of languages so that it might be taught in schools as a language subject. In the planning of Kadazandusun, terminology building involves both the creation of new terms that appropriate present-day categories and artefacts, and the selection of suitable…

Language-minority students are the fastest-growing population in U.S. public schools. Between 1991 and 1999, the number of language-minority school-aged children in the United States rose from 8 million to 15 million, and the number of K-12 students classified as limited-English-proficient (LEP) increased from 5.3 million to 10 million (Escamilla,…

Background: Speech and language therapy (SLT) managers are expected to ensure that there are appropriate services available for bilingual and multilingual clients in order to ensure an equitable service to all clients. However, there is a paucity of data available to inform service planning. Aims: To identify the level to which SLT services in…

No state has felt the impact of the new immigration more than California, and no institution in the state has felt more effects than the public schools. A third of the nation's 20 million immigrants are concentrated in California, and more than a third of the state's public school children speak a language other than English at home. This review…