Presents model using elements of status, social group or speech community, and values for treating literacy as a sociolinguistic phenomenon and in support of bilingual education. Uses Navajo and medieval Jewish languages as examples. (BK)

This article presents an outline of how some linguistic studies have formed the basis for the start of an experimental program in training bilingual Navajo elementary school teachers. (RC)

This paper notes the tendency among non-literate peoples such as the American Indians to lose their native language as the demands of modern technology increasingly push them towards literacy in a language which is not their own, and argues that literacy in the vernacular language may present such acculturation and language loss from going hand in…

This is both a report on the numbers of native speakers of Apachean languages and a statement of the need for sociolinguistic studies of these languages. (CK)

The development of literacy in selected bilingual societies was investigated. Historical and comparative studies were conducted of medieval Jewish communities, the Navajo community, a northern New Mexico village, and the countries of Paraguay and Tonga. The goal of the case studies was to develop a model for the development of literacy in the…

Paper presented at the 1973 TESOL Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (HW)

Bilingual education in the United States has been directed by various language education policies to which there are three dimensions: (1) the language or dialect the child speaks on entering school; (2) the type of language policy in the school, which may be monolingual or one of three types of bilingual policies; (3) the divisions of language…

This report discusses trends in the study of Athapaskan, concentrating on language maintenance and bilingualism. It presents both the potential richness and the actual poverty of studies of sociolinguistic aspects of the Athapaskan languages. Noted are two trends--(1) There is a greater interest among linguists in the studies of language in use:…

The amount of English spoken by six-year-old Navaho children as they enter first grade is increasing and will probably continue to increase. Contacts outside the reservation contribute to this increase as do the almost completely monolingual (English) schools. Location of residence is also a factor. Linguistic borrowing of English words is another…

It is the task of educational linguistics to describe and analyze language education in all aspects. With respect to the Navajo Reading Study, it is within the realm of educational linguistics to develop and make available information that will permit the Navaho people, working through their own institutions, to make informed decisions about…

The relationship between teaching English to speakers of other languages and bilingual education is explored through three dimensions in language education: participants, channels, and codes. Language barriers to education can be found in each of these. As student participants become more numerous and more linguistically diverse, the educational…