This chapter explores the concept of a Dominant Language Constellation (DLC) in a Canadian context and links it to family language policy (FLP) and language of schooling. The focus is on the province of Ontario where English is the majority language and French a minority language, along with various other minority languages, including…

According to the critical period hypothesis, the earlier the acquisition of a second language starts, the better. Owing to the plasticity of the brain, up until a certain age a second language can be acquired successfully according to this view. Early second language learners are commonly said to have an advantage over later ones especially in…

This article reports key findings from a project that focused on the academic literacy development of children who are born and/or begin their formal schooling in Canada but are raised in homes where the societally dominant language is not the primary idiom. Analyses involved characterizing students' home ecological environments; assessing the…

Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to identify the cultural factors that influence the usage of household French by three French/English bilingual children in Louisiana. Using 24 months of weekly tape recordings of spontaneous dinnertime conversation, a ratio of French to English utterances was calculated, and correlated with…

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…