Child welfare struggles to manage child abuse and neglect and to seek permanency for children, while being culturally responsive to the communities it serves. Family group conferencing, piloted in New Zealand and now used in the United States and other countries, is a strengths-based model that brings together families and their support systems to…

This article contains a description of the Dual Proficiency (DP) program in an urban elementary school located in the heart of a large south-western city, as well as the teachers who designed and now implement DP, and the immigrant community participating by choice in DP. We write from a context where, ironically, the number of English language…

The contributions of Peter Stephen DuPonceau and John Pickering to American linguistics in the early nineteenth century are reviewed and discussed. Despite their probable status as amateurs in the study of American Indian languages and their very limited fieldwork, they made some significant contributions to the general field of language studies…

Discusses efforts at language revival and maintenance of American Indian languages. Describes models used in New Zealand to maintain the Maori language and in Hawaii to preserve the Hawaiian language. Suggests that language and cultural revival efforts are generally healthy for America. (Author/VWL)

The history of linguistics in the United States is chronicled from the founding of the American Philosophical Society in 1769 to the emergence of the American Linguistic Society in 1924. An introductory chapter outlines the goals of linguistic historiography and the rationalizations behind the definitions of the periods examined here. Subsequent…

The agency responsible for development and implementation of the Spanish/English interpreters' certification exam used in federal courts has begun creation of certification exams in Haitian Creole and Navajo. Although these are only 2 of the more than 50 languages used in the courts, long-range plans for further test development have been…

Two catalogs inventory field-recorded wax cylinders which document the music and language of Indian tribes in northeastern and southeastern United States from 1890-1930. The Northeastern Indian Catalog contains entries for 738 cylinders comprising 16 music and spoken word collections from the Chippewa, Fox, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Menominee,…

This paper discusses bilingual education model types in South America with a special focus on the Andean region, and examines the recent language planning decisions by one Ecuadorian indigenous group to formally instruct Quichua as a second language in community schools. Specifically I argue that this type of localised planning--which promotes an…

Tracing the history of the term "squaw" offers insights into the positionings and politics of indigenous femininity in colonial America. Today, as throughout the colonization of Native America, imperial projects and projections have based themselves upon and imagined themselves through the lives, bodies, and images of indigenous women,…

Mi'kmaq is a First Nations language spoken in Atlantic Canada and the north-eastern United States--and like most surviving indigenous languages in North America, it is at risk. The small community of Wagmatcook, Cape Breton, determined to see Mi'kmaq return from the brink of extinction, has implemented 2 initiatives that are changing the fate of…

During the 20th century there has been a widespread pattern of language shift among the indigenous communities of the United States and Canada. The language-of-work hypothesis posits that if the national language is used as the language of work for virtually all jobs in a minority-language community, the national language will, within a few…

Provides an overview of indigenous-education programs in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Discussion focuses on the historical context that has seen consistent attempts to eradicate the languages and life ways of Native Americans. Case studies are presented that illustrate the role of indigenous-language-education programs in…

Discusses the reasons for the decline and loss of American Indian languages in the United States and efforts to reverse this trend, including the effects of the Native American Indian Languages Acts of 1990 and 1992. It is argued that linguistic diversity and renewal has important social, cultural, and intellectual implications. (35 references)…

A discussion of U.S. language policy formation and planning covers the following: the literacy crisis, education of language minority populations, "official" English movement, gender neutrality, federal legislation, and emerging issues such as the status of Puerto Rico, American Indian languages, foreign language education, and the…

The theory and practice of assistance to speech communities whose native languages are threatened are examined. The discussion focuses on why most efforts to reverse language shift are unsuccessful or even harmful, diagnosing difficulties and prescribing alternatives based on a combination of ethnolinguistic, sociocultural, and econotechnical…