The foreign language faculty at College of Saint Scholastica Minnesota) developed and implemented 10-day Spanish and French immersion programs based on Peace Corps methodology as a means of affording students time for intensive study of those languages, improving students' fluency, and instituting a change in teaching methodology. The first…

A language camp program that began with a small group of 10- to 12-year-olds whose faculty parents wanted them to retain the German learned on sabbaticals abroad has developed into a program of annual week-long day and resident camps for 150 children, aged 9 to 14 years, learning German, French, Spanish, and Norwegian. The camp was originally…

The two-way bilingual education program in Port Chester, New York, in which both native English-speaking and limited-English-proficient native Spanish-speaking students are given instruction in both languages, is described and its outcomes evaluated. Data on the performance of language-minority and language-majority students, gathered from…

It is proposed that student motivation can be maintained and enhanced when teachers combine authentic oral and written language with activities leading the student to identify with sympathetic individuals in the target culture. Suggested activities, emphasizing language training at the intermediate level, include interviewing native speakers, work…

The Culver City (Calif.) Schools' Spanish Immersion Program (SIP) offers an innovative and highly successful approach to the development of proficiency in a foreign language in the elementary grades. This approach differs from most bilingual programs in that for the first two years the students are completely immersed in Spanish. When the students…

This study explored the functions of literacy in the Hawaiian language that may be realized in an indigenous language immersion program when the indigenous language is a second language with severely restricted use in the wider community. It also examined the connections between Hawaiian language use, the local culture in Hawaii, and development…

An experiment evaluated the impact of an integrated formal, analytic, and functional communicative approach to second language teaching in French immersion on French language proficiency. The impetus for the study arises from research indicating that immersion children show persistent weaknesses in their grammatical skills despite the fluent,…

The Minneapolis public elementary school program in Spanish is described. It was established in 1974 as a FLES program in kindergarten and first grade, later established as part of a fundamental school alternative, and recently expanded to a partial immersion program. Children ideally follow the program from kindergarten through sixth grade. A…

A French language program used in a Montessori school with children in preschool through junior high grades is described. The program provides language instruction in the classroom by a French specialist as well as separate French classes, a compromise between immersion and the Montessori methodology. The children are able to work independently…

Issues concerning bilingual education are discussed, with a focus on the effect of social class on educational outcomes. While bilingualism tends to be associated with some educational advantages for the upper class, it often appears to result in an additional handicap within the lower ranges. In many educational outcomes affecting bilinguals,…

A study of the differences in achievement among Ottawa's grade 9 and 10 students taught in English and French in three subject areas (mathematics, geography, and history) in which suitable comparative measures were available had as subjects the students in 73 classes. The students in French-language classes were administered the test twice, once…

An adult immersion program in the Mohawk language took place in an Iroquois community in southern Ontario. The class was limited to 12 students who had taken a readiness course that introduced them to basic grammar and vocabulary. The class met daily in the relaxed setting of a house. The preparation and sharing of meals, the presence of fluent…

A study investigated the characteristics and behaviors of college students learning a third language. Four groups of students with backgrounds in Slavic second languages and enrolled in a variety of Slavic and non-Slavic third languages courses were studied using ethnographic techniques, including open-ended questionnaires, focus groups, classroom…

This paper examines four indigenous language programs to compare common components, problems, and outcomes. The programs are Cree Way in Quebec, Canada, Hualapai in Arizona, Te Kohanga Reo (Maori) in New Zealand, and Punana Leo (Hawaiian) in Hawaii. These programs were chosen for four characteristics: (1) the languages are no longer transmitted to…

The assessment reported in this paper represents the first attempt by British Columbia to use the Canadian Ministry of Education's assessment program model with special programs; in this case, the French immersion program was chosen. Objectives of the assessment were as follows: (1) examination of the extent to which students are achieving…