An exploration of the increasingly important role of linguistics in literacy research and instruction reviews literature on reading comprehension, written language, orthography, metalinguistics, classroom language use, reading disabilities, native tongues, nonstandard dialects, bilingual education, adult literacy, and second-language reading. (86…

A bilingual instructional program was developed to teach written English to elementary-aged deaf students who are fluent in American Sign Language. The student-directed language learning uses interactive video and offers five activity options: watch a story, read a story, answer questions about a story, write a story, or caption a story.…

This paper describes the methodology of a study seeking to determine whether there is evidence that French immersion children with specific reading disability in one language also have the disability in the other language, and learning-disabled readers belong to the same subtype in both languages. (Author/JDD)

Describes the Home Language Support Project, which is an attempt to help mainstream teachers include children's home languages in educational programs. Questions that arose during the implementation of the program are discussed, including language delivery patterns in home language support programs and the issue of code switching. (19 references)…

Describes the experiences of one California elementary school teacher who, after being involved in bilingual education, helped author a referendum to eliminate bilingual education as practiced in California, replacing it with sheltered English immersion and regular English classes. He notes failures in bilingual education and discusses successes…

This ethnographic study examines the local enactment of literacy practice in the new policy context created by California's Proposition 227. Considers the influence of the law on two elementary schools in a rural district that allowed schools to choose how they would implement Proposition 227. Analysis explores the connection between the…

This article describes a learning context in which the first grade classroom teacher creates a learning community where she uses different teaching strategies to encourage children's second language use and learning. The first graders share, discuss, and learn both the second language (German) and content.

This article presents data from two yearlong ethnographic studies of the biliteracy instruction and development of young Latina/o children in two counter-hegemonic English immersion classes in the English-only milieu established by California's Proposition 227. The author first describes the struggle that the teachers engaged in as they sought to…

Two studies investigated the intrinsic and contextual difficulties of English spelling for native Haitian Creole-speaking children (NHCSs), and the effect of phonemic awareness on the achievement on beginning spellers. Each study had 20 NHCS kindergarten children as subjects. In the first, the subjects were trained in English phonemics (blending,…

Structured immersion, or transfer instruction, is proposed as a bridging program between English as a second language or bilingual programs and the all-English medium classroom. The theoretical background underlying the transfer of knowledge and skills from a child's first language to English is reviewed. Based on the assumption that learners will…

This paper discusses the question of whether, in a multilingual society, the child's first or second language is best as a language of instruction in primary school. Reviewing eight case studies from seven countries in which initial primary schooling was given either in the second or first language, the discussion compares achievement in reading…

This teacher's guide for a second grade Inuktitut language arts program has 30 units based on concepts in social studies, science, math, and health; and emphasizes development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The vocabulary and unit concepts are based on themes familiar to the children, including ships, plants, rocks, animal…

This study investigated whether there were significant differences in the acquisition of oral language and reading skills among limited-English-speaking, Hispanic elementary school students receiving instruction through three different bilingual reading approaches, and what other variables might be important. The three reading approaches were: (1)…

A Navajo/English bilingual program uses the student's knowledge of his first language, offers the opportunity to speak in two languages, and helps the student move from the home experience to the school experience. It gives instruction in content materials to all students either in English or in Navajo and direct language instruction in both…

A report is made of a follow-up on a 1971-1972 tryout of the SWRL English Language and Concepts Program for Spanish-Speaking Children. The follow-up report is based on data collected from 6 school districts involving 24 schools at the end of the 1972-1973 school year. (RM)