Analyzes the results of a study undertaken in Switzerland, which was designed to determine the degree of integration of non-Italian children in Italian-language nursery schools in the German part of Switzerland. Attempts to synthesize the ethnic and lingusitic elements of the study are made. (CFM)

Reasons why Kiswahili has not been officially established as the language of instruction in Tanzania are explored. Language background, sociocultural and pedagogical arguments, and comparisons with the use of French Immersion programs in Canada are discussed. Political interests are identified as the primary reason for retaining English. (34…

Ways are discussed that education and the discourse practices it authorizes can routinely repress, dominate, and disempower language users whose practices differ from the norms that it establishes. The ideas of two key theorists, Bourdieu and Bhaskar, are linked and applied to such issues as schooling, high status language, and minority discursive…

Examines the relative contributions of the school and the family to the bilingual development of francophone minority group students in western Canada. The implications for the survival of the French language in western Canada are discussed. (74 references) (GLR)

Ninety-eight children whose first language is Hawaii Creole English (HCE) acquired English without a formal language program while maintaining their first language. Learning the dominant variety of the language in a bicultural/bidialectal environment did not adversely affect performance in HCE. (PMJ)

This study examines the biliteracy development of a group of bilingual Latino third graders in an elementary school in the south-west USA. It focuses on the role of language in children's reading comprehension of narrative texts in Spanish and English in a school context. The authors frame their analysis within the "Continua of Biliteracy" model…

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…

This bilingual book considers recent developments in French attitudes towards language purism, borrowing, and the incursion of English. The book begins with an essay by French sociolinguist Henriette Walter, and most of the following essays are direct responses to her ideas. All chapters are provided in French and English. Chapter titles include…

Discusses the sociolinguistic order in the new South Africa, traces the implications of English dominance in this order, and reflects on the difficulty of assembling an accurate picture of the sociolinguistic order of a society in times of rapid social change. Particular focus is on the processes of restandardization of standard South African…

The island of Mauritius is examined, where Creole is the language of interethnic communication, English is used in government, the judiciary and education, and French is the dominant language of economic and cultural power. The historical background, educational situation, and possible future roles of the dominant languages are discussed. (33…

Sociolinguistic patterns, including internal structuring and clinical norms and values, of Chinese communities in Britain are examined. The complexity of the composition of the Chinese population there are reported, and findings from a pilot study of language choice are discussed in the context of wide sociolinguistic issues Chinese people in…

Two competing theories of "both ways" (dominant culture access and minority culture maintenance) education are examined: Harris' culture domain separation theory and Kemmis'"negotiated meaning" approach. Analysis along three dimensions (view of culture, language, and epistomology/ontology) suggests Harris' theory is based on a…

Language ecology, a term developed by Haugen (2001), describes the relationship between languages and the environment in which they exist; that is, how they grow, change, interact and adapt in a Darwinian-like quest for survival. Of the 6000 or so languages in existence today, some are spoken by vast numbers of people, but others are used by very…

Over the last four generations, the language patterns in Maine's bilingual Franco-American communities have undergone a shift characterized by a widespread adoption of English and a decline of the ethnic language. The younger generations generally are unable or unwilling to use the French language and they express negative attitudes towards that…

The 75th anniversary of a city honored among other things for its role in the revival of the Hebrew language is an appropriate occasion to remind ourselves of the complex effects of language policy on education. In choosing to establish Hebrew as its standard language, Israel was working to proclaim both present and historical unity. The rapidity…