This article summarizes the language planning situation in Denmark, specifically dealing with: (1) sociolinguistic characteristics of the modern Danish speech community; (2) types of language problems prevailing in this community; (3) organizations involved in language planning in Denmark; (4) the organization and operation of the Danish Language…

In India today, the traditional tolerant attitude toward linguistic and ethnic heterogeneity has given way to a drive for language autonomy. The national language policy appears susceptible to the sensitivities of different pressure groups, while the state policies have been slow to respond to the sensitivities of language minorities. Today,…

This newsletter discusses the teaching and role of English around the world. Articles also cover English-language media in a given country, and the opportunity and need for understanding and speaking English in that country. This particular issue contains items on English-language education and use in Belgium, Poland, Afghanistan, Hungary,…

This booklet comprises eleven articles selected from a set of papers delivered by a number of professional educators and researchers during seminars arranged in the West Indies and the United States in compliance with the goals of the Caribbean American Scholars Exchange Program. The 11 articles are grouped in 4 sections. The first section…

Analysis of the language policy in Kenya, including consideration of language in education, language of the press, and the politics of language, suggests that language policies cannot be successfully formulated without analysis of and extensive debate among those groups and complex social processes whose interests are reflected in specific…

The approaches to language maintenance in Australia are diverse and heterogeneous and include at least three kinds of programs: bilingual education programs; ethnic school programs (after hours or weekend programs that are controlled and managed by the community concerned); and mainstream school programs where the indigenous native language is…

Papahana Kaiapuni is a K-12 indigenous language immersion program in selected public schools in the State of Hawai'i. Instruction in Kaiapuni classrooms is conducted in the Hawaiian language. Program goals include students' development of a high level of proficiency in both Hawaiian and English. For nearly a century, policy banning the Hawaiian…

This collection of essays addresses the complicated and divisive issues at the heart of the debate over language diversity and the English Only movement in United States public education. Blending social, political, and legal analyses of the ideologies of language with perspectives on the impact of the English Only movement on education and in…

Argues that critical awareness of the role of the emergent South African English is dependent upon (1) the acknowledgement of the first languages of learners to prevent loss or down-grading of first-language cultures, and (2) the development of techniques by which learners' first languages can be used more explicitly in classrooms where English is…

Addresses the issue of language planning in pluralist Ethiopia. Offers an evaluative appraisal of the new policy that considers a number of obstacles to implementation of the policy and questions the move towards the preference of the roman alphabet to the Ethiopic syllabic writing system. (33 references) (Author/CK)

Reviews three books with the common theme that the way language operates in connection with juridical processes of various kinds gives ground for complaint. A subsidiary theme is that academic language studies might, in some cases, provide the appropriate theoretical underpinnings for the examination of the problems in question, and perhaps lead…

Explores the historical, political and socioeconomic contexts within which African children acquire their education in a major international language. Maintains that while such languages assist in the transfer of science and technology, compared to native languages, they are limited in their capacity to serve indigenous educational objectives.…

Development of Somali literacy through romanization and a government campaign is described, as well as the parts played by educational reforms, Somali language modernization and expansion, government involvement, use of the mass media, use of poetry as artistic expression, and recognition of orthography as a key element in learning. (Author/MSE)

Asserts that the United States has a long, sad history of discrimination against minority rights. Discusses the origins and history of minority inclusion or affirmative action programs. Includes a special report on the "English Only" movement. (CFR)

Three Southeast Asian polities, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand share much of their geography, history, culture, religion and language. Not all speakers of more than 100 languages spoken in the area have a sufficient knowledge of the respective national languages, Khmer, Lao and Thai. Yet, for the most part, the national languages are the only…