The Hawaii State Department of Education offers a growing number of Hawaiian language immersion schools for its students. The article presents the history of immersion schools in Hawaii, examining criticisms of immersion schools, discussing their benefits, and explaining necessary components for success. (SM)

Presents a comprehensive report of material collected over five years for advocating to improve the education of language minority children. The essay argues that the attempts to help immigrant schoolchildren deficient in English are misguided in the assumption that these children cannot learn English quickly and must be taught academic subjects…

A case study of Davis Bilingual Magnet School in Tucson (Arizona) observed and interviewed teachers, parents, students, and community members. The school's success results from strong community support and an educational environment that privileges Spanish. Although Davis students do well on standardized tests, the school's greatest pride comes…

Questioning the notion of a sensitive period for second language acquisition, this research examined students' interlanguage development in selected classes at two grades in early, middle, and late French immersion. These classes were administered the same verb tense tests: an oral elicited imitation test and written rational cloze test. Analysis…

The purpose of this manual, which accompanies a video program, is to provide general background information for foreign language teachers who are, or soon will be, teaching in total, partial, or two-way immersion classrooms. Part of a series of video programs, this manual highlights current theories, issues, and questions about second language…

Based on data collected through classroom observations during site visits in February 1977 to project schools in Wisconsin (Freedom, Pulaski, Seymour, and West DePere), this document evaluates a project on Oneida language instruction. The project evolved from an expressed interest by Oneida Tribal members, elementary school children, and…

The rubrics are designed for productive use (speaking and writing) of English and Spanish in two-way bilingual immersion programs. The rubrics were developed by classroom teachers working in elementary school Spanish partial immersion programs, in consultation with a special education teacher, reading specialist, middle school partial immersion…

This paper presents an ethnographic study of the Oyster Bilingual School in Washington, D.C., a successful two-way Spanish-English bilingual elementary school designed to produce biliterate and bicultural students. The study was based on classroom observations, interviews of students, teachers, and administrators, and an examination of school…

This thesis reports on a study of the use of first and second languages among students of a Spanish immersion program. Eight fifth- and sixth-graders with varying levels of Spanish proficiency participated in the study. Data were collected through student verbal reports, questionnaire-based interviews, classroom observations, and background…

This guide to secondary school French reading instruction addresses a variety of general and specific instructional issues. An introductory chapter discusses program objectives, minimum program requirements, and the population to be taught. The second chapter looks at theoretical aspects of the development of reading ability: current thoughts on…

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…

The evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs for grades 6 and 9, undertaken as part of a policy formation process, compares students' achievement in English language skills and mathematics to the national norm and within immersion groups in those grades. Achievement in French and French language proficiency are also compared within…

A study of a two-way bilingual program in the Port Chester, NY Public Schools examined the relationship between classroom environment, and the language proficiency levels and second language learning outcomes of bilingual and monolingual pupils participating in the program. Pupils were second- through fifth-graders, including…

The extent to which primary school students participating in an English-Ukrainian bilingual program in Manitoba, Canada, were acquiring skills in Ukrainian and English language arts was evaluated for the 1981-1982 school year. This program, which was instituted in 1979, provides half of the instruction in English and half in Ukrainian. Using…

This paper discusses the use of the LISREL computer program to compare two groups of Ontario students who studied French as a second language in either a regular or an immersion program. Longitudinal data on growth in mathematical ability, from grade 4 to grade 6, are analyzed using seven different mathematical models. The paper illustrates the…