(1985). American-Hispanics in a Pluralistic Society. Migration Today, v13 n3 p30-34. Results of survey of Hispanic Americans' attitudes toward assimilation show that changes in their cultural patterns and movement toward assimilation were minimal. Hispanics generally want to be Americans with political and economic clout but also desire their own cultural identity. (SA)…
(1984). The Core French Program: Proposal for Change. Education Canada, v24 n2 p4-11 Sum. Examines teaching core French. Proposes engendering national spirit, reassessing university role, adopting businesslike attitudes, undertaking a national research project, pooling publishing expertise, using technology, expanding New Brunswick's testing program, and providing proper teaching conditions. Suggests fluency become basic priority, writing put into perspective, and "academic attitudes" at local levels be reassessed. (NEC)…
(1984). "I Don't Understand My Textbooks": Students Comment on Their Indian Bilingual Schooling in Mexico. Contemporary Educational Psychology, v9 n3 p260-68 Jul. Three Tzotzil-speaking Mexican sisters were interviewed about their attitudes toward their Indian schooling. They enjoyed school and felt it was important to attend school to learn Spanish, though they had not acquired few linguistic skills. (BW)…
(2001). An Alternative Model for Novice-Level Elementary ESL Education. School professionals are often dissatisfied with the current model of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) elementary education. The typical 30-45 minute pull-out session often frustrates ESL teachers because of the amount of time is inadequate. This causes frustration among the mainstream teachers because of the class time the ESL learners miss. Teachers involved in inclusion models sometimes feel their expertise is not being utilized, and believe that ESL students need some time away from their native, English-speaking peers to be comfortable practicing their own language skills. Teachers of self-contained ESL classes often believe that their students have too little academic and social interaction with the rest of the school. This paper presents an alternative model of delivery instruction for novice speakers of English, which piloted in one St. Paul, Minnesota elementary school in 1999, the TESOL Inclusion Program. After reviewing current models of instruction and their historical… [PDF]
(1999). Mystery on the Bilingual Express: A Critique of the Thomas and Collier Study. A study of school effectiveness for language minority students, authored by Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas, is criticized as having two serious flaws. The first is that its methodology is a simple descriptive cohort analysis, seen as unscientific and producing misleading results because: each grade consists of different students; the number of students in each grade is not given; there is no statistical control for pretreatment differences; and the test scores shown after elementary school are not for the same cohorts. The second flaw is that little about the methodology is explained. (Contains 14 references.) (MSE)… [PDF]
(1970). Teaching Non-English Speaking First Graders To Read. Elem Engl, 47, 2, 199-208, 70 Feb. Includes an 18-item bibliography on reading instruction for non-English-speaking first graders. (RD)…
(1978). The Provision of Second Language Instruction–Financial Aspects. Education Canada, v18 n4 p59-62 Win. A description of the French program in Ottawa schools and a look at the costs and sources of revenue for implementing a second language program. (Editor)…
(1978). Languages of Instruction in Ireland 1904-1977. International Review of Education, v24 n4 p501-10. This paper considers the declining use of Irish (Gaelic) as a language of instruction in both Ulster and the Republic of Ireland in this century. Policy statements are analyzed. Tables list percentages of primary and secondary schools conducted in Irish, English, or bilingual modes over the decades. (SJL)…
(1979). Getting Meaning from Print: Four Navajo Students. Reading Teacher, v32 n6 p691-95 Mar. Analyzes the oral reading performance of four Navajo children and notes that they believed the purpose of reading was to produce acceptable English grammar. (MKM)…
(1979). Assessment of Oral Reading Which Exhibits Dialect and Language Differences. Journal of Reading, v22 n7 p609-16 Apr. Describes specific training, using taped readings, designed to prepare teachers to accurately assess the oral reading of students who exhibit dialect or second language influences in their speech. (MKM)…
(1995). A K-5 Bilingual Resource Room: The First Year. Bilingual Research Journal, v19 n3-4 p551-69 Sum-Fall. Describes the development and first year of a bilingual resource room in an Illinois elementary school. Discusses school and community context, students, and staff. Details resource room practices and activities for each grade, K-5, as well as multigrade activities. Outlines program problems–many related to staff attitudes and communication–and recommends solutions. (SV)…
(2002). Alternative Assessment for Transitional Readers. Bilingual Research Journal, v26 n2 p241-68 Sum. A teacher-developed alternative assessment of reading comprehension was specifically designed for transitional English language learners. Use of the measure with 89 fifth-graders in their first year of English language instruction showed that the students could successfully engage with English texts and provided teachers with useful information to guide instruction. (Contains 78 references.) (SV)…
(1989). Empowering Hispanics in the Mainstream: Building a Curriculum Unit on Immigration and Central America. Equity and Choice, v6 n1 p42-48 Fall. Describes a six-week curriculum unit to assist Hispanic immigrant students entering mainstream urban elementary classrooms. Emphasizes interviewing activities that "empower" the new student and heterogeneous group activities that break down prejudice among the mainstream students. (FMW)…
(1988). The American Sign Language/English Studies Project: A Progress Report. American Annals of the Deaf, v133 n5 p330-35 Dec. A bilingual/bicultural approach is presented to prepare deaf students for community college English courses. The approach focuses on American Sign Language as the primary language and teaches English as a second language. Students learn, in both languages, to differentiate meaning and to render the complexities of language more accessible. (Author/JDD)…
(1996). The Education of Language-Minority Students: Where Are We, and Where Do We Need to Go?. Elementary School Journal, v96 n3 p353-61 Jan. Notes the difficulty of sorting out the root cause of poor test performance by Spanish-speaking students, and the scarcity of demonstrably effective solutions. Illustrates these difficulties by discussing low English academic engagement by limited-English-proficient students and the challenges of making the transition from native language to mainstream English instruction. (HTH)…