This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Betsy Evans, Peter Garrett, Antonio Mercurio, Stephen M. Nover, Heloise Marie L. Ledesma, Helen Borland, Lynda Prichard Newcombe, Richard B. Baldauf, Angela Scarino, and Angie Williams.
(1999). Critical Pedagogy in Deaf Education: Bilingual Methodology and Staff Development. USDLC Star Schools Project Report No. 2. Year Two, 1998-1999. The New Mexico School for the Deaf, Santa Fe, was awarded a five-year federal grant to improve language teaching practices of teachers working with children who are deaf by using current bilingual theories and pedagogical techniques, including "engaged learning" practices and educational technology. The project developed and refined the American Sign Language (ASL)/English Bilingual Staff Development Model for practicing K-12 teachers in five state residential schools for students with deafness. This report discusses activities and outcomes of year two of the five-year project. The first section of the report discusses the theoretical framework of the ASL/English Bilingual Staff Development Model. Section 2 describes the project's activities, including a technology plan for the next three years. Sections 3 and 4 discuss significant findings of three of the residential schools' teacher reflective logs, and conclude with excerpts of teachers' comments. Section 5 examines and discusses the significant issues of the complexity of assessing language of students with deafness, and describes assessment instruments such as signing attitude and reading and writing attitude surveys. It also discusses the assessment instruments for project teachers. The last section describes the family computer loan program. Appendices include further information on the ASL/English Bilingual Staff Development Model. (Contains 45 references.) [More] Descriptors: American Sign Language, Bilingual Education Programs, Bilingual Students, Computer Assisted Instruction
(2005). In Support of a Proficiency-Based Definition of Heritage Language Learners: The Case of Russian, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. This paper addresses the problem of placing and teaching heritage speakers of immigrant languages in college-level foreign language programmes, drawing conclusions from research on heritage speakers of Russian. For pedagogical purposes, heritage speakers cannot be viewed either as native speakers of the target language or as foreign language learners, and are best treated as a separate population requiring their own curriculum and materials. The paper advocates that students' proficiency be used as the basis for placement and curriculum development. An essential tool in determining heritage proficiency is knowledge of a student's linguistic biography, and therefore biographical information should be solicited from incoming heritage students. Heritage students' motivation for studying their heritage language can serve as a guiding principle for materials selection and curriculum design. [More] Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Curriculum Development, Curriculum Design, Russian
(2005). "Ask Each Pupil About Her Methods of Cleaning": Ideologies of Language and Gender in Americanisation Instruction (1900-1924), International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. The focus of this paper is on the complex interaction between ideologies of language, gender and identity during the Americanisation era (1900-1924) in the USA. I will argue that the Americanisation movement had a "hidden curriculum" which singled out immigrant women–and in particular mothers–for specific kinds of English instruction. Americanisers attempted to control women's linguistic repertoires and reduce them to "pots and pans" English, linked to consumerism and domesticity. Three main responses can be distinguished among the women. Some ignored the classes altogether. Others enrolled and then dropped out, either disappointed by outdated teaching methods or overwhelmed by family and work pressures. And yet others did take the classes but did not adopt the patriarchal femininity constructed for them by the Americanisers. Instead, many immigrant women adopted alternative linguistic repertoires and identities offered to them by the labour movement. [More] Descriptors: Teaching Methods, Linguistics, Ideology, Sexual Identity
(2005). Maintaining the Community Language in Australia: Challenges and Roles for Families, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. Much Australian work on immigrant languages has revealed that the family is a crucial site of language maintenance (LM). The family remains for most immigrants and their offspring the main domain for community language (CL) use. At the same time, there is no doubt that positive language, education and migration policies strengthen the maintenance of CL in Australia as described in Fishman's (1991) model of LM, "Reversing Language Shift." However, as Fishman (1991) has observed, supportive policies and educational provisions will only be of value if the family initiates CL acquisition and provides a practice ground for its continued use. I consider the main favourable factors, challenges and strategies for successful CL maintenance in the family, as gleaned from case studies, and conclude with suggestions for greater attention to the role of adolescents and of technology in CL maintenance. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Immigrants, Language Maintenance, Family Environment
(2005). Heritage Languages at Upper Secondary Level in South Australia: A Struggle for Legitimacy, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper describes how more than 40 languages gained and retained legitimacy as subjects for graduation from upper secondary schooling and for tertiary entrance selection in the South Australian educational system. Essentially the process required conforming with administrative, curriculum and community structures and fitting the mould of evolving language policies and generic frameworks. While the success of language communities in achieving this status is recognised, questions remain about overall uptake of languages and the fundamental rationale for maintenance. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Language Maintenance, Secondary Education, Second Language Learning
(2005). Innovative Language Education Programmes for Heritage Language Students: The Special Case of Puerto Ricans?, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. In this paper, I discuss current interest in educational reform in Puerto Rico, the need for better and more appropriate assessment tools, the growing realisation in the USA that two-way bilingual programmes can provide an effective vehicle for fostering the development of bilingual proficiency, bicultural competence and subject-matter knowledge for heritage language students; and the possible confluence and implications of these three threads of work for the education of Puerto Rican children who participate in the so-called "migrant stream" moving regularly between the island and the mainland. The paper concludes with the listing of a number of prospective research questions that might form the basis for a set of planned-variation studies to examine diverse factors associated with improving the quality of language teaching and learning in Puerto Rico. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Change, Language Teachers, Bilingualism
(2005). Affiliation, Engagement, Language Use and Vitality: Secondary School Students' Subjective Orientations to Welsh and Welshness, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. The revitalisation of a minority language implies subjective as well as objective (e.g. demographic) criteria of vitality. School students of around age 16 have been identified as a key group for carrying a revitalised Welsh language through into social life. Our research profiles the feelings of ethnic affiliation and cultural engagement, and perceptions of the vitality of Welsh, of students at four secondary schools in Wales, representing different local sociolinguistic environments. Quite high levels of ethnic affiliation to Wales contrast with variable levels of reported engagement and vitality beliefs. The findings are interpreted as qualifying rather widespread positive assumptions in Wales about the revitalisation of the Welsh language among young people. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Social Life, Welsh, Student Attitudes
(2005). Patterns of Language Preference Among Bilingual (Filipino-English) Boys, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. The pattern of language preference in a simultaneous bilingual (Filipino-English) population was examined, including changes in the pattern of preference over time. Participants were 81 Filipino boys (Mean age=6 years, 2 months) recruited from two schools in the Philippines. A language preference checklist was completed by the parents of the children at the beginning of kindergarten (n=81) and the beginning of first grade (n=58). Factor analysis of the checklist items yielded three language preference factors at kindergarten and two factors at first grade. Findings show that bilingual boys evidence different patterns of language preference across situations, with variability in preference within individuals. Variables that may be influencing the patterns of preference are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Grade 1, Language Patterns, Kindergarten
(2005). Connecting Communities: Identity, Language and Diaspora, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. This paper compares government and media views on citizenship, language and identity with the perspectives of a particular group of British citizens who are fluent speakers of English but retain an allegiance to their other languages. Firstly, it discusses recent official and newspaper reports in the UK relating to issues of citizenship and language. In these pronouncements English is cited as a crucial means of engagement with what is termed "the wider community", whereas lack of English and use of a heritage language may be seen as preventing such engagement. The paper goes on to compare notions of community in these examples of authoritative discourse to the lived experience of a particular group of British citizens who are fluent speakers of English but who retain an allegiance to their other languages. These are a group of mothers of Pakistani heritage. It will be seen that in this group there is an alternative construction of community in that the heritage language represents community as being a crucial identifier and bond to the immediate and wider diasporic group. [More] Descriptors: Citizenship, English (Second Language), Immigrants, Mass Media
(2005). Heritage Languages and Community Identity Building: The Case of a Language of Lesser Status, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. Diasporic communities formed as a result of recent migration movements face particular issues and challenges in supporting the intergenerational transmission of their heritage language through language maintenance and heritage language education (HLE) initiatives, especially when the language involved is not one that has high visibility and status in the surrounding society. This paper reports on a case study of ongoing action-oriented research to raise awareness and use of the heritage language within the second and third generations of such a community, Maltese-background people in Melbourne, Australia. The community is well established with the ageing first generation having primarily migrated in 1950s and 1960s. Within the community poorer than average educational outcomes for the second generation led to a programme of research and action to enhance ethnic identification and involvement with the heritage language and culture. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were conducted to investigate attitudes to and use of Maltese within the community. These data have formed the basis for other ongoing initiatives to strengthen heritage language maintenance and education efforts, described and evaluated below. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Outcomes of Education, Educational Objectives, Focus Groups
(2005). Coordinating Government and Community Support for Community Language Teaching in Australia: Overview with Special Attention to New South Wales, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. An overview of formal government language-in-education planning for community languages (CLs) that has been undertaken in Australia and New South Wales is provided, moving from the more informal programmes provided in the 1980s to school-oriented programmes and training at the turn of the century. These programmes depend on community support; for many of the teachers from the communities, methodological training is needed to complement their language and cultural skills. At the same time, Commonwealth (Federal) and State support for CL programmes has improved their quality and provides students with opportunities to study CLs at the senior secondary matriculation level. The paper concludes with specific recommendations for greater recognition of CL schools and for greater attention to CL teacher preparation. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, State Aid, Community Support, Teacher Education
(2005). Bilingualism for the Minor or the Major? An Evaluative Analysis of Parallel Conceptions in China, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. This paper is an analysis of two conceptions of bilingualism that exist in parallel in China. One is traditional bilingualism referring to the use of a native minority language and standard Chinese by minority groups and the other, seen as bilingualism with modern characteristics, is a modern-day phenomenon in which the majority Han group aspire to produce bilinguals with a strong competence in mother tongue Chinese and a foreign language, primarily English, by using Chinese and the foreign language as mediums of instruction in teaching school subjects. The focus of the analysis is on the latter for the simple reason that current literature on the new phenomenon is mostly available only in Chinese. An equally important aim of this paper is to explore the impact of the new phenomenon on minority education and to examine the reason why this impact is largely ignored in bilingualism discussions, despite obvious consequences with respect to ethnic identity, personality development and academic performance of minority students. Thus, the traditional conception is briefly reviewed at the start. [More] Descriptors: Personality Development, Foreign Countries, Second Languages, Ethnicity
(2005). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Heritage Language Education: What Role for Testing?, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. This paper considers the role of tests in evaluating the effectiveness of a government-funded initiative to teach heritage languages in selected Australian schools. External evaluations were commissioned by the central educational authority and included a pre-and post-test requirement, although the nature and purpose of the tests was not specified. Drawing on illustrative data from four heritage language (HL) programmes (for learners of Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic), the paper discusses the dilemmas faced by the evaluators in implementing the testing programme and in interpreting the test results. While the experience of testing in these schools suggests the need for extreme caution in using score gains as the sole source of evidence for determining programme effectiveness, it is argued that the process of devising and implementing such tests is valuable in that it forces the schools concerned to make explicit programme goals and the kinds of data that they would accept as evidence that these goals are being achieved. In addition, while the tests used are inadequate measures of genuine learning, they provide insights into the workings of each programme that would not otherwise have been available. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for more effective use of language tests in HL education contexts. [More] Descriptors: Evaluators, Testing, Language Tests, English (Second Language)
(2005). Raising "Bilingual Awareness" in Greek Primary Schools, International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism. This paper presents the results of a research project involving bilingual children in selected primary schools in Volos, Greece, focusing mainly on the findings that have led to the proposal of two class activities, with the aim of promoting "bilingual awareness" in primary schools. The activities are the creation of "The bilingual portrait" and the use of the children's book titled "My First Book on Bilingualism," which was produced in order to help teachers in their efforts to raise awareness in relation to bilingualism in their multilingual classes. The research project in question took place during the school year 2002-2003, while co-operation with some of the teachers involved still continues, as the implementation of the research findings necessitates on-going efforts to turn theoretical issues on bilingualism into specific classroom activities. Both "The bilingual portrait" and "My First Book on Bilingualism," initiatives and practices suitable for first and second grade primary school children, provide an opportunity for teachers, children and parents alike to realise some of the important benefits of our multilingual Greek reality, both in and outside the school environment. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Grade 2, Multilingualism, Learning Activities
(2005). When School Is Not Enough: New Initiatives in Intergenerational Language Transmission in Wales, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper examines language reproduction in the family in the context of a highly innovative project in Wales, where the Welsh language has been in decline for over a century. Although Welsh-medium schooling has played a pivotal role in slowing and even reversing language shift in recent decades, there is mounting evidence of the dangers of over-reliance on education. The Twf (Growth) Project was established in 2002 with funding from the National Assembly for Wales with the aim of raising awareness of the benefits of bilingualism among parents and prospective parents. Analysis of interviews with the main stakeholders in the project (managers, the Twf project officers, parents, health workers and a range of other partners), publicity materials and observations of project staff at work suggests that the achievements of the project lie in two main areas: the recognition of the need for building strong alliances with professional groups and organisations that work with families with young children; and the development of a marketing strategy appropriate for the target audience. It is argued that the experience of the project will be of interest to those addressing the issue of intergenerational transmission in a range of other minority language settings. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Publicity, Marketing, Welsh