This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Wayne Holm, Albuquerque. New Mexico Univ., Penny Murphy, Marlene Atcitty, Agnes Holm, Thomas John Gustafson, Robert W. Young, Bernard Spolsky, and Breda Murphy Bova.
(1970). Navajo Language Maintenance: Six-Year-Olds in 1969. Navajo Reading Study, Progress Report No. 5. One of the central questions in the study of bilingualism is the degree to which it is possible for a group to maintain their language even when accepting other cultural values. There are numbers of cases of peoples who have managed to develop a modern industrial society without giving up their national language; this is difficult, but possible. A necessary concomitant of such a result is a highly developed sense of national identity, and a movement supporting the national language as a symbol of that identity. Whether this will develop with the Navajos remains to be seen. The present survey was carried out in order to provide a picture of the present status of the Navajo language, to serve as a baseline for later studies of any change, and to permit some degree of prediction of the direction and speed of language loss. Results of data gathered on the language of six-year-old children permitted the following generalizations: (1) Overall, 73% of the children in the study come to school not speaking enough English to do first grade work; (2) the farther a school is from an off-reservation town, the more likely its pupils are to speak Navajo; (3) the farther children live away from a school, the more likely they are to speak Navajo at home; and (4) language is maintained for some time even when other traditional features of life are given up. [More] Descriptors: Acculturation, Bilingual Schools, Bilingual Students, Bilingualism
(1971). Literacy in the Vernacular: The Case of Navajo. Navajo Reading Study, Progress Report No. 8. The present report is an expanded version of an earlier paper by the authors. Summing up last year's language maintenance study, it goes on to place the Study in its general context as a contribution to Navajo literacy. Following the report is a complete listing of the publications of the Study to date, with ED numbers and other information concerning availability. [More] Descriptors: Acculturation, Bilingualism, Language Role, Language Usage
(1971). Preparing Reading Materials in Navajo. Pilot reading materials in the Navaho language have been prepared by a study group of 6 university students in the interest of teaching Navajo children to read their own language first. The 11 products developed were based on the language-control approach although drawings were used to initiate a language-experience approach. In the materials, a loosely controlled sentence approach initiates the reader with a relatively long sentence and thereafter asks him to contend with a single word substitution in the same sentence; also utilized is the traditional additive vocabulary technique. This report contains a discussion of the preparation process in addition to 1- or 2-page descriptions of the pilot materials. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. Descriptors: American Indians, Children, Citations (References), Fiction
(1971). Navajo Spelling Lists. Navajo Reading Study Progress Report No. 11. The Navajo spelling lists are intended for teachers or materials writers who require sets of Navajo words with certain characteristics. The lists are derived from the corpus collected as the basis for a computer-assisted study of the vocabulary of 6-year-old Navajo children. Words in the corpus, whether used by adult interviewers or by children, and whatever their frequency, that fit the description of the pattern chosen are given. In Set 1, words are listed on the basis of the occurrence of a given vowel or consonant unit. In Set 2, words are listed on the basis of the contrast of given pairs of word- or syllable-final consonants. In Set 3, 2-syllable words are given which contrast in vowel quality. Set 4 consists of some comparative statistics: (1) relative sentence length, in words, for children and for adults; (2) relative sentence length, in graphemes, for children and for adults; and (3) relative word length, in graphemes, for children and for adults. Descriptors: American Indian Languages, Consonants, Graphemes, Navajo
(1971). Navajo Language Maintenance II: Six-Year-Olds in 1970. The purpose of this study was to determine 6-year-old Navajo children's relative proficiency in Navaho and English upon entering school. A first study on this topic was done in 1969. In the present study, data were obtained for 3,653 of the 4,645 children who were 6 years old in 1970. This study used a teacher questionnaire which was checked for reliability. Teachers having Navajo children in over 100 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools and public schools on or near the Navajo Reservation were asked to describe the language capability of the 6-year-old Navajo pupils. To estimate the validity of teachers' judgments, 194 children at 18 schools were further tested. Results showed that over 2/3 of Navajo children start school not knowing enough English to function in a classroom using English. In BIA schools, this figure is 86%; in public schools, it is 51%. Comparison of 1970 results with 1969 results showed a very slight increase in amount of English that Navajo children know upon entering school. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Children, Citations (References), English (Second Language)
(1971). Navajo Language Maintenance III: Accessibility of School and Town as a Factor in Language Shift. Two centers of diffusion of the English language are (1) schools on the Navajo Reservation and (2) off-Reservation towns; these diffusion centers were studied to examine factors involved in language shift, especially in terms of internal (on-Reservation) and external (off-Reservation) contacts with English. Teachers in schools with Navajo pupils on and near the Reservation filled out questionnaires rating language proficiency of Navajo 6-year-olds at the time school started in 1969 and 1970. The correlation of ease of access to a school with language maintenance was examined in terms of 2 types of schools: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools and public schools. Findings revealed that 6-year-olds coming to BIA schools tend to be speakers of Navaho who know a small amount of English, while 6-year-olds coming to public schools are closer to being "balanced" bilinguals. A key factor in explaining this is the fact that public school children live much closer to school, the center of diffusion. To investigate how ease of access to an off-Reservation town influences a community's language maintenance, an accessibility index and an average language score for each school were calculated. It was found that the nearer a community is to an off-Reservation town, the more contact it has with English and the more likely parents are able to speak some English at home. The survey also looked at 2 specific communities (Rock Point and Lukachukai, Arizona) in terms of language diffusion. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. [More] Descriptors: American Indian Reservations, American Indians, Children, Citations (References)
(1970). Teaching Initial Reading in Navajo: Report of a Conference of Educators Held at Kayenta, January 30-31, 1970. Navajo Reading Study, Progress Report No. 6. This report includes descriptions of ongoing reading programs for Navajo students in Rough Rock, Rock Point, and Navajo Community College, presented by teacher-participants in the conference on reading held in Kayenta, Arizona, January 30-31, 1970. Also included are reports from the Navajo Reading Study staff and a discussion of the problems of the various reading programs. See ED 035 484, Report No. 3, a bibliography of Navajo reading materials, and AL 002 547, Report No. 5, a study of Navajo language maintenance in six-year-olds. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.] Descriptors: Beginning Reading, Bilingual Education, Community Attitudes, Conference Reports
(1971). A Computer Assisted Study of the Vocabulary of Six-Year-Old Navajo Children. Navajo Reading Study Progress Report No. 9. In keeping with the objective of the Navajo Reading Study, to investigate the feasibility and effect of teaching Navajo children to read their own language first, it was decided that more needs to be known about Navajo children and the language they know. Thus, between October 1969 and June 1970, 22 adult Navajo interviewers recorded free conversations with over 200 6-year-old Navajo children at 10 locations on the Navajo Reservation. Interviews were transcribed, in normalized orthography, by one transcriber and key-punched for computer processing. From the total of 11,128 sentences processed, the complete sample of 52,008 words (tokens) represented 8,775 different words (types). Output of the processing included (1) a number of statistical measures, (2) complete concordance giving sentence context, (3) a list of all the words in alphabetical order giving frequency and range, (4) a list of all the words in alphabetical order from the end of the word, (5) a frequency listing, and (6) a number of lists according to various spelling patterns. A concordance giving English loan words in the sample in the context of the sentence in which they occurred was also produced. It should be noted that word lists resulting from the study will be used as a filter in preparing reading material for 6-year-old Navajo children. The body of the report provides a description of the study; the appendix includes translated extracts of the interviews and samples of program output. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Child Language, Computational Linguistics, Graphemes
(1992). Alliance 2000 Project. Trainers' Resource Manual. The Alliance 2000 Project offers training, technical assistance, and information to programs preparing personnel for careers in special education and related services at institutions of higher education whose enrollments include 25 percent or more students from historically under-represented ethnic groups. A major emphasis is to increase the success rate of these programs in acquiring grants from the Division of Personnel Preparation (DPP) of the Office of Special Education Programs, through capacity building, training for groups of participants, provision of trained mentors, technical assistance, collegial linkages and networking, and national and regional conferences. This resource manual for trainers first provides an overview of the DPP, an introduction to training and objectives, and a sample agenda. The manual then provides material on finding requests for proposals (RFPs); reading RFPs; using the Federal Register; smarter grantsmanship; specific components of the proposal (impact and needs, capacity, plan of operation, evaluation, and cost effectiveness); and budget development. Support material includes common core knowledge and skills essential for all beginning special education teachers, developed by the Council for Exceptional Children, and statistics on grantsmanship. Numerous transparency masters are provided. The Foundation Center Cooperating Collections Network is included. [More] Descriptors: Budgeting, Career Development, Disabilities, Ethnic Groups
(1979). Motivational Orientations of Adults in Technical-Vocational and Post-Secondary Institutions. To determine whether adults who were grouped according to selected variables differed in their reasons for participating in education programs, the Educational Participation Scale was administered to 322 part-time adult students. Focus was on age, sex, institution, level of educational attainment, and occupational groupings. The responses were factor analyzed, and the following five scales were developed: Social Relationship, Professional Advancement, Social Welfare, Escape/Stimulation, and Cognitive Interest. Some of the findings were these: (1) younger adults, 18 to 22 years of age, scored higher on the Social Relationship Scale then did any other age group while housewives scored higher than any other occupational group; (2) women as well as health and clerical workers scored higher than other respondents on the Professional Advancement Scale; (3) adult students 40-45 years of age along with housewives and health workers scored high on the Social Welfare Scale; (4) 18 to 22 year old adults in early transition scored higher on Escape/Stimulation Scale than those respondents who were in other life stages; and (5) respondents in the 40-45 years old mid-life transition were more highly motivated by Cognitive Interest Scale reasons than were those in other life stages. [More] Descriptors: Adult Education, Adult Students, Educational Attainment, Educational Attitudes
(1971). English Loan Words in the Speech of Six-Year-Old Navajo Children, with Supplement-Concordance. As part of a study of the feasibility and effect of teaching Navajo children to read their own language first, preliminary data on English loan words in the speech of 6-year-old Navajos were gathered in this study of the language of over 200 children. Taped interviews with these children were analyzed, and a spoken word count of all English words used was prepared. The document contains a discussion of English loan words that the children used and the light these words cast on linguistic acculturation; an appendix lists the English loan words according to semantic (subject matter/part of speech) classification; and a 138-page concordance of loan words, prepared by a computer program, provides an alphabetical listing of all words used by the children and interviewers and the sentence context in which the words occurred. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. Descriptors: Acculturation, American Indians, Child Language, Citations (References)
(1971). [A Spoken Word Count of Six-Year-Old Navajo Children, with Supplement–Complete Word List.] Navajo Reading Study Progress Report No. 10. As part of a study of the feasibility and effect of teaching Navajo children to read their own language first, a word count collected by 22 Navajo adults interviewing over 200 Navajo 6-year-olds was undertaken. This report discusses the word count and the interview texts in terms of (1) number of sentences, (2) number of words, (3) number of tokens, (4) type-token ratios, and (5) word-length. A frequency list gives all words used by at least 2 children. The words, mostly Navaho, are grouped in order of frequency and in alphabetical order within each frequency. A supplement lists, alphabetically, all words from the interview texts (whether used by children or adults). Frequency and range data for adults and children are given separately and in total for each word. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. [More] Descriptors: American Indians, Citations (References), Graphemes, Language Research
(1970). A Procedure to Discriminate Between Successful and Unsuccessful Pressure Groups Which Have an Interest in Education. Final Report. A pilot study was designed to explore the nature of pressure groups interested in education and to determine characteristics common to those groups. Background material is presented covering the history of pressure groups in the U.S., the social structure in which pressure groups must operate, and the role of pressure groups in the decision-making process. The literature pertinent to group effectiveness is reviewed and eight variables that may have a bearing on effectiveness are discussed and presented as hypotheses. A questionnaire interview schedule was developed and completed interviews were obtained from 56 pressure group leaders (84% of the sample) and 42 educational personnel (91% of the sample). Four variables pertinent to pressure group effectiveness showed significant results: 1) the critical situation, 2) prestige, 3) channels of communication, and 4) strategy. The most significant variable was the groups' strategy since there was a strong relationship between the strategy a pressure group employed and its ability to influence educational policy. [Computer printout pages 157, 159, 161, and 163 may reproduce poorly due to marginal legibility.] [More] Descriptors: Analysis of Variance, Communication Skills, Community Attitudes, Decision Making
(1972). Written Navajo: A Brief History. Navajo Reading Study Progress Report No. 19. In this paper, a brief history of the Navajo written language between 1819 and the present is presented. The paper describes the progress of Navajo as a written language. The history was used as background material for a meeting organized by the Sanostee-Toadlena Navajo Bilingual Education Project. The meeting's purpose was to survey the present situation of written Navajo and to look at the needs for new material to help Navajo children to learn to read their own language in the first grades. An abstract of "Some Aspects of Navajo Orthography," a dissertation by Dr. Wayne Holm, Director of Rock Point School, is appended. A related document is ED 043 413. [More] Descriptors: Abstracts, American Indian Languages, History, Literature Reviews
(1971). Grapheme and Unit Frequencies in Navajo. Navajo Reading Study Progress Report No. 12. As part of a study of the feasibility and effect of teaching Navajo children to read their own language first, the results of analysis of grapheme and unit frequencies noted in the speech of Navajo 6-year-olds are presented in this report. Material gathered by means of interviews conducted by 22 adult Navajos with over 200 Navajo children is analyzed and the linguistic structure is compared with that used by adult Navajos. The grapheme and unit frequencies are computed for children and adults and reported separately. Graphemes, vowel units, dipthong units, absolute frequencies, and relative frequencies are listed in tabular form and described. A 26-item bibliography is included. Related documents are ED 035 484, ED 043 004, ED 043 005, ED 043 413, and ED 048 584. [More] Descriptors: Age Differences, American Indians, Consonants, Graphemes