A comparison of the salient characteristics of Canadian and United States bilingual education programs suggests various settings where it would be desirable to introduce children to schooling in their home language. These settings include: (1) the various ethnic communities in the United States, (2) multilingual developing countries, (3) parts of…

The number of languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a small number of languages serve as important link languages or languages of wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world's approximately 200 countries…

A summary is given of a research conference held in Montreal in November 1975. Six themes of the conference are outlined and discussed: identification of program goals for evaluation; program structure and evaluation; program product and evaluation; process of second language acquisition, dissemination of information; responsibilities of the…

Identifies five recurring themes in the literature on bilingualism: role of language policy or planning activities in educational reform; concern with nurturing the mother tongue and facilitating transfer of skills across languages; importing a model versus a "cycle of discovery"; practical problems that impede implementation of…

The centrality of multilingualism as a world-wide phenomenon is examined, and six issues needing attention are identified: the variable impact of official policies concerning language; contrasting views about multilingualism; scarcity of basic research; language spread and the hegemony of English; lack of attention to languages other than English;…

Provides summary observations to this special issue of the journal on language contact and language change, examining concerns, major crosscutting themes, and neglected areas. (Author/VWL)

Offers a concluding summary to a special issue of the journal on applied linguistics as an emerging discipline. Raises concerns and discusses future directions. (Author/VWL)

This paper examines content-based instruction, which is an integrated approach to language instruction drawing topics, texts, and tasks from content or subject matter classes but focusing on the cognitive, academic language skills needed to participate effectively in content instruction. The intent and design of content-based instructional…

A total of 40 lower- and middle-class kindergarten children were given a number of different tasks in order to measure the child's understanding and usage of grammatical rules of English and his ability to use language for effective communication. (ED)

STUDIES WERE MADE OF THE ABILITY OF KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN TO CONTROL CORRECT PLURALIZATION RULES FOR ENGLISH NOUNS. PRODUCTION AND RECOGNITION TASKS WERE USED, WITH CARTOON PICTURES OF ANIMALS WITH NONSENSE NAMES. THE CHILDREN WERE ASKED TO GIVE SINGULAR NAMES FROM CORRECT PLURAL NAMES, AND VICE VERSA, AND TO CHOOSE THE BEST NAMES FOR THE ANIMALS.…

This paper is one of ten that were commissioned to investigate research needs and to stimulate planning activities. Two underlying assumptions of this paper are that all Americans should have the opportunity to develop an ability to speak, read and write English well, and that all Americans should be encouraged to maintain or acquire a second…

This study describes certain communication strategies used by Anglophone children learning French as a second language as well as by children whose mother tongue is French. Three groups of children in the third and fifth grades participated in the study: French native speakers, Anglophone children learning French in an immersion setting, and…

This book reports on research in the area of address patterns, such as titles, last or first names, and the formal and informal pronouns used in many languages. The research was inspired by two distinct issues: (1) what is actually intended by a "sender" when he makes a particular choice of address form, and (2) what is actually…

Highlights research priorities for the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) field, including the following: age of beginning instruction, learning to read in a second language, dual-language education for English language learners, language assessment and program evaluation, English as a global language, learning English for…