The Education of Language Minority Immigrants in the United States draws from quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to inform educational policy and practice. It is based on cutting-edge research and policy analyses from a number of well-known experts on immigrant language minority education in the USA. The collection includes contributions on the acquisition of English, language shift, the maintenance of heritage languages, prospects for long-term educational achievement, how family background, economic status, and gender and identity influence academic adjustment and achievement, challenges for appropriate language testing and placement, and examples of advocacy action research. It concludes with a thoughtful commentary aimed at broadening our understanding of the need to provide quality immigrant language minority education within the context of globalization. This collection will be of value to students and researchers interested in promoting educational equity and achievement for immigrant language minority students.

​This book presents research on the situation minority language schoolchildren face when they need to learn languages of international communication, in particular English. The book takes minority languages as a starting point and it bridges local and global perspectives in the analysis of multilingual education contexts. It examines the interaction of minority languages and cultures, majority languages and lingua franca-s in a variety of settings across different regions and countries on all continents. Even though all chapters in this book involve minority languages, the issues discussed are relevant to any context in which more than language is used in education. The book reveals challenges and opportunities of multilingual education by discussing issues such as Northern and Southern concepts, language education policies, language diversity, interethnic understanding, multimodal language practices, power, conflict, identity and prestige, among many others. “This is the volume that finally accounts for multilingual education from a truly multilingual perspective by involving proposals and research from a variety of multilingual speech communities in the world. The (linguistically) rich Ethiopia and Mexico can teach the poor Europe and other Northern countries about multilingual education. CLIL promoters may learn from Finnish Sámi and Canadian Innu and Mi’gmaq indigenous communities as well as from Basque results. Speakers and teachers of minority and international languages will certainly be glad to hear the news. There is no need for a monolingual bias or tunnel vision in acquiring English in non-English speaking communities. This volume includes new challenging pedagogical perspectives while pointing to interesting conclusions for worldwide educational authorities”. Maria Pilar Safont Jordà, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain

This book looks closely at Yi bilingual education practice in the southwest of China from an educationalist’s perspective and, in doing so, provides an insight toward our understanding of minority language maintenance and bilingual education implementation in China. The book provides an overview on the Yi people since 1949, their history, society, culture, customs and languages. Adopting the theory of language ecology, data was collected among different Yi groups and case studies were focused on Yi bilingual schools. By looking into the application of the Chinese government’s multilingual language and education policy over the last 30 years with its underlying language ideology and practices the book reveals the de facto language policy by analyzing the language management at school level, the linguistic landscape around the Yi community, as well as the language attitude and cultural identities held by present Yi students, teachers and parents. The book is relevant for anyone looking to more deeply understand bilingual education and language maintenance in today’s global context.

The book outlines the evolution and role of minority languages locally and nationally; it investigates current educational language policies in minority areas; and it assesses the social and economic outcomes of language change for communities in contemporary China.

This Handbook is an in-depth appraisal of the field of minority languages and communities today. It presents a wide-ranging, coherent picture of the main topics, with key contributions from international specialists in sociolinguistics, policy studies, sociology, anthropology and law. Individual chapters are grouped together in themes, covering regional, non-territorial and migratory language settings across the world. It is the essential reference work for specialist researchers, scholars in ancillary disciplines, research and coursework students, public agencies and anyone interested in language diversity, multilingualism and migration.

This book presents the results of a case study that, as part of the European Communities Comparative Evaluation Project, was conducted on the EC Pilot Project Community Languages in the Secondary Curriculum, carried out in London, Birmingham and Nottingham. The case study consists of a document analysis, interviews with some of the projects key persons, observations in community language classrooms, and a mail survey among community language teachers. The book strongly argues for giving minority languages a more stable place in the curriculum.

This book provides a unique perspective into the world of supplementary schooling, exploring both the social positioning of these schools and the ethnic minority communities they serve. The author presents a close examination of the establishment and functioning of supplementary schools which offers a fresh and novel insight into acculturation processes. Drawing on empirical data gathered from staff interviews, classroom observations and interactive recordings, this book explores the operation of supplementary schools as sites of identity construction where the community identities are preserved, defended, renegotiated and reconstructed. The various modes of construction are indicative of the acculturation experiences of ethnic minority communities and the ways in which these communities negotiate residence in one country whilst having roots in another. This book therefore offers a revealing conceptualization of supplementary schools, not merely as educational spaces, but socio-political enterprises that are situated within and respond to various historical, social and political contexts. This pioneering work will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of education, migration and identity.