BRJ Online

The "Notes" section of BRJ Online may contain several items. In this issue there are three items. The first describes the online version of the BRJ, BRJ Online. The second is a set of call for papers for several planned special issues of the BRJ. The third is a note on date discrepancies. You may click on the item you wish to read or read them seriatum.

As we gain more experience with BRJ Online the strengths and weaknesses of the technology become clearer. The positive aspects are obvious and numerous, but a serious problem remains: inadequate bandwidth. This manifests itself as the inability by the Web to accommodate thousands, or millions, of users simultaneously without losing efficiency and speed. Experts claim that the Web is the most revolutionary innovation since the printing press. That may be true, but it means that the earliest electronic journals “printed” on the Web must suffer the inconveniences of all early innovations. The early printing presses no doubt had comparable problems.

The greatest inconvenience of the Web is the slow download speed for pages with numerous graphics or with large graphics such as the masthead on our Table of Contents page. With this issue we give you the option of reading BRJ Online with or without graphics. If you choose the “Text Version” you will get optimum download speed but you will not see the opening masthead or the graphic icons or buttons. Any graphics embedded in the articles may also be lost. If you are accessing BRJ Online via modem you may want to try the “Text Version”, especially if you are pressed for time. If your computer is connected directly to a local area network, graphic downloads are usually not a problem and you may want to stay with the “Graphics Option." Either way, the functionality and text content remains the same. Try both options and see what works best for you.

As a future project we hope to make the journal available in CD-ROM format as well as online. If the bandwidth problem is not resolved soon, a CD-ROM version of BRJ will reduce the problem of download time.

As we weigh the future of BRJ Online, please make your needs and suggestions known for making BRJ Online more user friendly.

Special Issue of the Bilingual Research Journal:
Early Childhood/Bilingual Education

Research has well documented that the early years of a young child are the most formidable ones in establishing cognitive, social, emotional, and physical growth. Additionally, the acquisition of language, oral and written, develops in the early years and the language arts continues to be the most significant skills taught in early childhood education. As we are now in the 21st century, the demographics of our country continue to change as we now have a greater culturallydiverse nation. One of the largest diverse groups in the United States today are Hispanics, and it is predicted that the Spanishspeaking population will be the largest ethnic minority in this country by the year 2020. With the growth of bilingual early childhood programs and the need to provide quality with respect to curriculum design and teacher and parent education, it is apparent that research in this area can assist professional educators and practitioners with knowledge to promote effective and quality programs. Additionally, given the fact that a majority of bilingual programs are directed to children between the ages of 4 and 8, valuable information on developmentally appropriate programs and current research studies would be of great benefit to teachers and professional educators working with young bilingual children. Therefore, manuscripts addressing early childhood bilingual education programs are invited for review.

Authors should follow the submission guidelines available under the submission button on the masthead. The guest editor requests that manuscripts submitted as feature articles be a maximum of 25 computerproduced pages, doublespaced, in 12 point type, using 8.5 by 11 inch paper, with one inch margins all around. Manuscripts for other sections may be shorter. Authors must follow the style manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition), submit a title page and, on a separate page, a one paragraph abstract. The full name of the author(s), physical and email address, and telephone and fax numbers must appear only on the title page.

Generally, submissions are based on original work that has not been previously published. On an exceptional basis, contributions of high merit, interest, or significance may be reprinted at the discretion of the editor. All submissions will be peer reviewed. The closing date for receipt of manuscripts is October 15, 2000.

Special Issue of the Bilingual Research Journal:
Heritage Languages in the United States

Families and communities have long played a role in maintaining heritage languages within immigrant and indigenous language minority communities. Historically, these communities thrived among European immigrant groups until the World War I era. Heritage language schools flourished among Asian immigrant communities during most of the 20^th century. Heritage language education has also been promoted among some indigenous peoples since the early 19^th century.

Today, tens of thousands of students study in hundreds of heritage language schools across the country. Local resources and volunteers support much of this effort. Nevertheless, despite the popular perception that immigrants and other language minorities are resistant to learning English, language shift to English only and the loss of heritage languages is occurring at an alarming rate.

At various times in U.S. history, the efforts of heritage language communities to retain their languages have met with strong resistance from the dominant, English-speaking society. However, in recent years, there has been a greater awareness of the importance of the need to promote heritage languages. This awareness stems from a greater understanding of the value of heritage languages for language minority students, and from a greater appreciation of the role of heritage languages in preserving intergenerational ties in families and the cultures of local communities. There is also a greater recognition of the value of heritage languages in adding to the linguistic resources of the nation. Moreover, greater attentiveness for promoting heritage languages also results from the need to preserve languages that are in danger of becoming extinct.

In public-supported education, there is a growing appreciation of the wide range of educational needs among heritage language learners, including those who have some degree of oral fluency but who lack literacy in their heritage language. There are also those who have some level of knowledge of the language in school contexts who lack fluency in its social uses.

Today, there is an increased awareness of the need to provide more professional support to private and community-based heritage language schools.

Researchers from a variety of fields are calling for increased efforts to study the factors that help to promote these important resources.

Manuscripts that address the broad themes of heritage language promotion, maintenance, loss, and/or reversal will be considered. Preference will be given to papers that deal with:

The guest editors request that the manuscripts submitted as feature articles be a maximum of 30 computer-produced pages, double spaced, in 12 point types using 8.5 by 11 paper, with one inch margins all around. Manuscripts for other sections may be shorter. Authors must follow the style manual of the American Psychological Association (4^th edition), submit a title page, and, on a separate page, a one paragraph abstract. The full name of the author(s) physical and e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers must appear only on the title page.

Generally, submissions are based on original work that has not previously been published. On an exceptional basis, contributions of high merit, interest, or significance may be reprinted at the discretion of the editors. The closing date for receipt of the manuscripts is September 1, 2000.

We prefer manuscripts to be submitted as electronic "attachments" to brj@asu.edu. Please refer to our submission specifications online at brj.asu.edu for more information.

Devoted to Recently Completed Dissertions

Important research on bilingualism and bilingual education has been carried out by doctoral students in the course of completing their dissertations. Cognizant of the need to make this research more widely accessible, the Editorial Policy Board of the Bilingual Research Journal has decided to devote an annual issue of the journal to a special collection of research articles based directly on dissertation research.

The second special dissertation issue of BRJ will contain articles derived from dissertations completed (and approved) during 1999 through December 2000. The peer-review process for this project is independent of the NABE dissertation award competition. All authors, including NABE award-winners, who wish to be considered for inclusion in a BRJ Dissertation Issue must submit articles in the designated form and timeline in order to be considered.

In addition to following the usual BRJ requirements, articles submitted for publication in a special dissertation issue must adhere to the following specifications:

· authorship by a single author;

· length not to exceed 20 text pages (not counting references and endnotes);

· writing and organization of high quality; following the conventions of research-based studies.

No more than six articles will be selected for inclusion in the special dissertation-based issue of the Bilingual Research Journal. All submissions must report on original research. Qualitative and quantitative research will be considered; no preference will be given to one or the other.

Although these articles are expected to be based on dissertation research, we do not envision mere summaries of the dissertation document. Because they are significantly shorter and more focused, these articles may cover a portion of the original research, (e.g., fewer research questions or hypotheses may be reported). The article may be delimited to cover selected aspects of the analytical work. When a dissertation is not reported in its entirety, the portions of the research that are not included in the article should be noted in a brief endnote. This will inform readers on what they may expect to find in the dissertation report itself. The dissertation should be included as an entry in the reference section.

Articles may be delimited in other ways to ensure a thorough and focused look at the most important part(s) of the dissertation study. The editors may give preference to studies that are (a) especially timely contributions to theory and/or practice; (b) fill important lacunae in the knowledge base; or (c) point to new directions in theory or practice in bilingual education, bilingualism, or language policy. Finally, the articles must be structured in a format that is appropriate for an article in a professional journal.

A guest editor has been selected to oversee the development of the second dissertation issue. The editor will have wide discretion in accepting articles and revision to articles submitted in response to this call for papers. All articles will be refereed in the same way as other articles selected for inclusion in BRJ and must comply with the same high standards of scholarship.

Prospective authors should contact the appropriate guest editor directly for further guidance on submitting articles. Deadline for receipt of articles for this special issues is January 15, 2001. For articles based on dissertations completed in 1999 through December 2000 contact:

Dr. Virginia Gonzalez
Associate Professor
Division of Teacher Education Literacy
TESL Program 505-H Teachers College
University of Cincinnati
P.O. Box 210002
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0002

email address: virginia.gonzalez@uc.edu
Phone: (513) 556 5116
Fax: (513) 556 1001

Note on date, issue, and volume discrepancies

In the fall of 1998, a new editorial team based at the Center for Bilingual Education and Research, Arizona State University, assumed responsibility for the Bilingual Research Journal. At the time this change occurred BRJ was several issues in arrears. While the new team expects to bring the journal into currency, this will take time. Until the journal becomes current readers should note that certain articles may contain bibliographic references or allusions to events that took place sometime after the date and issue line. Hence, differences in date, issue, or volume numbers are due to the editors' decision to maintain an uninterrupted numeration and date sequence.