THE ACQUISITION AND MAINTENANCE OF LANGUAGE BY MINORITY CHILDREN1

Abstract

Ninety‐eight children whose first language is Hawaii Creole English (HCE) were examined over a period of time for their proficiency in both HCE and English, the medium of instruction in the Hawaii public school system. The hypothesis that the children could acquire English without a formal language program, and that they would maintain their first language was confirmed. For these kindergarten and first‐grade children, learning the dominant variety of the language in a bicultural/bidialectal environment did not appear to affect adversely performance in their first language.