The home culture of minority children in the assessment and development of their first language: Remedies and recommendations¹

The author draws attention to the role of the home environment in the language acquisition process and highlights the problems that arise when minority culture children are assessed in their second language. The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the problem and outlines a solution aimed at the education of teachers and language professionals. A graduate programme in multicultural and special education is advocated, as well as a local language assessment centre, with a specialisation in the needs of minority culture children. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for parents, teachers, language professionals and governments.