Maintaining a Minority Language

John Gibbons teaches in the English Department of Hong Kong Baptist University. He has long term interests in the fields of bilingualism and language in the law. Publications include Code Mixing and Code Choice (Multilingual Matters, 1987), Learning Keeping and Using Language (Benjamins, 1990) Language and the Law (Longman, 1994) and Forensic Linguistics (Blackwell 'Language in Society' series, 2003). He is on the editorial board of several academic journals.Elizabeth Ramirez is a doctoral student at the University of New South Wales in the field of Medical Interpreting. She is a practising interpreter, translator and Spanish language teacher. Her research interests and expertise are in the area of translation into a second language, community interpreting and bilingualism. Elizabeth co-authored the NLLIA Spanish Language Profile in Australia (1996) . She has also published papers in international journals, and developed a CD Rom for Spanish-English Bilingual teenagers.

• Acknowledgements Conventions 1 Introduction 2 Language Proficiency 3 Measuring Proficiency4 The Societal 5 Interpersonal Contact 6 Education, Media Use and Literacy 7 Attitudes and Beliefs 8 Conclusions References