The linguistic competence of the children involved. The monolingual Navajo or Eskimo child would need a different programme from his bi- lingual cousin who, perhaps due to the proximity of an English-speaking town or television station or because of some English-speaking neighbours in the village already has a certain competence in English (Trifonovitch, 1976). However, even though in the latter instance a certain knowledge of the dominant language might be present, would it be sufficient for use as a medium in education? Paulston (1980, quoting Gaardner n.d.) refers to the concept of "folk bilingualism" which refers to bilinguals who are members of an underprivileged section of society and whose bilingualism arises through confrontation with the dominant language. This confrontation does not necessarily lead to a sufficient command of the dominant language for use as a medium of instruction.