diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index e0504b90481..74dacd22633 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -94,6 +94,9 @@ Release 0.23.2 - UNRELEASED
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
 
+    MAPREDUCE-3854. Fixed and reenabled tests related to MR child JVM's
+    environmental variables in TestMiniMRChildTask. (Tom White via vinodkv)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
   BUG FIXES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestMiniMRChildTask.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestMiniMRChildTask.java
index 49c899cf1d5..2b5ffd4f0db 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestMiniMRChildTask.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-jobclient/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestMiniMRChildTask.java
@@ -219,8 +219,8 @@ public class TestMiniMRChildTask {
       
       // check if X=$X:/abc works for LD_LIBRARY_PATH
       checkEnv("LD_LIBRARY_PATH", "/tmp", "append");
-      // check if X=/tmp works for an already existing parameter
-      checkEnv("HOME", "/tmp", "noappend");
+      // check if X=y works for an already existing parameter
+      checkEnv("LANG", "en_us_8859_1", "noappend");
       // check if X=/tmp for a new env variable
       checkEnv("MY_PATH", "/tmp", "noappend");
       // check if X=$X:/tmp works for a new env var and results into :/tmp
@@ -269,8 +269,8 @@ public class TestMiniMRChildTask {
       
       // check if X=$X:/abc works for LD_LIBRARY_PATH
       checkEnv("LD_LIBRARY_PATH", "/tmp", "append");
-      // check if X=/tmp works for an already existing parameter
-      checkEnv("HOME", "/tmp", "noappend");
+      // check if X=y works for an already existing parameter
+      checkEnv("LANG", "en_us_8859_1", "noappend");
       // check if X=/tmp for a new env variable
       checkEnv("MY_PATH", "/tmp", "noappend");
       // check if X=$X:/tmp works for a new env var and results into :/tmp
@@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ public class TestMiniMRChildTask {
    *   - x=y (x can be a already existing env variable or a new variable)
    *   - x=$x:y (replace $x with the current value of x)
    */
-
+  @Test
   public void testTaskEnv(){
     try {
       JobConf conf = new JobConf(mr.getConfig());
@@ -392,6 +392,7 @@ public class TestMiniMRChildTask {
    *   - x=y (x can be a already existing env variable or a new variable)
    *   - x=$x:y (replace $x with the current value of x)
    */
+  @Test
   public void testTaskOldEnv(){
     try {
       JobConf conf = new JobConf(mr.getConfig());
@@ -415,7 +416,7 @@ public class TestMiniMRChildTask {
               EnvCheckMapper.class, EnvCheckReducer.class);
     // test 
     //  - new SET of new var (MY_PATH)
-    //  - set of old var (HOME)
+    //  - set of old var (LANG)
     //  - append to an old var from modified env (LD_LIBRARY_PATH)
     //  - append to an old var from tt's env (PATH)
     //  - append to a new var (NEW_PATH)
@@ -432,10 +433,10 @@ public class TestMiniMRChildTask {
       mapTaskJavaOpts = reduceTaskJavaOpts = TASK_OPTS_VAL;
     }
     conf.set(mapTaskEnvKey, 
-             "MY_PATH=/tmp,HOME=/tmp,LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/tmp," +
+             "MY_PATH=/tmp,LANG=en_us_8859_1,LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/tmp," +
              "PATH=$PATH:/tmp,NEW_PATH=$NEW_PATH:/tmp");
     conf.set(reduceTaskEnvKey, 
-             "MY_PATH=/tmp,HOME=/tmp,LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/tmp," +
+             "MY_PATH=/tmp,LANG=en_us_8859_1,LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/tmp," +
              "PATH=$PATH:/tmp,NEW_PATH=$NEW_PATH:/tmp");
     conf.set("path", System.getenv("PATH"));
     conf.set(mapTaskJavaOptsKey, mapTaskJavaOpts);