The development of language conditions in Helsinki, including its origins in a Swedish-speaking area, makes it possible to observe many processes of sociolinguistic interest. Helsinki's colloquial Finnish has served as a model for the evolution of colloquial Finnish throughout the country. (Contains eight references.) (Author/LB)

Language cultivation includes any activity aimed consciously at influencing a language so that it improves or does not deteriorate. Three dilemmas face Swedish language cultivators: (1) the complexity of societal ideology; (2) the complexity of language itself as a social institution; (3) the balance between social integration and individual…

Reports on three investigations concerning the acquisition of a third language in bilingual immigrant students in Germany and Sweden. The results suggest that immigrant students who always use Swedish at home but have passive knowledge of their first language clearly perform better in English than do Swedish monolingual students. (SL)

The studies reported here constitute part of a project on language development and social influence. The question of what to do to obtain a linguistic development that is not retarded by an unfavorable environment is discussed, relative to different value systems. In the first three chapters a theoretical background is given in which…

To raise a child bilingually, parents may need assistance with increased second language input from outside the home. One way to do this is through the use of mother tongue playgroups for young children. (SL)

The longitudinal pilot study described here shows that immigrant children, trained prior to school entry and untrained, have great difficulties in language, though the groups are better able to cope. Results suggest some support for the assumption about the importance of the first language in the acquisition of the second. (Author/HP)

This article describes part of an experiment aimed at elucidating the relationship between speaker, speech act and listener from a sociolinguistic and sociopsychological perspective. High school students were asked to judge the taped speech of Swedish informants from Boras, Trelleborg and the Torne Valley. (CFM)

Linguistic diversity in the Nordic countries has several dimensions. One main division is between what the majority group thinks it is about versus what the minority group thinks it is about. This paper examines the situation in Finland and Sweden, noting implications for linguistic diversity. Finland and Sweden contain five main varieties of…

Semilingualism is discussed as a sociolinguistic concept and is viewed as a mediating variable when the society reproduces the class structure and vocational structure of suppressed minorities. A Finnish group of immigrant children in Sweden is the minority considered. It was found that the longer the Finnish children were educated in Finnish, the…

This anthology of sociolinguistic/anthropologically-oriented articles on ethnic bilingualism and bilingual education seeks to understand bilingual education outside of the methodological-pedagogical issues involved, that is, from a theory and research, rather than classroom, perspective. Bilingual education is seen as the result of societal…

This article discusses language planning in Sweden. The Swedish Academy has as its goal to develop the purity, strength and nobility of the Swedish language by means of dictionaries, grammars, and the codification of vocabulary. Sweden also has a National Language Committee, one of a network of such committees existing in the Scandinavian…

The paper examines the phenomenon of group bilingualism, the origin of the contact situations which lead to it, and the role of language in maintaining ethnic boundaries, especially in revitalization movements. Language shift and language maintenance are seen as indicators of the degree to which ethnic boundaries are being maintained. Many ethnic…

Papers in this collection were presented at a 1982 symposium convened to address the question, "What is the best way to provide school education for immigrant children?" The papers (and their authors) include (1) "The Social and Ideological Context of Multicultural Education in Immigrant Countries" (Ronald Taft); (2)…

This book focuses on the minority languages of Europe, those other than the national languages of European Union member states, by looking at the demographic, sociolinguistic, and educational aspects of both regional and immigrant languages. Empirical evidence for the status of these other languages of multicultural Europe is brought together in a…

About 2,200 immigrant children in Sweden were studied by means of tests and teacher questionnaires. The children, representing 36 nationalities, were born outside Sweden and were distributed over the nine grades of the Swedish Comprehensive School. Various functional language skills in Swedish as a second language (L2), nonverbal intelligence and…