Discusses the language and linguistic transformation of Hawaii, viewing language as socially constitutive, creative, and recreative and pointing out similarities between the language transformation and the Western penetration of Hawaii. (Author/CB)

If language research is to arrive at valid analyses of speech behavior, both observation and elicitation methods of data collection will have to be used as necessary complements to one another. The advantages and disadvantages of different research methods are discussed. (CB)

This paper traces the three major developmental strands that converged to contribute to the definition of the applied linguistics field in the Philippines: the institution and capacity-building work supported by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations; the forging of a vibrant consortium among three Filipino institutions of higher education to offer…

This paper presents an overview of current trends in a new discipline called diachronic sociolinguistics. This perspective leads to an original retrospective look on a thousand years of linguistic evolution, from classical spoken Latin to protoromance. The article exhorts romanists to consider the research carried out by sociolinguists who study…

Group bilingualism is typically the result of contact and assimilation between ethnic groups. The language shift is influenced by the origin of the contact, the degree of enclosure, and the control exerted by dominant groups. Bilingual education may have the goal of language maintenance or induced language shift. (Author/SJL)

Examines Nigeria's language policies in terms of (1) the historical, sociolinguistic, political, educational, and ideological contexts in which they arose; (2) their impact on patterns of language choice and use in education and other aspects of life; and (3) their implications for the theory and practice of language planning. (51 references) (GLR)

Reviews the history of English and education in the Samoas. Discussion focuses on the social, political, economic, and educational factors that relate to levels of English and native language literacy in the two Samoas, and that help to explain the decline of native language literacy in American Samoa over the past several years. (Author/CB)

Argues that second language learning is a form of enculturation that involves learning the perspectives and identities that a culture allows and values. Proposes that a language teacher is actually changing the cultural identity of the student. (FMW)

Reviews research in the field of language and gender from the 1970s through the 1990s, observing that language and gender research has moved away from variationist studies to broad-based ethnographic investigations and examinations of discourse and conversation where language is studied in communicative context. An annotated bibliography discusses…

Literacy in francophone Africa, where literacy is still a privilege, is reviewed in terms of the complex linguistic situation, effects of population change, concepts and definitions of literacy, promotion of literacy in adult nonformal settings (e.g., African language literacy materials, multilingual settings). (23 references) (LB)

Serious and systematic exploration of the differences between the language of women and men has come only since the late l960s, and to date little research has questioned whether and how works of literature reflect the reality described by linguists. One such informal examination was conducted in conjunction with a "Women's Language and…

This article describes how, over the past 25 years, sociolinguistics and education have entered into a methodological and intellectual dialogue that has significantly changed both views of language and theories of how language enters into school learning processes. The first section, "Literacy, Language and the Problem of Differential Learning,"…

While traditional views of literacy assume that discourse is either written or oral, an alternative perspective considers different discourse samples as part of the linguistic repertoire of the speech community. Placing this perspective in a sociolinguistic context and taking language use rather than form as the starting point for analysis, it is…

Applied linguistics has made major contributions to literacy teaching in recent years, in four general areas. First, second language acquisition is becoming the model for first language literacy teaching in schools through the "whole language approach" to literacy. Second, the field of sociolinguistics has convinced educators that literacy is a…

The state of the art of research in second language acquisition is reviewed. A framework is first established for the examination of second language learning. The concept of proficiency is addressed with respect to its theoretical basis, rating scales, formal tests, and interlanguage studies. The social context of second language acquisition is…