Presents the advantages of an analytic, constructivist, holistic view of language learning and training, whether native or foreign, written or oral, productive or receptive. Argues that context (setting the linguistic forms in a communicative competence framework) is the critical issue. (HOD)

Based on experimental research, examines the relationship between American Sign Language and French Sign Language, and sociolinguistic variation in both sign languages. (AM)

Panelists involved in deaf education teaching, research, and administration discuss the application of English-as-a-Second-Language methods for teaching English to deaf students, focusing on educational theories, use of American Sign Language, teacher education needs, and sociocultural factors. (CB)

Draws on sociolinguistic literature and on an ethnographic study of language use and bilingual education in Quechua-speaking rural communities of Puno. Consider the roles of both language planning and the schools in achieving language maintenance for Quechua. (35 references) (Author/CB)

Current research supports the notion that language users make both unconscious and conscious choices when accommodating their language for public use, incorporating regional and social distinctions as well as notions of correctness and acceptability. Such decisions occur at the level of communicative competence and become part of the communicative…

Contrasts systems of address used between professors and students in German departments in the United States and at universities in Germany. It is shown that the two systems differ in several important ways. These differences are discussed and guidelines are provided for instructors on how to deal with them. (31 references) (LET)

Various social, psychological, and linguistic explanations for language variation are examined from the perspective of a fundamental principle that seems to underline interaction, language, and society. That principle lies in the paradigm "same and different." The dialectic resulting from this paradigm is at the basis of the notions of…

The category of the social increasingly informs the way people think about rhetoric. The foregrounding of the social has a two-fold origin in an uneasy relationship between poststructuralism and sociolinguistics. Poststructuralism has provided a strong version of the hypothesis that language is determinative. Sociolinguistics has established that…

All speakers bring to even simple verbal encounters complex presuppositions and expectations that may create discourse interference. A second-language encounter carries a complex and often inexplicable expectation load. Language expresses meaning and intentions, but also carries social import. The value or appropriateness of speaking itself varies…

The 10 articles in this book examine how comprehension is affected by what the reader brings to the text, the manner in which the text is structured by the author, and the contextual variables that shape the meaning derived by the reader. Specific topics covered in the articles are (1) background knowledge and comprehension, (2) learning how to…

The three parts of a theory used in the design of a language proficiency test--linguistic components, communicative skills, and the sociolinguistic domain--are described in relation to language proficiency and testing models. In line with this discussion, a review of test formats is made with some assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of…

Describes the characteristics of language conflict and examines the areas of emphasis in the literature, including multilingualism and linguistic identity, glottophagia and minority/majority relations, the danger of reliance on language censuses, conflict resolution/avoidance, and the importance of ecolinguistics in conflict description and for…

A review of recent language research regarding the black English vernacular (BEV) considers new developments involving (1) the grammars of elderly and young speakers; (2) indications that BEV is not decreolizing but is actually diverging from white speech; and (3) the effect of contemporary developments on differences between black and white…

Review of research on multilingualism in England examines recent responses to multilingualism within the national education system and growing tension between education policy and research. Notes research weaknesses in 1980s (inadequate study of language pedagogy, over-reliance on self-report data, treating Caribbean languages separately) and…

The quantification of communication network integration provides valuable information for the study of language change in very small rural communities such as Grossdorf, Austria. The approach is particularly relevant when study of aggregate group behavior has failed to yield results due to small sample size or group internal inconsistency. (26…