Discusses an ecological approach to language planning, which sees human communication embedded in a complex socio-historical, spatial, and interpersonal ecology. Contains a number of new ideas for language planners as well as suggestions for how to transform them into practice. (Author/VWL)

Suggests ethnic identity has yet to receive the attention it merits in such fields as linguistics and discourse analysis. Advocates using large corpus data to explore the evolving contexts of usage for ethnically relevant terms. The advocacy is illustrated with the results of a survey of all the uses of the term "Indian" in the corpus of…

Discusses a selection of ideas and writings by Michael Foucault into competition with those of Jacques Derrida. Consisted of a single game of references for which the references were those cited in a sample of master's theses produced recently at Queen's University. Examined master's dissertations, because these are the usual means by which…

Presents five easy games of referencing in academic writing: Risk--the art of assembling powerful coalitions; Poker--using citations to finesse a bluff; Dominoes and the logic of citations; Monopoly--using citations to create an empire; and Trivial Pursuit. (Author/VWL)

Discusses outcomes based education, which is being adopted by schools across the United States. Suggests that this travesty of intellectual life is the classroom analogue of information processing, storage, and transfer, and offers a computational model of learning whose systematicity leaves no room for ambiguity, sensitivity to context, or the…

One teacher-researcher pursues a dialogue to reflect on his own teaching practice, through enlivening conversation with two inspiring teachers. Shows that dimension can be discovered through talk. Examines methods through which dialogue is achieved and through which some account of the creative process contributing to the formation of this work is…

Second language acquisition has an identity problem. It is a young field struggling to emerge from the parent fields of education and applied linguistics. In this book, the author proposes a way to help second language acquisition develop a systematic and coherent focus using the philosophy of science as the lens. The structure of the book allows…

This article contends that the modern descendant of B. F. Skinner's experimental analysis of behavior, "behavior analysis," and as well his 1957 masterwork "Verbal Behavior," have rarely if ever been seriously contemplated by applied linguists for possible contributions to the field. Rather, a pat literature of dismissal has developed that…

When computers first became available, scholars in the humanities made little use of them. Language applications were introduced by non-linguists. By contrast, numerical applications were pursued widely in the physical sciences, engineering, and business. Only recently have computer languages and hardware been developed for managing human…

The "natural" acquisition of a second language is compared to learning from instruction, including aspects of learning such as sequence of items learned (e.g., syntactic) for both children and adults. It is concluded that suggestions offered hitherto for applying findings from research in natural acquisition to the field of foreign language…

The structural linguist's techniques for measuring stress, juncture, and gradations of pitch permit a closer study of a poem's movement than conventional scansion allows. (RL)

Examines the status of the educator of French language teachers on the elementary level in France. (AM)

Focuses on the tensions existing between theory and practice and between homogeneity and diversity in applied linguistics (AL). Argues that theory and practice need not be seen as separate activities, and that diversity is an inevitable, desirable consequence of the interdisciplinary nature of AL. (26 references) (Author/CK)

Addresses how applied linguists and those concerned with discourse analysis in particular have recently approached the study of health care communication, especially in intercultural contexts, and relates these approaches to studies undertaken by researchers in other academic disciplines, such as the sociology of medicine and by health care…

Provides summary observations to this special issue of the journal on language contact and language change, examining concerns, major crosscutting themes, and neglected areas. (Author/VWL)