Compares heritage (ethnic) language programs with English as a second language programs in Canada. Differences in motivation and attitudes are cited among some ethnic groups who are eager to learn English for everyday communicative purposes, but are not interested in spending much time in heritage language classes. (SL)

Discusses the English writing difficulties experienced by native Chinese students in Canadian universities. Since they have little experience in creative or free writing, conforming to a western format of writing style is a problem which should be dealt within initially by a very basic understanding of Chinese culture and language. (SL)

This article deals with the question of how American teachers' language attitudes affect the implementation of bidialectal language programs. It places this question in historical perspective by focussing on past controversies involving the evolution of American teachers' attitudes towards children's language. (POP)

This paper mainly discusses the issue of whether the English language should be attached the same importance in education as it was before in post-1997 Hong Kong. The status of English before 1997 in Hong Kong has been carefully compared from the sociolinguistic perspectives with that after Hong Kong returned to China in 1997. Both political and…

Class society is vertically oriented and is reflected in such expressions as "on top" and "lower class." But solidarity, seen as respect for fellow human beings, is a horizontal relationship. Education for solidarity means an acknowledgement of human differences and a rethinking of our language implications. (CS)

Reports a study of the values of three groups of British adolescents: bilingual Welsh, English-only-speaking Welsh, and English-only-speaking English. The Rokeach Value Survey was used and a comparative study was made of actual and perceived differences in values. Results are discussed according to a model of the functions of social stereotypes.…

Hypothesizes that Native Americans in the Southwest have a historical and contemporary aversion to writing and other relatively permanent means of data storage. Contributing factors include religion, oral traditions based on memory, cultural secrecy. Available from Linguistic Association of the Southwest, Department of English, University of…

Studies the attitudes toward deaf society of two new deaf Gallaudet students who had been raised in an "oralist" tradition with biases against deaf culture. Their attitudes are compared with those of a deaf graduate oralist who had become acculturated into the deaf community. (PJM)

Group bilingualism, the contact situations which lead to it, and the role of language in maintaining ethnic boundaries are examined. Emphasis is laid on minority languages in the United States, Canada, Europe, and South Africa. The insistence of these groups on maintenance bilingual education rather than the acceptance of transitional assimilation…

Statistical data from the U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Education reveals societal patterns of language shift. The data can confirm the adequacy of theories of the causality of language shift. Examination of the data indicates geographic regions where language shift has occurred and is likely to occur. (PMJ)

Discusses the relationship in language and specifically in French between the standard language norm, the various registers and styles available to native speakers of a given language, and second language learning. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Overviews 20 years of language planning in Quebec and examines the effect of the province's institutional instability on the economy, language planning, and relations between ethnolinguistic groups. Elucidates the causes of Quebec's efforts to preserve its language and culture and concludes that the province needs its Anglophone population for the…

Compares the ideology of English monolingualism with a standard language ideology used to position speakers of different varieties of the same language within a social hierarchy. The article discusses the connection between assumptions underlying linguistic ideologies and other social ideologies related to individualism and social mobility. (104…

Argues that the cultural complexity in English language classrooms across the world require ethnographies of nonverbal behavior and of curriculum project design and management beyond the classroom. (83 references) (Author/CK)

Focuses on variable /l/-deletion in the French definite articles, subject clitic pronouns, and in one frequent phono-lexical context. Considers whether the sociolinguistic patterns reported indicate ongoing linguistic change or whether the effects observed reveal attitudes to non-standard linguistic forms inculcated in speakers by normative French…