This paper focuses attention on the kinds of research assumptions that are present in the literature on language, and which can be found in the "myths" about family structure and motivation. Three major professions are concerned with describing the language and cognitive abilities of black children--(1) educators, who believe these…

This final substantive report includes the working papers presented by the American and Japanese participants, notes on discussions, a summary of an address by William Labov, and draft proposals for joint sociolinguistic research. The working papers involve several sociolinguistic issues in Japanese-American and Japanese culture. The American…

It is the task of educational linguistics to describe and analyze language education in all aspects. With respect to the Navajo Reading Study, it is within the realm of educational linguistics to develop and make available information that will permit the Navaho people, working through their own institutions, to make informed decisions about…

Discusses current research on six bilingual elementary schools in Friesland, focusing on students' command of Dutch and Frisian, and on school policies concerning Frisian as an instructional subject. The proportions of Frisian- and Dutch-speaking children in an area, the pedagogical and sociolinguistic climates, and the problems associated with…

This study analyzed verbal responses of status unequals in situations where a linguistic mistake occurred. Subjects were 80 native Turkish-speaking university students (28 males, 52 females) who participated in role-playing exercises using such situations. Two aspects of the responses were investigated: the semantic and syntactic formulas that…

The language problem of emigrant children has two major aspects: (1) concern for mother tongue maintenance; and (2) concern that the children are not learning the second language, which is the official language of the host country. The first is primarily the concern of the family, whereas the second is the concern of the entire community. Massive…

This study examines the hypothesis that the French used by a large number of Franco-Ontarians represents a linguistic system (or several systems) that differs from Standard French. In addition, a review of previous research leads to the inverse hypothesis, that Ontarian French represents a body of different systems or sub-systems that are more or…

This article explores the hypothesis that members of a minority group whose language is other than English are fossilizing their second language patterns in an effort to retain stronger ties with their native culture. An investigation is conducted in which eight undergraduate students of the University of Texas at San Antonio have served as…

Disciplines interested in communication have failed to describe adequately the comprehension or production of taboo or dirty words with the result that little is known about the phenomenon. A review of research leads to the assumption that taboo word comprehension and production are the result of some or all of the following elements of the…

A new and important part of the training and education of English as a second language teachers is the course in "Language Policy," which centers on the relationship between politics and language teaching in developing countries, i.e., on language planning. A better understanding and more knowledge might be had by including static and…

Research findings on bilingual preschool children (2-1/2 to 6 years of age) and programs are presented. Working definitions are given for some of the terms used in the report. Research findings are divided into four categories: (1) "The Community" focuses on the findings from the fields of social psychology and sociolinguistics; (2)…

Papers from the 1998 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium include: "Patterns of Gender Agreement in the Speech of Second Language Learners"; "'Nomas' in Mexican American Dialect"; "Parsing Spanish 'solo'"; "On Levels of Processing and Levels of Comprehension"; "The Role of Attention in Second/Foreign Language Classroom Research: Methodological Issues";…

This issue contains the following articles: "The Pragmatics of Wh-Question Intonation in English" (Christine Bartels); "The Nature of Object Agreement in Hungarian" (Huba Bartos); "Voah Mei Daett Sei Deitsh: Developments in the Vowel System of Pennsylvania German" (David Bowie); "Event Time Properties"…

The 75 Metis of Mission Metis, Alberta, exhibit three general types of linguistic behavior according to age. Traditional Metis, over 50, are trilingual in English, French, and Cree. Those aged 30-50 speak English and some Cree and understand but do not speak French. Those under 30 speak English. The Mission Metis English and Cree are not…

The correlation of verbal, paralinguistic, and kinesic features in the context of student-student and student-teacher interaction is studied in a semester linguistics course at Vanderbilt University. The purpose of the research is to delineate some of the major problems of group interaction in the college classroom and to show how the various…