Any reputable approach to the teaching of reading makes use of certain psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic concepts which can provide the teacher with insights for the development and strengthening of reading skills. An understanding of the respect for the learner's cultural and behavioral patterns can establish group empathy, instrumental as a…

The speech of elementary school teachers in two contexts (adult-adult conversation and the classroom) was examined for the use of stance-indicating devices, i.e. ways of conveying one's attitudes towards a proposition; independent evidence supports the notion that teachers' perception of social distance between themselves and their listeners…

The usage of Spanish address terms is investigated to explore the predictability and variability in the behavior of non-Indians and Quechua Indians in Peru. The behavior variations are related to differential "power" and "solidarity" between the two ethnic groups and differential "solidarity" within the Quecha group.…

A survey of 64 University of New Mexico undergraduates examined their attitudes toward the different varieties of Spanish and the use of Spanish. (HP)

A questionnaire was submitted to Iranian students of English to determine their attitudes toward language, learning, and language learning. Responses were subjected to statistical analysis. Attitudes were generally favorable to second language learning, but confusion on some points suggests teachers might consider concepts of language and language…

A language, a social practice, cannot be taught or learned apart from determining sociological factors. The effect of this sociological understanding on foreign language methodology, particularly the functional approach, and learner-centered education is discussed. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

A paradigm gap has prevented research on second language acquisition theory and indigenized varieties of English from making substantive contributions to each other. The varieties of English represent several significant sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic variables, the investigation of which will put second language acquisition theory on firmer…

Challenges existing assumptions about literacy and literacy learning in an effort to both demonstrate and explore the transactive potentials of theory and methodology in the study of literacy. (HOD)

Contends that despite many overlapping characteristics, second dialect teaching requires a methodology distinct from that used in second language teaching, and discusses psychological, sociological, cultural, and linguistic aspects of second dialect teaching. (FB)

Asserting that language enrichment programs are often weakened by the assumption that standard English is necessary for the development of abstract thought, the author discusses problems of educational planning and policy with regard to low-income youth and specifies four areas in which further research must be carried out. (FWB)

Studies the simultaneous language development in American Sign Language and spoken English by a hearing girl. Findings show: (1) a mixture of oral and manual babbling, (2) a code-switching ability across modalities, and (3) a single syntactic system incorporating rules from both languages but with two separate lexicons. (Author/PJM)

Surveys recent research in language acquisition, emphasizing the views of M. A. K. Halliday. (RL)

Examines the relative contributions of the school and the family to the bilingual development of francophone minority group students in western Canada. The implications for the survival of the French language in western Canada are discussed. (74 references) (GLR)

The present article examines one property of bilingual speech--convergence--and strives towards explanatory depth by attending to the insights of the antecedent research in formal linguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. In particular, the paper adopts as a point of departure (and further substantiates) the argument that convergence…

Linguistics is the study of human language, and has several major divisions: formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguistics is the study of grammar, or the development of theories about how language works and is organized. Within formal linguistics there are three major schools of thought:…