Analysis of the first 10 years of the newsletter, "US ENGLISH Update," reveals that its main focus is restricting the use of Spanish in the United States out of fear for the status of English. This policy objective is rooted in language attitudes based on impressions and hearsay. It blames bilingual education for an unwillingness of…

This study reports on Japanese university-level EFL teacher N50 and student N660 reactions to the notion of making English an official language, as proposed by an advisory board to Prime Minister Obuchi in 2000. The study also reports on beliefs about English language learning and teaching in general in terms of goals, proficiencies of Japanese…

Fiji is a multilingual country in the South Pacific with English, Fijian and Hindi being the official languages. As is inevitable in multilingual societies, language use is functional with Fiji Hindi and Fijian being the mother tongues of the two main ethnic groups in the country, the Indo-Fijians and the Fijians. English, because of Fiji's…

This paper discusses language planning measures in Guernsey, Channel Islands. The indigenous language is spoken fluently by only 2% of the population, and is at level 7 on Fishman's 8-point scale of endangerment. It has no official status and low social prestige, and language planning has little official support or funding. Political autonomy has…

Since Reunification of French Cameroon and British Cameroons in 1961, the country has adopted French and English as its joint official languages and recommended the promotion of bilingualism in these two foreign languages in official domains. This paper focuses on the primary school level in the francophone sub system of education and examines the…

This paper examines the linguistic and legal framework in Spain and its attempts to define nationhood and a collective identity that encompasses its three major linguistic minority groups. The four major language groups of Spain are discussed with regard to official language policy and legislation. Article 3 of the 1978 Spanish constitution was…

Two dangers to linguistic and cultural pluralism are examined: (1) that the growing power of the major national languages threatens the very existence of less commonly spoken languages, and (2) that the spread of English as a universal lingua franca threatens even the major national languages. Much attention is given to the first issue, but less…

This digest provides an overview of the opposing sides in the Official English debate--Official English and English Plus. Proponents of Official English seek to make English the official language of the United States through passage of a constitutional amendment. The movement is spearheaded by two groups, U.S. English and English First. Official…

The volume is one of a series of six listing language-related legislation around the world. It contains the texts, in French, of laws of France, the French departments and overseas territories (Guadeloupe, New Caledonia, Corsica, and Martinique), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Swiss federal government, and the Swiss cantons. The laws concern…

This book examines the phenomenon of multilingualism in West Africa from a historical, social, and environmental perspective. Chapter 1 explains why the catalogue of African languages established by linguists is not reliable for assessing the linguistic diversity of the region. It also discusses studies that show that the linguistic behavior in…

A collection of papers addresses three aspects of the learning and use of French as a second language in Africa. The first two chapters look at the sociolinguistic dimension; the first examines the language question and language consciousness in parts of Africa where French was once or is still used as an official or "second" language.…

This review of the literature on language uniformity investigates the controversy surrounding the issue of making English an official language in the United States and the consequences that would follow such a practice. The review looks at the basic arguments of making English the "official" language and offers an understanding of a…

Many minority languages are unwritten, undocumented, and thus considered unsuitable for institutional communication and for inclusion in national literacy campaigns. Literacy should be set in a context that puts the local people at the center of the process, respects their cultural identity, and enables them to set their own agenda for…

In Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesian (BI) is the designated national and official language. However, deficiencies in Indonesian proficiency are found in a wide range of individuals. A test battery to measure proficiency level was developed, consisting of a writing test, a grammar test, and a cloze test. The writing test was an essay, in which five…

Following its independence from France in 1956, Morocco declared Arabic its official language. Successive policies of Arabization have been devised with the aim of ultimately converting French language domains into Arabic ones. However, there are two kinds of problems with the way the Moroccan language situation has been described and analyzed for…