This qualitative research study used the interactional sociolinguistics approach (Goffman, 1959; Gumperz, 1982) to analyze the expectations of learners and tutors participating in the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) Drop-in-Center (DIC) environment. Analysis focused on the learners' and tutors' expectations of the conversation and participation…

The United States has at least three historically established patterns of language use: English monolingualism, multilingualism, and bilingualism. The United States could best be described at present as a multilingual nation in which English is the dominant language. English is promoted to varying degrees, but linguistic diversity is tolerated.…

Wagiman is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in the northern part of the Northern Territory by about ten people. It possesses an unusual open class of words, which are called coverbs. Most frequently coverbs are paired with an inflecting verb from a closed class to form a complex predicate. This book provides a descriptive and analytical…

This issue includes the following articles: "Vowel Epenthesis in Vimeu Picard: A Preliminary Investigation" (Julie Auger, Jeffrey Steele); "Lexical Borrowings from French in Written Quebec English: Perspectives on Motivation" (Pamela Grant-Russell and Celine Beaudet); "Variable Article Use in Korean Learners of…

EFL teachers need to be careful in their decision on the selection of cultural content for ELT classrooms. To address the issue, this paper investigates the design guidelines to evaluate textbooks as sources of cultural content in the ELT curriculum. The paper is organized in two parts. In the first part, the notion of culture and the important…

Jamaican dialect among Blacks in Britain seems to help unify working-class Black youth, thus making it a political, as well as a cultural resource, in the development of Black identity. However, this language form also contributes to differences between some first- and second-generation Afro-Caribbean Blacks in Britain. (IS)

Discusses the types of materials that should be used in the foreign language classroom to teach students how to communicate in real-life situations. These materials are called "communication tasks." (CFM)

Reviews current research on language and gender and discusses the implications of such work for gender-based research in second-language acquisition. The article notes that recent work in sociolinguistics, generally, and language and gender research, more specifically, has rejected categorical ideas of social identities in favor of more dynamic…

Examines the learning and use of academic English words by students who differ socioculturally. Argues that the Greco-Latin vocabulary of English offers various levels of potential difficulty for students from different class, cultural, or linguistic social factions. Infers some changes to practices in native and second language academic English…

Illustrates how women from the frontier of Laredo, Texas, use, describe, and view the hybrid of Spanish and English spoken at the borderlands as a result of culture and language contact among Mexicans of various backgrounds and Anglos. Categorizes the attitudes toward language choice into intraethnic and interethnic classifications. (32…

Examines the origin and current meaning of the labels, ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a foreign language). Places these acronyms in historical context, evaluates their current credibility, distinguishes three contexts commonly referred to as ESL environments and proposes a new nomenclature that better captures the role of…

Describes narrative activity in Spanish in a children's religious education class composed of Mexican immigrants at a Catholic parish in Los Angeles. Describes how students and their teacher collaborate in constructing a multiplicity of identities in an ongoing narrative within an oppressive colonial past in Mexico. (31 references) (Author/CK)

In a small Mexican town with a sizeable English-speaking population and bilingual schools, some native Spanish speakers develop native-like proficiency in English. Interviews found that the only Spanish speakers acquiring much English attended bilingual schools and frequently had close friendships with native English speakers and favorable…

Defines and introduces four language planning terms (status planning, corpus planning, policy planning, and language cultivation) into the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) literature. The utility of these terms as descriptors for the language teaching problem-solving process is exemplified with reference to two language problems encountered by…

Applies communication accommodation theory (CAT) to a study of the utility of selected discourse indices of adaptability that compared conversations involving native speaker-native speaker and native speaker-nonnative speaker dyads. Subjects were 132 student volunteers from a large midwestern university. Results are analyzed in terms of their…