Focuses on interethnic interactions in which adolescents of Asian descent put on strong Indian English accents when addressing Anglo teachers and adults; discusses the extent to which these code switchings constitute acts of resistance within a racist society. Findings indicate that the term "resistance" is too crude to do justice to the…

Examines how the instructional conversation can be an effective method to raise the low academic achievement of various Native American students. Considers cultural differences in conversational styles, the relative emphasis on verbal or visual symbolic thinking in schools, student motivation, and the social organization of classrooms and schools.…

Strategies for deciding which language to use when forms part of the sociolinguistic competence of speakers who can speak more than one language. Language choices are shaped by a number of factors, including linguistic proficiency of both speaker and interlocutor, the ingroup or outgroup status of each, and the setting in which an exchange takes…

This paper analyzes the process of intergenerational language shift from a sociolinguistic perspective and proposes a pedagogical model for expanding the stylistic range of heritage learners, targeting the development of writing proficiency. The model proposes that the curriculum should be organized so that students initially draw on their…

A study investigated the linguistic behavior of three groups of speakers in reacting to accusatory complaints: (1) native speakers of Italian residing in Italy (SI); (2) native speakers of Canadian English residing in Toronto (CE); and (3) speakers of Italian residing in Toronto, first-generation immigrants, defined as speakers of Italian as a…

This study examined the language and cultural attitudes of 45 bilingual Spanish/English adolescents of Spanish, Peruvian, and Chilean background enrolled in Saturday Spanish programs in Sydney, Australia. Each student had at least one parent whose first language was Spanish. A 60-item questionnaire designed to elicit information on factors…

The language program at the United State Air Force Academy is described with emphasis on its upper track courses that are designed to prepare area specialists to interact with their foreign counterparts. Air Force officers assigned to Latin America, for example, may serve as experts in political-military affairs, foreign military sales, or as…

This volume contains working papers on a variety of topics in linguistics. They include: "A View of Phonology from a Cognitive and Functional Perspective" (Joan Bybee); "The Geography of Language Shift: Distance from the Mexican Border and Spanish Language Claiming in the Southwestern United States" (Garland D. Bills, Eduardo…

A study investigating difficulties encountered by Chinese graduate students in asking questions in the American classroom, and suggested solutions, are presented. An introductory section describes features of the Chinese educational system, focusing on attitudes toward questioning. The first chapter offers sociolinguistic and pragmatic…

A discussion of the current status and future of Celtic languages in the United Kingdom looks at the social and linguistic history of the languages, problems facing the community of Celtic language users, specific tensions and relationships, implications for reform of social policy, and the role of formal language planning, legislation, and key…

A study of the factors affecting the burring of word-initial /r/ in a small English village found variability in the temporal, spatial, social, sexual, and phonic aspects of usage. Six categories of burrers are distinguished according to their speech habits. The evidence points to an ongoing socially and phonetically conditioned change in the…

A collection of papers relevant to historical linguistics and description and explanation of language change includes: "Decliticization and Deaffixation in Saame: Abessive 'taga'" (Joel A. Nevis); "Decliticization in Old Estonian" (Joel A. Nevis); "On Automatic and Simultaneous Syntactic Changes" (Brian D. Joseph);…

A collection of papers on linguistics includes: "Italian Comparatives of Inequality with 'Che' and 'Di'" (Adrian C. Battye); "A Note on Passives in GPSG [Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar]" (Robert D. Borsley); "Reduplicated Constructions in Chinese and Questions of Generative Power" (Jonathan Calder); "A Note on Subcategorization, Constituent…

The German sociologist and communication theorist Jurgen Habermas' theory of communication as it applies to the problems of developing nations takes into account both the structural factors that hinder indigenous development as well as the individual psychology of the citizens of the less-developed countries (LDC). This paper details the…

This collection of symposium papers on varieties of the English language used in Ireland includes: "The Role of Irish English in the Formation of Colonial Englishes," by P. Trudgill; "Anglo-Irish Verse in Translation from Irish," by P. L. Henry; "The Methodology of Urban Language Studies," by J. Milroy;…