A cognitive, metacognitive, and sociocognitive perspective on literacy recognizes that it involves inquiry. Training students in questioning can develop metacognitive awareness. Collaboration among students and teachers places cognition in a social context. Questioning behavior is a part of socially constructed language development. (SK)

Explores a theory of 'politeness' which claims to describe and explain some universal features of dialogue, and considers what new insights it might give into teacher-pupil dialogue. Uses it to analyze two interviews between a teacher and pupil in order to assess the implications of any new interpretations. (Contains 20 references.) (ASK)

Discusses the Asmara Declaration, a declaration about linguistic rights of African languages and their speakers drafted by African scholars and writers at a conference in Asmara, Eritrea. Suggests that there is a problem in the quality of much of the work committed to language rights. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on vocalization of /l/ in nine Australian and New Zealand cities. Discusses an instrument designed to include all relevant phonological environments; demonstrates the strategic potential of moving from a unilocality to a multilocality sociolinguistics; conceptualizes a variationist isogloss; and proposes a conception of geography that…

Children raised in the home as English or Welsh monolinguals or English-Welsh bilinguals were tested on untrained word form recognition using both behavioral and neurophysiological procedures. Behavioral measures confirmed the onset of a familiarity effect at 11 months in English but failed to identify it in monolingual Welsh infants between 9 and…

The Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul has long existed as a bilingual Greek and Turkish grouping and remains largely unstudied. The sharp decrease in the size of this community to approximately 1000 members raises questions as to the maintenance of Greek in this setting. This study attempts to establish the current status of Greek in the…

The establishment and growth of Irish-medium education has been central to the revitalisation of the language in Northern Ireland in recent years. Historically, the struggle by the minority of Irish speakers in the region to provide all-Irish schools has been both the goal and the engine of renewal and expansion during a period of community and…

This study investigated the acquisition of English slang in a foreign language context. The participants were 101 Bulgarian learners of English, 58 high school students, and 43 university students. The instrument included knowledge tests of English slang terms and questions about attitudes, sources, reasons, and methods employed in learning…

Using a case study approach, this article examines the challenges faced by a cooperating teacher and student teacher during their collaborative planning conversations. I draw on several analytical frameworks, including sociolinguistics, speech act theory and discourse analysis, to analyze the cooperating and student teacher's efforts and struggles…

Data-based analysis of the language situation among the Circassian ethnic minority group is presented in this paper. All internal, external, ethnopolitical, sociolinguistic and demographic factors influencing this situation are examined. It is argued that although most empirical evidence indicates a gradual process of ethnic language attrition and…

Studies on the acting white hypothesis--the premise that black students purposefully do poorly in school and on standardized tests because of racialized peer pressure--to explain the black-white achievement gap have not been able to negate the fact that a "burden of acting white" exists for some black students, even though it is not prevalent…

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training,…

Many diversity courses that prepare pre-service teachers do not address the significance or the impact of language barriers on linguistically diverse learners. Often time, new and veteran teachers construct their bilingual and/or bidialectical students as others and are unaware of how to use their students' social, cultural, and political…

A significant number of community service-learning projects in higher education involve the teaching or tutoring of immigrants in English. As in related service-learning scholarship, these projects are commonly informed by perspectives on cultural difference, social justice, and power relations in U.S. society. Yet while faculty pair their…

The Linguistic Human Rights (LHRs) paradigm is motivated by the desire to combat linguistic discrimination, where speakers of discriminated languages find themselves unable to use their preferred language in society at large. However, in an increasingly globalised world where speakers may feel the need or the desire to travel across state…