This paper demonstrates that French language maintenance in Ontario does not depend only on French language schooling. Other contributing factors include francophone concentration and institutional support for French in the public and private sector. Difficulties related to French language schooling and suggestions for improving the status of…

Examines current theories of language change, and proposes the theory that language change can be observed and captured while in progress, and that language change can be considered a manifestation of human change in general. (AM)

Considers aspects of verbal interaction in classrooms. Attempts to show that whether researchers approach classroom talk from the perspective of systematic observation, ethnography or sociolinguistics, their underlying theoretical assumptions determine the "facts" that they record and the interpretations they are able to offer.…

Examines the supposed "Gender Paradox" proposed by Labov (1990, 2001), which suggests women are both sometimes conversative and sometimes innovative in terms of linguistic variation and change. Explores the paradox from two perspectives: its applicability to multilingual as opposed to multidialectal communities and whether it is…

Analyzes various apparently synonymous words for "friend" (e.g., "homes,""bro") as they are used by one former gang-member to persuade two current gang-members to stop "gangbanging." The article's analysis shows how the meanings of these disparate reference terms are made and remade through talk as…

Argues that applied linguistics should take as its central focus the concept of "language in the world." Emphasizes that it is necessary to examine the autonomy or interdependence of linguistic, cognitive, and social processes and to define research questions addressing the connection of these processes in an interdisciplinary fashion. (17…

Examines several longstanding, isolated biracial sociolinguistic situations in the coastal and Appalachian regions of North Carolina: a core community of African Americans and two case studies of isolated speakers. Compares diagnostic phonological and morphosyntactic variables for speakers representing different generations of African American and…

Discusses how individuals and communities in the United States re-present themselves in the context of the terrorist attack of September 11 and its complex aftermath, exploring the "American" discourse on inclusion and discrimination by examining the neologisms and social practices that were amplified by the attack in local and national…

Provides a sociolinguistic account of the forms of address used in present-day Iranian Persian. The shift from power to solidarity as a result of the Islamic Revolution has resulted in a sociolinguistic simplification of address forms. (Author/CB)

Examines recent lexical innovations in Nigerian English, focusing on loanshifts, ellipses, conversions, translation equivalents, analogical creations, and coinages. Various examples of each phenomenon are presented. (Contains three references.) (MDM)

Suggests that the increasingly globalized United States society is composed of numerous speech communities. Discusses how instructors of international and intercultural communication can use the sociolinguistic concept of speech community and its concomitant six aspects to organize their curricula and classroom activities efficiently and…

Language maintenance remains either passive, with no overt efforts at preservation or active with language planning. Models for language maintenance are reviewed along with language reinforcement efforts. An annotated bibliography is included. (Contains 43 references.) (LB)

Arguing that the question of social acceptability of allophonic variations is not a linguistic issue, but rather an issue of social identity, the discussion considers the speech chain, language as a social activity with its "norms" for social acceptability, and the specific context where Singaporean English is a marker of social…

The initial phase of Porta's mature poetry, composed between 1801 and 1805, is discussed in the context of dialect translation and parody of famous literary texts. (Author/LB)

Examines the rating scale and the testing procedure of the oral interview for evidence of discourse competence. The paper suggests that a careful examination of the processing capabilities might serve as a valid indicator of their discourse competence. (24 references) (GLR)