Elaborates and evaluates a sociolinguistic framework for the study of writing. Discusses application of the framework to the writing that takes place at a local government office. Finds that the workplace constitutes a communicative group of the local-public type, where communication is socially based and hierarchically structured with both spoken…

Discusses the varieties of Liberian English spoken in Liberia: Kru Pidgin English, spoken by Kru mariners and migrant workers; Settler English, spoken by descendants of 19th-century African American immigrants to Liberia; and Vernacular Liberian English (VLE), spoken by the rest of Liberia's English-speaking population. Focuses on tense aspect in…

Argues that crossing the boundaries between sociolinguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) is essential to both fields of study. Specifically, data collected in an investigation of the SLA of copula choice by 77 English-speaking learners of Spanish are examined in terms of similarities to data collected in studies of language change.…

Used surveys, interviews, field observations, and village documents to examine the influence of social and cultural context on the second language acquisition and acculturation efforts of Filipina wives of Japanese husbands living in a small Japanese village. Results indicated that there were significant relationships among…

Explores the widespread acceptance of Bahasa Indonesian as the single national and official language of Indonesia. The discussion focuses on the political, sociocultural, and linguistic forces that have created the strong bond between the language and Indonesians' sense of national identity, and on Indonesia's successful policy of maintaining its…

Gives an account of the origin and development of the Russian language as it relates to the cultural history and nationalism of various Slavic groups. (90 references) (Author/OD)

Investigation of speech of Baghdadi men and women showed that, in Baghdad, the prestige variety of spoken Arabic was in the direction of the standard, and that more women than men favored this variety. However, in the past, when Baghdadi women had less access to standard Arabic, men more often spoke a dialect approximating the standard variety.…

Analysis of doctor-parent-child interactions in terms of facework and politeness theory revealed that discourse was a matter of continuous negotiation between participants. Doctors' provision of indirect and direct information to parents was best understood sequentially because they changed approaches according to parent understanding. (20…

Discusses key issues related to availability of valid information to be entered into information systems and to be used in planning such systems. Topics covered include accuracy of information in systems, the importance of geolinguistic ecology (where and how a system's information is made available to people) to system design, and the lack of…

Explores the relationship between Spanish language use and ethnic identity through analysis of discourse among a Chicano family whose members had differing proficiencies in Spanish and/or English. Such factors as interaction in Anglo-dominated settings, conversational techniques, linguistic competence, and language attitudes appeared to influence…

Provides a critical review of the syntactic study of code mixing, discussing data drawn from African and South Asian languages, and focuses particular attention on the syntactic constraints paradigm. An examination of seven major surface constraints, deemed to have universal applicability, shows that none of these constraints is universal. (53…

Discusses the psychological or sociopsychological problems of two bilingual areas in Italy: The Alto Adige area and the Italian-Albanian area. The extremely important role of interlinguistic attitudes in attaining and maintaining bilingual status is explored. (92 references) (CFM)

Discusses the range of disciplinary traditions that underlie many current second-language acquisition models, and attempts to identify some of the issues that these models have generated. (104 references) (GLR)

Argues that the focus of literacy studies or applied linguistics should not be language, or literacy, but social practices. Introduces a concept of language usage called "Discourse," incorporating words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes. (FMW)

Proposes that literacy must be judged against social background. Analyzes the racial and social differences in the interpretations of a story by a working-class Black student, a working-class White student, and an upper-class White student. (FMW)