The study reported in this article investigates the development of sociolinguistic competence among second-year (US university-level) L2 learners of French who were given systematic instruction on sociolinguistic variation as part of their normal coursework. We focus on the variable use of the negative morpheme "ne" in verbal negation. Drawing…

This article analyzes four Hollywood films set in Hawai'i to shed light on how particular languages and language varieties "style" (Auer 2007; Coupland 2007) Local/Hawaiian and mainland U.S. characters as certain kinds of people. Through an analysis of films featuring "haole" ("white, outsider") male protagonists who…

One quality among the many that characterize effective teachers is the ability to bring a creative disposition to teaching. In second language teaching, creativity has also been linked to levels of attainment in language learning. Many of the language tasks favored by contemporary language teaching methods are believed to release creativity in…

Drawing on longitudinal data, this study explores the dynamic relationship between the development of conceptual knowledge of language and the emergence of sociostylistic variation in second language (L2) speech. Participants include eight intermediate-level US university learners of French who participated in a concept-based pedagogical…

The basic questions that a scholar interested in the study of language asks are concerned with language structure, acquisition, and change. William Labov is a linguist who has deeply influenced the linguistic scene in the past 60 years. It is to Labov's credit that he showed, backed by solid evidence, that the questions concerning language change,…

This study explores the discourse generated by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners using synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) as an approach to help English language learners to create social interaction in the classroom. It investigates the impact of synchronous CMC mode on the quantity of total words, lexical range and…

This dissertation explores the missiological opportunities, challenges and implications of growing multilingualism among people who are fluent in two or more languages. I look at the cognitive value of language and how languages shape people's world views. World views influence peoples' perceptions and way of processing and understand information.…

What and how we translate are questions often argued about. No matter what kind of answers one may give, priority in translation should be granted to meaning, especially those meanings that exist in all concerned languages. In this paper the author defines them as universal sememes, and the study of them as universal semantics, of which…

One of the major dilemmas when practising critical sociolinguistic ethnography within the field of education is the ethnographer's degree of implication within the studied site (Goldstein, 2003; Martin Rojo, 2003; Unamuno, 2004). How far should the researcher intervene within the daily practices he/she is observing? This exercise of methodological…

Lexicographers, teachers and interpreters of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) are challenged by the degree of lexical variation that exists in this young language. For instance, most numerals between one and twenty have two or more variants in common use (McKee, McKee, and Major 2008), a situation that contrasts with most established spoken…

This paper examines the divergences between what educational policy calls for in South African schools with regard to language and learning and what takes place in schools. It argues that South African constitutional and education policy statements employ an idea of languages as bound entities and systems, and combine this understanding of…

It has long been noted that sexuality education curricula contain gender stereotypes and heterosexism that may be harmful to people of all genders. Many of the stereotypes and sources of heterosexism that have been discussed in the literature have to do with old-fashioned and restrictive roles for men and women and focus on heterosexual sex and…

This paper examines the influence of Chinese cultural factors on the addressing terms, together with the history of their use, the social dynamics involved in their use. Through the examination of exact terms, the author demonstrates to the reader, the deeply rooted cultural factors behind it and different ways that these terms can be used,…

Identity has become a major interest for researchers in the areas of linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics. Recent understandings of identity emphasize its malleability and fluidity. This conceptualization of identities as malleable comes from the realization that speakers relate strategically to propositions and their interlocutors in…

This article discusses Estonian personal name signs. According to study there are four personal name sign categories in Estonian Sign Language: (1) arbitrary name signs; (2) descriptive name signs; (3) initialized-descriptive name signs; (4) loan/borrowed name signs. Mostly there are represented descriptive and borrowed personal name signs among…