This article outlines a literature review of the current anglophone academic literature pertaining to plurilingualism. We summarize 24 of the most pertinent articles in terms of resistance to the adoption of plurilingual pedagogy; key factors in changing attitudes toward the approach; identified classroom options; and implications for teacher…

This paper reviews issues and analyses in bilingual switching, or intercalation, and offers a topological model to represent the activity of code switching, sometimes under the same environmental conditions and with the same interlocutors. The topological notion of catastrophe is proposed as a means to model the various factors that influence code…

Interpreters working in southern Florida courts are witnessing the genesis and proliferation of a non-standard Spanish variety due to the constant interaction of Spanish and English. Interpreters' ability to interpret "Spanglish" and to deal effectively with other code-switching is essential to achieving the communicative competence…

Examines the characteristics of diglossia and applies them to the current sign language situation in the United States. Concludes diglossia does not exist and argues that what is really happening is code switching between languages and style shifting within a language. (EKN)

This study is based on the general finding that the linguistic reality of a bilingual community is complex and that the two languages are not compartmentalized into any particular spheres of social life. It uses this finding to explore a theoretical position that treats facts regarding language functions and usage as if these, in and of…

Provides an overview of current research on grammatical, phonological, semantic, and pragmatic development in African American English child language, as opposed to adult or adolescent language, and discusses the implications of these findings for professionals involved in second-dialect instruction, speech-language assessment, or intervention…

A paradigm gap has prevented research on second language acquisition theory and indigenized varieties of English from making substantive contributions to each other. The varieties of English represent several significant sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic variables, the investigation of which will put second language acquisition theory on firmer…

The study of the varieties of language usage in social contexts can made a significant contribution to general welfare if judgments of people's language are unshackled from right-wrong presuppositions and a dispassionate approach is taken to relating their language to the situations they must deal with in the course of their lives. An…

A review of research concerning bilingual (English and Spanish) Chicanos' use of code-switching during spontaneous oral narrative indicates that such code-switching may be organized to achieve more dramatic effects through personalizing (as opposed to objectionalizing) certain parts of the narrative and through techniques of foregrounding and…

Maltese and English are used as media of instruction across the curriculum in Maltese schools. It has been observed that both languages are normally used within any one lesson and, as is here illustrated by a continuum of crosslinguistic influence, they are mixed in complex ways. As within Maltese society at large, a new variety called Mixed…

Discusses issues surrounding the phenomena of local or "Nativized" varieties of English, developments that take place characteristically in ex-colonial territories where forms of ex-colonial language evolved and developed in own right independently of metropolitan sources. Discusses acceptability of different varieties, code switching, and the…

Puerto Ricans in the United States are often assumed to be bilingual, and most are to some degree. Among Puerto Ricans, frequent returns home are common, allowing for immersion in both cultures and communication in both Spanish and English. Despite availability of bilingual education, programs are too short for participants to attain even a…

A review of recent studies addressed the functional uses of code mixing across cultures. Expressions of code mixing (CM) are not random; in fact, a number of functions of code mixing can easily be delineated, for example, the concept of "modernization.""Modernization" is viewed with respect to how bilingual code mixers perceive…

Results of 11 investigations of various problems facing Mexican American and other linguistic minority children in the classroom are summarized. Conducted between 1972 and 1978, the studies are divided into studies dealing with teacher attitudes toward speech variation, elementary and secondary school pupil attitudes toward speech variation and…