Shin and Mill (2021) propose four steps children go through when learning "variable form use." Although I applaud Shin and Miller's focus on morphosyntactic variation, their accrual of evidence is post hoc and selective. Fortunately, Shin and Miller recognize this and encourage tests of their ideas. In support of their work, I share data…

The goal of the paper is to demonstrate how sociolinguistic research can be applied to endangered language documentation field linguistics. It first provides an overview of the techniques and practices of sociolinguistic fieldwork and the ensuring corpus compilation methods. The discussion is framed with examples from research projects focused on…

James P. Lantolf is George and Jane Greer Professor Emeritus of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics and former director of the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics in the same academic unit at Xi'an Jiaotong…

In mid-2012, the authors organized a two-week workshop in Papua New Guinea to provide training in basic techniques and technologies for language documentation, and to gain understanding of how these technologies might be improved in the future. An assessment of the workshop was conducted by Brooks with the central idea that the workshop's…

This article uses a question-and-answer format to respond to questions about working with children who speak African American English (AAE) in clinical and educational contexts. The respondents urge speech-language pathologists to appreciate AAE as students' first language, to view all language for its communicative potential, and to remain aware…

In this article I explore ethical issues in relation to the topic of Aboriginal students who speak a dialect of English. Taking the form of a retrospective inquiry, I draw on data from an earlier study that examined Aboriginal English in the broader context of Aboriginal language loss and revival. Three interrelated ethical issues are discussed:…

Discusses the terms "regional,""dialectal,""semidialectal,""non-dialectal ," and "a-dialectal." Makes suggestions for new definitions for these terms. (EKN)

This paper renews the call for greater interest in applied work to deal with the obstacles faced in formal education by speakers of creoles (such as Hawaii Creole and Jamaican Creole) and minority dialects (such as African American English). It starts off with an update on developments in the use of these vernacular languages in educational…

Presents an objective quantitative analysis of separate dialect features from the "Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States." Findings suggest that a mathematical modeling of areal variation of dialect features, combined with a reassessment of traditional notions of dialect, could contribute to knowledge of language and…

Reviews the rationale for and programmatic structure of two experimental language awareness programs and discusses some of the ethical issues requiring consideration in the implementation of such programs. These ethical considerations include the ethics of persuasion and need, the ethics of representation, the ethics of socio-educational change,…

Discusses the factors that led to linguists being able to present effective testimony in the form of an unified view on the origins and structural characteristics of the Black English vernacular at the Ann Arbor trial. (EKN)

The theory of the lexical bar is introduced, based on research in England and Australia. A semantic barrier exists in the English lexicon, separating the lexes of conservative peripheral dialects from those of dominant central dialects, producing differential educational attainment, and reproducing class-based division of labor. (MSE)

In an attempt to determine some of the shared phonological traits among Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest, this paper compares the sound systems of Pueblo languages. The languages within the scope of this research are Zuni, Keresan (Acoma and Santa Ana), and Tanoan (Sandia, Taos, Jemez, and Santa Clara). It is noted that Pueblo Indians have…

Describes a study that sought to characterize the Scotch-Irish influence on the dialect of southeastern Pennsylvania in particular and American English in general. A questionnaire was used to obtain lexical and grammatical data from 97 subjects. The study concludes that the Scotch-Irish linguistic heritage is rapidly disappearing. (19 references)…

This study reports on preliminary findings of two research projects conducted during the 1988-89 and 1990-91 in Cordoba, Argentina, that examined fixed, idiomatic, Spanish-language expressions that are very common, but often ignored, in oral Spanish discourse. Study 1 subjects were 13 university-educated, adults, born in the city; study 2 subjects…