In this introduction, we offer an overview of language revitalisation (LR) as a transdisciplinary field and its connections to related disciplines. We outline its evolution from its origins, current directions, and possible future moves. In the last section, we introduce each of the articles in the special issue as they relate to three current…

This special issue aims to develop a research agenda that brings language to the centre of our inquiry and critique of neoliberalism. Based on empirical case studies from across diverse contexts in Europe, North America, and East Asia, contributors to this special issue address two issues: (1) What can be said about the nature of neoliberalism…

The paper presents the summary of the special issue of "JMMD" "Ethnolinguistic vitality". The volume shows convincingly that ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions as measured by standard methodology such as the Subjective Ethnolinguistic Vitality Questionnaires (SEVQ) are not reliable indicators of actual vitality. Evidence that ethnolinguistic…

Introducing a pioneering series of studies of family language policy and management, this paper points out that classic language policy dealt almost entirely with the nation-state, although it did recognise the critical role of the family in determining natural intergenerational transmission of a variety. After arguing for the need to look at each…

Provides a brief overview of the main methodological tools used in studies of language attitudes, focusing on the paradigm of speaker evaluation. Discusses the kinds of findings emerging from these studies and speculates on priorities for future language attitude research. (EKN)

Discusses the importance of research on language attitudes, especially in a multilingual situation and gives examples of recent research. (EKN)

This paper suggests elements of an agenda for future sociolinguistics among minority groups, by seeing it as a mutual relationship that involves benefits to researcher and researched. We focus on two aspects of the relationship. One is the political, economic and social benefits that can accrue to a minority group as a result of the research.…

Presents the results of the first impact evaluation of the Local Language Literacy Project in the Southern Sudan, conducted in late 1980. (EKN)

Results gained by traditional language teaching at school are discussed, and a program, developed from research on second-language acquisition, is presented for teaching second language in schools that entails two phases. (13 references) (JL)

Criticizes some recently published views on the difficulty of raising children bilingually (e.g., tolerance of children's deviations from adult speech, the influence of friends, and finding an adequate vocabulary for a foreign environment). Also discusses the use of children as subjects in language research. (EKN)

Presents an approach to a typological outline for categorizing minority-language situations in such areas as speaker, language, and setting juxtaposed with dimensions including sociology, linguistics, and psychology. (36 references) (Author/CB)

Who wins in sociolinguistic research undertaken in minority ethnolinguistic communities? This is a question that might at first glance seem an odd one. In fact, however, the concept of winning--with the concomitant themes of games and gamesmanship, plays and players, gains and losses, rewards and punishments, and so on--is an apposite one wherever…

Clement M. Doke's 1929-1930 research on Zimbabwean languages has played a key role in shaping the tribalised and politicised linguistic terrain that characterises modern Zimbabwe. Doke, professor of linguistics at the University of Witwaters-rand, was commissioned in 1929 by the government of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) to research…

Presents a demographic approach to the study of linguistic minorities, focusing on major analytical issues, particular data needs, and research possibilities. The approach's potential in the study of second-language acquisition, language maintenance, and shift pertaining to linguistic minorities is illustrated. (40 references) (Author/CB)

This paper briefly considers past and recent research in the field of bilingualism and then proceeds to describe the project that attempted to turn the educational failure of a group of children in a situation of subtractive bilingualism into success. (Contains 18 references.) (JL)