This state-of-the-art review is based on the fundamental idea that political economy should be adopted as a frame for research and discussion in applied linguistics as part of a general social turn which has taken hold in the field over the past three decades. It starts with Susan Gal's (1989) early call for such a move in sociolinguistics and…

This paper surveys the research methods and approaches used in the multidisciplinary field of applied language studies or language education over the last fourty years. Drawing on insights gained in psycho- and sociolinguistics, educational linguistics and linguistic anthropology with regard to language and culture, it is organized around five…

This paper starts by examining recent work by applied linguists who argue that creativity is not only a property of especially skilled and gifted language users, but is pervasive in routine everyday practice. Also variously addressing literariness, language play and humour, this apparent democratization of creativity contributes to a more general…

Discusses how children in one society on the Papuan Plateau, Papua, New Guinea, learn about making and responding to requests based on a strategy of appeal. (FL)

Explores how an anthropological perspective provides a necessary basis for an account of several aspects of the language acquisition process. Discussion focuses on how the patterns of development in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics appear to be profoundly influenced by the range of adult language structures. (Author/CB)

Traces the history of English in Fiji, especially in relation to education. The role of English in interethnic communication and as a language of wider communication with the outside world is discussed, and features of Fiji English, a local language variety, are described. (Author/CB)

In the context of the works of African writers Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, the complexity and controversy surrounding the adoption of English in African literary texts is discussed. The appreciation of English as a means of international communication is reconciled with the desire to preserve the languages and cultural identities of the…

Reviews anthropological studies and demonstrates how the term "literate" has replaced the term "civilized" and how literacy is currently used to distinguish between different social groups in modern, technological societies. Discusses how teachers of English are actually teaching a set of oral and written social practices associated with the…

Discusses the design of an undergraduate survey course in anthropological linguistics that both acquaints students with language structure and traces the cross-fertilizing relationships that bind it to other specialties within anthropology. Considers utilizing the holistic approach which views language and culture as forming a continuum of coded…

Paulo Freire's educational philosophy is analyzed to illustrate how attempts to liberate pedagogy from cultural domination can themselves become culturally specific and hegemonic. Freire takes for granted Western assumptions about individualism, progress, and secularization, although he hoped to liberate traditional cultures from culturally…

Maintains that linguistics has great potential value for historians. Contends that the pidgin and creole languages of the former colonies of European nations provide avenues for examining the histories of "people without history." (CFR)

Literacy is a social concept more reflective of culture and context than of formal instruction and can be used for cultural transmission within a society or for cultural imperialism when imposed from outside. The Algonquian-speaking Micmac Indians used pictographs, petroglyphs, notched sticks, and wampum as written communication to serve early…

This book contains 23 essays which provide an overview of the state of the art in the discipline of anthropology, including applied anthropology, archaeology, ethnology, social anthropology, and linguistics. Most of the authors are professors and researchers from departments of anthropology in United States colleges and universities. Topics of the…