Phonetic science is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. Phoneticians rely on, or at least collaborate with, sociologists, psychologists, biologists, poets, physicists, anthropologists, neurologists and others. A look at the history of phonetics reveals that this seemingly recent trend has deep roots. In fact, it is possible to draw parallels…

A study used children's definitions to explore the culture of the classroom from the perspective of the child. Definitions for school-related terms were elicited from first graders in two classrooms of a public elementary school in the Chicago metropolitan area. After having been acclimated to the presence of the researchers, the students were…

Data from videotaped conversations in a number of East African languages and in English are used to establish the existence of a preference in the African interactional systems for the use of verbal feedback by listeners in contrast to a preference for the use of non-verbal (gaze, head nod) feedback in English. This difference is related to…

This paper focuses on the role of language in understanding the inequality of male and female access to positions in educational administration. By applying techniques of sociolinguistics, the paper seeks to demonstrate the potential of the microanalysis of language for identifying the assumptions, norms, and values in the culture of school…

This volume contains 22 conference papers concerned with Algonquian languages and culture: (1) "Cheyenne Vowel Devoicing," by W. Leman and R. Rhodes; (2) "An Analysis of Upper Delawaren Land Sales in Northern New Jersey, 1630-1758," by R.S. Grumet; (3) "Ethnology in the Works of Rowland E. Robinson," by G.M. Day; (4)…

An eclectic, ethnographic methodology is presented for studying the content and acquisition of children's environmental learning, knowledge, and interaction in a transitional economy in rural Sudan. Drawing on methods of geography, linguistics, and anthropology, the paper attempts to provide a valid alternative to most of the methods used in…

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 paper about the history and distribution of indigenous languages of Bolivia is divided into two parts. The first part deals with: (1) the developments of comparative work in South American Indian languages, (2) the phonological problems of comparative work in recently written languages, and (3) the apparent conflicts when dealing with early…

An American Indian (Arapaho) educator portrays various levels of student response and receptivity toward teaching from an Indigenous perspective by recounting some of his teaching experiences at universities in Montana, Canada, and Australia. A class of Native students who had to negotiate for their grades in a treaty written in Arapaho and…