Recommends that students conduct ethnographic studies of language in their own communities. Emphasizes that the focus ought to be conventions of speaking and writing, as well as conventions that govern the conduct, the "texts," of a culture. (RAE)

The participants in this conference (A.V. Cicourel, I. Deutscher, S. Ervin-Tripp, J. Gumperz, D. Hymes, E. Sibley, H. Phillips, and R.B. Anderson) discussed the processes involved in eliciting verbal information, especially in cross-cultural studies. The four principal topics of their discussions were: (1) the ethnography of asking questions, (2)…

These transcriptions of conversation illustrate linguistic behavior and interests of the average ten-year-old French child. Patterned after a previously transcribed series of conversations of nine-year olds, the 14 dialogues in this collection serve as a linguistic corpus suitable for educational research and textbook development. A graphic code…

These transcriptions of children living in a suburb of Paris represent and illustrate linguistic behavior and interests of the average nine-year-old French child. Seventy-nine children in groups of three were recorded in 30-minute periods of free conversation and 10-minute periods of play. Analysis reveals more than 30 centers of interest which…

A study investigated linguistic and non-linguistic conventions of communication between Russians and North Americans and explored how aspects of culture and its institutions are encoded in symbolic meanings in 16 cultural themes (food, money, space, possessions, work, courtesy, marriage, friendship, dating, studying, time, humor, small talk,…

This book reports on research in the area of address patterns, such as titles, last or first names, and the formal and informal pronouns used in many languages. The research was inspired by two distinct issues: (1) what is actually intended by a "sender" when he makes a particular choice of address form, and (2) what is actually…

The research reported here seeks to explain communication failure between Whites and Aboriginals in Australia, based on an examination of fundamental concepts underlying the world view of each group. The research arose from the observation that in Aboriginal-White encounters, each group had different expectations of and conclusions about the same…

This paper analyzes a study by Fukushima (1990) of the English offers and responses of Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) college students and reports on an experiment designed to address the perceived weaknesses of Fukushima's work. Fukushima's study found that many Japanese EFL learners could not use appropriate levels of politeness in…

This final substantive report includes the working papers presented by the American and Japanese participants, notes on discussions, a summary of an address by William Labov, and draft proposals for joint sociolinguistic research. The working papers involve several sociolinguistic issues in Japanese-American and Japanese culture. The American…

A study comparing the request strategies of native and non-native speakers of English and Spanish is reported. Subjects were 29 American and 78 European students with varied first languages, enrolled in English and Spanish courses at the University of the Basque Country (Spain). Data were obtained using a general background questionnaire and a…

The literature emphasizes that achievement motivation depends on a generalized desire to accomplish a given task; it does not deal with the issue of whether or not a culture values the appropriate behavior. This study investigated possible cultural and sex differences in achievement motivation from a bicultural perspective. This research: (1)…