Presents two views on recognizing English as the official language of the U.S. Proponents say it will help immigrants advance themselves and will bind Americans together. Critics argue that the amendment does not increase English proficiency but punishes those who have not learned; it also heightens racism and xenophobia. (LHW)

Outlines the history of the use of English in the Philippines. Discusses the Filipinos' reception of English and impact of English on current language policy in the Philippines. (JMF)

Discusses language legislation in Canada where French and English are both official languages, and in Quebec province where French has been declared the sole official language. Outlines the conflicts and the impact of these differing laws on Quebec, its population, and its relations with the rest of Canada. (JMF)

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in Hong Kong covers the following: language use, change, and shift (including Chinese dialects, written Chinese, Mandarin, and English); the legal system; educational developments. Reasons for the lack of language planning are noted. (Contains 111 references.) (LB)

The majority of the languages spoken in Papua New Guinea are highly diverse, belong to many unrelated groups, and are spoken by small language communities. This situation has resulted in widespread multilingualism and the emergence of "lingue franche," including the police-type, such as Hiri Motu. Hiri Motu, adopted as a symbol by the…

The historical struggle of African Americans, and around Black English Vernacular in particular, suggests that African Americans can be a significant force in the struggle for minority language rights. The African-American perspective on "English Only" is explored through a historical overview and a public-opinion survey of African…

Metalinguistic awareness is discussed in terms of the new national curriculum in English language education in Great Britain. A chronology is presented of events surrounding national curriculum legislation that prompted controversy in Britain concerning the teaching of the English language. One result of this legislation has been the creation of…

English has by tradition been the major and official language used in Australia. Dependence upon Southern British norms of correctness has only gradually been eroded, and the establishment of Australian norms to replace them has been equally gradual. Agencies of language standardization do function in Australia and formulate on an ongoing basis…

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in Namibia focuses on the policy document of the liberation movement calling for constitutional rights for its local languages. It covers the language policy, evolution of the policy, the role of English and the local languages, and nation building through diversity. (Contains 58 references.)…

A research project investigated intended users' attitudes toward different possibilities in the development of a scientific lexicon for Tagalog. A survey was taken of 100 college students, 100 professors, and 100 practitioners in the fields of medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics in the Manila metropolitan area. These 300…

Two basic approaches to language treatment have been defined, the policy approach and the cultivation approach. The former deals with the selection of a national language, standardization, literacy, orthography, and the stratification of code varieties, and is a macro approach. The latter concerns correctness, efficiency, specialized functions,…

As stated in Part 1 of this discussion, Canada is a hybrid, making use of both the macro, or policy, model and the micro, or cultivation, model of language treatment. Some concrete measures are taking place in language status and corpus planning on the inter-federal-provincial level and the provincial level, particularly in Quebec. One such…

The national re-emergence of Scotland is accompanied by the desire for cultural and linguistic autonomy and identity. Issues at hand include language standardization, bilingual education, the language problems of immigrants, the role of Gaelic as compared to the continuum of linguistic varieties that go from Standard English to Scots, the adoption…

A discussion of U.S. language policy formation and planning covers the following: the literacy crisis, education of language minority populations, "official" English movement, gender neutrality, federal legislation, and emerging issues such as the status of Puerto Rico, American Indian languages, foreign language education, and the…

In India today, the traditional tolerant attitude toward linguistic and ethnic heterogeneity has given way to a drive for language autonomy. The national language policy appears susceptible to the sensitivities of different pressure groups, while the state policies have been slow to respond to the sensitivities of language minorities. Today,…