Critiques the concept of ethnolinguistic vitality developed by Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor. Argues that the dimensions of vitality outlined are ambiguous, and gross and inexact tools of analysis in their application. (EKN)

Argues that in Europe over several centuries, the relationship between democracy and language policy in multilingual countries has been complex, noting that Catalan has thrived in democratic periods where devolution has advanced, and the causes of most problems facing Catalan are nonlinguistic. The paper examines language and democracy, language…

This article outlines a research project conducted in Perpignan in 1988 that sought to discover and describe the varieties of language present in the town, patterns of language use and language attitudes among inhabitants. The research took the form of a questionnaire survey, used with a representative sample of the population. (Contains 10…

The aim of this paper is to study the Finnish spoken in the Swedish Torne Valley, its use and development during the 1960s and the 1990s, and how it differs now from the Finnish spoken in the same area in the early 1960s. The study also examines which people speak Finnish in this valley today and in what contexts, as well as how the Finnish…

Examines factors influencing language maintenance among secondary school students of Vietnamese ethnic background. Students' Vietnamese language ability and frequency of Vietnamese language use were evaluated and correlated with demographic, cultural, social, and attitudinal factors. Length of residence in Australia was more influential in…

The purpose of this study, which is based on a survey of 116 Hispanic organizations in the United States, is threefold: (1) to explore the organizational background characteristics that might distinguish linguistically retentive from non-retentive organizations; (2) to determine whether there is any differential/ non-differential interest in…

A set of procedures for evaluating language planning and policy is proposed. The method, developed to assess language policy implementation in Morocco since independence in 1956, is suggested as a diagnostic device to assist specialists in evaluating previously implemented plans and those in progress. It isolates the linguistic and extralinguistic…

The book contains eight papers originally presented at a University of Chicago conference on October 27-28, 1978, to discuss the socio-political consequences of different policies toward the Spanish language in the United States. Each pair of papers is followed by the remarks of the official discussants. The papers and their authors are:…

A broad-bases study of the ways in which Hispanics in the United States are dealing with the English language is presented. The report analyzes the latest reliable language data collected by the U.S. census, including the 1980 national census, and finds a steady shift in language usage from Spanish to English among immigrants and native-born…

This paper analyzes the demographic, sociolinguistic, and educational status of Basque in the whole of the Basque country: the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC), Navarre in Spain, and the Northern Basque Country in France. It also discusses English as a third language within the bilingual educational system in the BAC. In terms of demography, 22%…

The last in a series of reports on nine prominent foreign languages in Australia reviews the status of Spanish, particularly as it concerns public policy and second language teaching. The first chapter describes the research and survey methodologies that are the basis for this report. Subsequent chapters summarize the results and draw conclusions.…