The variety of English spoken by about half a million people in the Canadian province of Quebec is a minority language in intensive contact with French, the local majority language. This unusual contact situation has produced a unique variety of English which displays many instances of French influence that distinguish it from other types of…

This paper explores the way a group of pre-teens in Singapore use Malay, Chinese and English to perform identity. It is based on one case study of a Malay girl, Syafiqah, from a larger project called The Sociolinguistic Survey of Singapore 2006, and does not claim to be generalizable. The data are transcripts of recordings made on the speech…

One of the dominant themes of the literature on language in Hong Kong is the belief that English, particularly its spoken form, plays a limited role in the lives of the territory's mainly Cantonese-speaking Chinese community. For this reason, it is argued, there is no societal basis for the development of a nativised variety of English. One of the…

Explores Singapore poet Edwin Thumboo's aesthetic use of consistent foregrounding, or use of certain linguistic devices to attract attention, in one poem from three perspectives: propositional; textual; and interpersonal. The approach adopted is functional-semantic in orientation and is designed to gain a better appreciation of the poem's texture…

Draws on studies of gender and bilingualism to investigate ways in which acquisition and usage patterns of English as an additional language in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa may be gendered. Results are interpreted in terms of the construction of gender identities, to explore ways in which gender identities may be changing in modernizing contexts.…

English as an international language (EIL) has spread through development of autonomous registers that guarantee specialist communication within global expert communities. Most people learn English for this, not for social conversation with native speakers. Therefore, EIL is English for special purposes. Rather than emphasize "authentic" usage,…

A response to a Henry Widdowson article on the English language and its teaching focuses on three issues: the importance of the political context of language use; the notion of language as a weapon; and the recommendation in favor of teaching English for special purposes rather than general English in many cases. (MSE)

Gives an overview of the current status and usage of English in Albania, outlining the sociolinguistic context in which changes in usage have taken place. Evidence is presented of increasing contact areas of English and standard Albanian under the new, post-communist sociopolitical and economic circumstances. Attention is drawn to need for more…

Chronicles attitudes toward the spread of English usage in Italy during the twentieth century, focusing on the Americanization of Italian society. Finds two radically different reactions to the penetration of American culture: hostility and xenophobia during the first half of the century, and accommodation and acceptance after World War II. Also…