Papers from the 1998 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium include: "Patterns of Gender Agreement in the Speech of Second Language Learners"; "'Nomas' in Mexican American Dialect"; "Parsing Spanish 'solo'"; "On Levels of Processing and Levels of Comprehension"; "The Role of Attention in Second/Foreign Language Classroom Research: Methodological Issues";…

Language role and language policy in education in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are discussed. First, the history of language policy since the turn of the century is chronicled briefly. The present policy of requiring initial literacy education in English is described and its critics cited, and current proposals to provide literacy education in each…

An exploration of issues in language diversity addressing the nature of dialect, features of the dialect, features of black English Vernacular (BEV), linguistic phenomena in the black urban community, theories of the origins of BEV, and its social, economic, and political ramifications suggest that BEV, like other dialects, meets the needs of its…

This monograph on minority languages and bilingualism focuses on seven minority languages in different parts of the world, looking at their history and current status, including patterns of usage among samples of their speakers. The first two chapters discuss several issues regarding diglossia and bilingualism, language patterns within societies,…

Dialect writing in nineteenth-century America has been used as a source of evidence about popular American language and culture. Works employing dialect have been studied as documents embodying perceptions of the relation between character, role, and moral values on the one hand, and speech variety on the other. Critics have noticed the difference…

The text presents an introduction to sociolinguistics for second language teachers, focusing on social dimensions of language likely to be of interest to this group. The first group of chapters addresses the manner in which the larger social and political context affects language broadly: "Language Attitudes, Motivation, and Standards" (Mary…

The conference papers from a colloquium on issues in bilingualism and biculturalism include: "Le bilinguisme et biculturalisme: essai de definition" ("Bilingualism and Biculturalism: Attempt at Definition") (Francois Grosjean); "La variation individuelle dans l'acquisition d'une langue seconde" ("Individual…

The study of native language influence in Second Language Acquisition has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. This book, which includes 12 chapters by distinguished researchers in the field of second language acquisition, traces the conceptual history of language transfer from its early role within a Contrastive Analysis…

A study of language learning in Arctic Quebec examines relationships between early Inuktitut competence and later learning of English as a second language, general and local characteristics of native language competence, and early Inuktitut instruction and later competence. It also looks at the reliability of native educators' assessment of…

A discussion of bilingualism in Australia begins with examination of the climate there for development of bilingualism, including specific supportive policies at both state and federal levels, increasing support for bilingualism within local communities, research providing evidence of the benefits of bilingualism, and technological developments…

Papers on Spanish bilingualism and Spanish in contact with other languages include: "The Study of Language Contact: An Overview of the Issues" (Carmen Silva-Corvalan); "Language Mixture: Ordinary Processes, Extraordinary Results" (Sarah G. Thomason); "The Impact of Quichua on Verb Forms Used in Spanish Requests in Otavalo,…

This monograph attempts to integrate experience and research findings in several related disciplines and bring them to bear on the problem of how to make language programs in schools simultaneously accommodate the needs of both the language curriculum and the general curriculum. It addresses four issues: (1) how specific languages, in all their…

This is a collection of eight essays dealing with various aspects of language treatment in Egypt. The first essay attempts a tentative typology characterizing the role of the Arabic language as a unifying or divisive force within and among the countries in which it is spoken as a native language. This essay also makes some initial reflections on…

The main purpose of this study is to measure the attitudes of teachers toward speech varieties used by speakers of Black English and to determine whether there is any evidence that those attitudes are linked to pupils' classroom performance in reading. Also investigating is whether exposure to information about and experience with varieties of…

The collection of essays on language contact and language conflict includes: "Language Choices: Contact and Conflict?" (Martin Putz); "Language Ecology: Contact Without Conflict" (Peter Muhlhausler); "Towards a Dynamic View of Multilingualism" (Ulrike Jessner); "A Matter of Choice" (Florian Coulmas); The…