Because of the high incidence of structural similarity between Jamaican Creole and Standard English, many of the important differences between the two languages can be obscured. This fact and that of negative attitudes towards Creole are the principal problems encountered in teaching Creole. The lessons in this course on Jamaican Creole are based…

Supports a greater use of repeated recordings and elicited intuitions by sociolinguists in assessing the linguistic competence of individuals or groups. A replication of an earlier implicational analysis of pronominal variation in the Guyanese creole continuum shows that, with repeated sampling and the inclusion of elicited intuitions, the…

A language teacher urges the use of authentic listening materials that do not conform to the strictest standards of spoken usage, as a way of getting to know the language's norms and variations. (MSE)

Two approaches to teaching English as an International Language (EIL) are outlined, noting their roles in a newly-formed undergraduate major in EIL at International Pacific College (New Zealand). EIL is defined as a form of English used by non-native speakers to communicate with other non-native speakers. "Implicit" EIL refers to a…

A communicativity index (Index I) is described that measures the potential communication function performed by a given language in a designated communication situation. Significant sociolinguistic contrasts between the language situations of West Malaysia and Singapore are revealed by applying this index. (PMJ)

Lakota Indians use five speaking styles--formal and informal Lakota and three types of nonstandard English. Choice of style is determined by the social context and the individuals. Since the styles are used to meet specific linguistic and social needs, they are likely to be maintained simultaneously. (PMJ)

Discusses the implications of the tendency of adult second-language learners to develop a well-structured, simple form of language outside the classroom, i.e. the Basic Variety (BV). Focuses on the structural properties of the BV, the status of these properties and the reasons why some structural properties of "fully fledged" languages are more…

This article examines the variable absence of the verb in "as far as" constructions, which serve as qualifiers or topic restrictors in English. (46 references) (Author/CK)

Presents a survey of 37 1st-year secondary and postsecondary Spanish textbooks for their coverage of the voseo, a frequently used, 2nd person singular form of address. Results indicate that only 16% of the analyzed texts included any reference to the voseo. The article recommends inclusion of the voseo in future Spanish textbooks and in class…

Examines language, culture, and the curriculum from a linguistic perspective. Comments on the nature of language and its relation to society. Juxtaposes these ideas with the aims of governments trying to control a culturally diverse population. Claims that the imposition of "proper language" is one way governments silence minority…

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)

A study investigated how four anglophone Caribbean students enrolled in an American college perceive their own language and writing in standard English, the morphosyntactic and semantic features that emerge when they write in standard English, and the extent to which discourse features revealed in their writing are attributable to Creole…

This study compared the effect of two language sampling elicitation contexts, free play and picture descriptions, on variability in the use of African American English (AAE) with 65 normally developing African American children (ages 4 to 6) from lower socioeconomic status homes. Picture descriptions elicited more AAE usage overall, a larger set…

The objective of this response article is to think through some of what I see as the far-reaching implications of a recent paper by Eric Hauser (2005) entitled "Coding 'corrective recasts': the maintenance of meaning and more fundamental problems". Hauser makes a compelling, empirically-backed case for his contention that, contrary to widespread…

The concurrent trends of globalisation and "indigenisation" affecting the English language (varieties) around the world pose some interesting questions for language planning and reform issues (e.g. Phillipson, 1992; Pennycook, 1994; Crystal, 1997). With this project we examine the impact of these competing trends on "corpus…