A study was conducted of the Baie Sainte-Marie Acadian dialect, a particular form of the French language derived from the French spoken in France during the 16th and 17th centuries. The purpose of this study was to analyze and explain a certain number of morphosyntactic deviations from standard French, from both a synchronic and a diachronic…

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…

The assessment of teacher attitudes toward nonstandard dialects in the classroom is the major focus of this research. A Black English attitudes test was developed consisting of the "Black English Speech Varieties Attitude Test" and the "Black English Teacher Attitude Scale." The speech varieties test measures attitudes toward standard and…

In the French verb phrase, negation is often marked twice, by a proclitic element (ne) and by a second negative (such as "pas" or "rien"). Until the seventeenth century, the first element was obligatory, while a second negative was optionally added for emphasis or precision. Subsequently, the second negatives lost their…

The lexicon of present-day English is changing rapidly and regularly, and a description and explanation of this change is necessary for any comprehensive diachronic theory. An examination of a corpus of 500 new words collected during 1975 provides the basis for a typology of lexical change that both supports and suggests modifications for the…

This paper examines the differences between second language learning and pidginization to better understand the mechanisms involved in each process. Current research suggests similarities between the two. Both are characterized by reduction and simplification. Grammatical transformations tend to be eliminated, along with inflectional markers of…

Asserts that, in the social studies classroom, students' participation in language activities in which form, function, and audience are varied is a crucial dimension of their becoming effective citizens. Includes a table listing linguist Michael Halliday's seven purposes of language accompanied by classroom examples of each. (MJP)

This paper examines the effects of Basque- versus Spanish-language schooling on the language attitudes of secondary school students in San Sebastian, in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) of Spain. By mandating the teaching of Basque ("euskera") in schools, and by requiring Basque proficiency of civil servants, the Basque government…

The choice of a reliable authority for use in decisions of grammatical acceptability in English is discussed. It is argued that commonly-heard "rules" of English grammar offer advice that is either prescriptive or proscriptive, not descriptive, and often based on inaccuracies or flawed linguistic analyses. This is illustrated in the case of…

Seven papers are provided. Mary Rainey's paper, "Style Switching in a Head Start Class," considers speech styles used in the classroom. "Language Acquisition in the Deaf: Some Suggestions for Inclusion in the Field Manual," by Carol Pfuderer, suggests areas of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic research relevant to the exploration of deaf…

A student's belief in the value of literacy is essential to effective teaching and successful learning, but can result only from a local culture whose aim is to produce literacy. The social identity and cultural norms of the young are registered in their use of language, and if literacy, as defined by others, calls the norms and identity into…

An understanding of dialect differences goes beyond the recognition that people talk differently; it concerns the way dialects differentiate themselves, the main differences in the patterns, and the method of discovering the patterns of various dialects. This booklet is intended for those who need to know more specific information concerning the…

This paper proposes a tentative notational or marking system which attempts to provide more information on the sociolinguistic constraints upon the use of linguistic features than has been the case in other systems. A review of other studies in language variation, particularly those of William Labov, suggests that much can be done toward…

In an "Esquire" magazine column, John Simon attempts to trivialize, through visual satire, the articulation by Wayne O'Neil of the linguistic position that teaching standard English perpetuates oppression and is itself oppressive; but his attempt provides, instead, a vivid representation of the political relationship between the teaching of…

A rejoinder is presented to Betty Lou Dubois' article entitled, "British-Tradition English in the American University," which considers English West African English. Objection is made to the characterization of West African English in terms of errors. It is argued that there should be recognition of a "standard" West African…