Describes the writing problems of a poor, black, urban student who wants to succeed in college but doesn't know how. Asserts that language use, particularly the use of Black English, plays a major role in their lack of academic success. Offers drills and strategies to help with this problem. (PRA)

Investigates the grammatical and formal writing preferences of college professors, for the purpose of informing high school instructors about the students' future audience. Surveys professors' attitudes regarding disapproval of forms and stylistic preferences, and compare results with those of two other usage surveys. (PRA)

Discusses strategies for teaching nonsexist language. Advocates discussion of misconceptions about the history of linguistic reform, forms of address, and outdated, sexist textbooks. Suggests that students find samples of sexist language and rewrite them using NCTE guidelines. Alerts teachers to be prepared for resistance. Suggests further…

Drummond and Hopper's article in this issue, "Back Channels Revisited," is argued to have decontextualized Jefferson's acknowledgement token phenomenon. The need for careful coding protocols for research on conversational practices is discussed. (eight references) (LB)

It is argued that the combination of research methods used in Drummond and Hopper's article in this issue, "Back Channels Revisited," is appropriate. Factors that make for good social science research are discussed. (eight references) (LB)

Attempts at being polite can fail through unwitting violation of speech act rules (SARs). Several situations illustrate the use of "please" by Japanese users of English. The question of whose SARs should apply in intercultural communication in English is addressed. (Contains 13 references.) (Author)

Reviews the history and development of the Pinyin grapheme system for the transcription of Chinese, and contrasts Pinyin graphemes with those of several other systems for Chinese. It is argued that Pinyin should be accepted as the standard system for Chinese transcription. (JL)

A survey measuring native French speakers' preference for English words instead of the officially sanctioned French equivalents revealed that subjects had high passive recognition of French terms, concluding that the French terminological process reminded users that French had ample resources to create its own expressions without automatically…

A brief review of research on native language production precedes a critical discussion of recent second-language production research, focusing on native language research applications to second-language research, the relationship between second-language learning and production, and the various methodologies used to study such production. (190…

Describes Tongan language proficiency, language usage, and attitudes toward the language among the ethnic Tongans of Wellington, New Zealand. Although the language is strongly preferred and maintained by the Tongan community, incipient language shift, increasing English proficiency, and code switching are evident among younger people. (40…

Explores the nature of code switching by comparing and contrasting learners' code-switching behavior with that of speakers in a bilingual speech community, hypothesizing that the more students succeed in overcoming the psychological dichotomy between themselves as learners and individuals, the less they will resort to code switching as a mode of…

Observes the impact of gender and status on the communication of 26 same-sex and 13 mixed-sex dyads of college students. Suggests that differences in the use of certain linguistic features may be more a result of a power differential than of gender. Other characteristics of the speaker, however, must also be considered. (CJS)

Examination of two native American Sign Language signers' use of negative headshakes found that negative headshakes (1) were used syntactically to indicate negation; (2) could be accompanied by other nonmanual behaviors; (3) could accompany a negative lexical item; and (4) were synchronized generally with syntactic constituents. (Author/CB)

The quantitative methodology of GOLDVARB is used to examine the variable distribution of lexical noun phrases representing core arguments of the verb in a corpus of spoken French and Spanish. The distribution is shown to conform to a grammatically and pragmatically motivated pattern known as Preferred Argument Structure. (Contains 26 references.)…

The relationship between U.S. national policies on literacy, available literacy programs, and individual lives is examined. A discussion of the pressures to become literate in English is followed by an analysis of language use in immigrant families and the effect of native language loss. Recommendations regarding the plurality of literacies are…