Examines the Brazilian Portuguese use of verb tenses in oral narrative episodes as a device to mark certain utterances that have a cohesive function in relating the episode to the overall purpose of the narrative, facilitating the listener's interpretation of the discourse in a global fashion. (CB)

The bilingual discourse strategy of alternating languages as language game boundaries is examined, and language alternation is argued to be one of the features of bilingual discourse according to which speakers negotiate where one language game ends and the next one begins. The iconicity of the patterns of language alternation (discourse,…

Criticizes Calvin Veltman's methodology in "The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States," in which he concludes that a majority of U.S.-born Spanish-dominant speakers are abandoning Spanish and becoming English speakers. Suggests that English language usage does not necessarily indicate English proficiency. Discusses…

Study of the conversational interaction of elementary school children, about one-third of whom were limited-English-proficient, found that proficient classmates used little "caretaker speech" or "foreigner talk" and that the amount of social talk did not markedly affect second-language proficiency or the ability to use it in academic activities.…

The impact of church affiliation on language use, identity, and change among Kwara'ae speakers in the Solomon Islands is examined. It was found that members of different sects signal their separate identities not only through linguistic code but also through discourse patterns and nonverbal aspects of communication. (26 references) (JL)

Measures the extent to which students' reactions to usage errors changed as a result of having completed a business communication course. Finds that student reactions to usage errors can be positively affected by completion of a business communication class that does not have a formal basic skills development unit. (PRA)

Examines Australia's reverse language shift (RLS), presenting eight stages of RLS for immigrant-derived and Aboriginal languages and noting the severity of intergenerational dislocation. Aboriginal languages are dying quickly, and language shift continues in immigrant-based community languages. Steps to encourage second language learning are often…

This editorial notes the differences between the language of science and the language of special education practice; stresses the need for communication between these groups; notes the need for publications in both areas; and urges continued dialog among researchers, practitioners, and parents. (DB)

A research study is reported that studied (1) the effect of respondents' chronological age on attitudes toward patronizing speech directed at the institutionalized elderly and (2) the prevalence of and understanding of patronizing speech toward noninstitutionalized elderly individuals. (36 references) (LB)

Examines the effects of sex, age, and type of school on expletive use in a sample of 160 adolescents. Fails to support stereotyped expectations of coy, nonswearing females, but supports the hypothesis that there is a relationship between social power and expletive usage. (RDS)

Provides an analysis, based on theory-independent structural information, of the structure of postadverbials associated with the Mandarin morpheme "de," arguing that "de" does not stand for a unique morpheme, but for three homophonous ones. (24 references) (CB)

An analysis of two textbook series commonly used to teach university-level Chinese identifies obsolete conventions, expressions, and classifiers and other problems in the series, published over 20 years ago, and suggests some updated supplementary materials that could be used with the series. (CB)

Argues that, through his use of specific language choices, George Bush's Gulf War rhetoric embraced and supported the orientational metaphor of the World War II model, while simultaneously rejecting the Vietnam model. Concludes the use of the World War II model legitimated both the military action and Bush's leadership. (NH)

This article is derived from a lecture given in 1992 and addresses issues in English language education that concern "linguistic property" and "linguistic propriety." (JL)

Argues that English-as-a-Second-Language writing can have its own distinctive power and eloquence in spite of, and sometimes because of, its errors. Examines several different kinds of "poetic" nonnativisms, suggesting why they were created and why they may strike native speakers as especially expressive. (SR)