During the 1980s, the number of home speakers of non-English languages (HSNEL) increased much more than monolinqual English speakers. School-age HSNEL are a growing proportion of the total school-age population. Advocates for language minorities should inform themselves on the meaning, limitations, and implications of available information.…

Presents preliminary findings of a study of the language practices of two undergraduate asynchronous English conferences. Examines briefly the roles of the teachers in the conferences. Suggests what questions must be addressed if teachers are to create learning environments to support students. (RS)

This study used ethnographic methods to determine the underlying motivations for the role of two speech-language pathologists in public elementary schools. The study found that much of the behavior observed and the artifacts used by the speech-language pathologists were directed to establish or maintain prescriptionistic forms of language…

A longitudinal analysis of the spontaneous speech (first-person pronouns and reflexives) of three children tests the claim that children's poor performance in binding and coreference is due to performance factors. Children appear to understand the principles of binding and coreference at the earliest stages of language development. (33 references)…

Language planners assert that languages are tools that can be transformed into resources and managed by states through elaboration of language policies to be carried out through language planning. Language planning is explored from the Afrocentric point of view, considering it as part of pro-Western propaganda. (SLD)

The claim that multiple-birth children use "twin language" was investigated by describing and comparing the phonological characteristics of the speech of 19 sets of multiple birth children (aged 2-4) and by measuring multiple-birth children's understanding of their twins' or triplets' context-free speech. Results indicated that multiple…

Analyzes the use of language in two British and Australian secondary school textbooks and a corpus of written British English of one million words. Significant differences were found in the distribution of syntactic patterns in the two books, and these differences are discussed as evidence of the ideological stances expressed in the books.…

A specific standardized test of language proficiency, the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language (GAEL), for hearing-impaired children was used to examine language usage between the tester and the child. Results from a two-part test (imitated and prompted) show that communicative competence needs to be incorporated into the test as part of…

Examines the variable distribution of word-final consonant devoicing (WFCD) among working-class speakers in the Roubaix district of northern France. WFCD is shown to affect coronals, labials, and velars in that order and to be favored by prepausal position. WFCD is primarily associated with female speakers over age 45. (40 references) (MDM)

Analyzes complications related to the style of speech in the Korean language. The study focuses on the usage of the proper forms of honorific and humble forms in Korean with particular attention to the use of the honorific system in relaying messages to a third party. Learners of Korean as a second language need to become knowledgeable in the…

Investigated the potential correlation of agreement marking with the expression of pronominal subjects in the speech of 10 Spanish speakers from Puerto Rico and 10 from Spain. The results show not only similar patterns of pronominal expression but also similar rankings of constraints on pronominal expression in both dialects. (MDM)

The distinction between the culture of a country and the culture of an individual is discussed, and its implications for second-language teaching are examined, particularly in the multicultural classroom. This concept is illustrated through use of a French travel and for second-language instruction. (MSE)

Examined the process of enculturation into schooling by observing 12 Punjabi-English children during their first term in nursery school. A case study of one pupil's experiences illustrates the findings that Punjabi-English children preferred to interact with pupils of their own ethnic background and that they tended to use their native language in…

The components of language rights for social development are enumerated and discussed, listed under such rubrics as national language development, languages of instruction, access to a Language of Wider Communication, bilingual schooling, and the cultivation of the national languages. Examples from various countries are cited. (Contains 26…

Researchers at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) have built a large database of every-day English and dictionary (COBUILD) for producing better English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language teaching and learning materials. The lexical syllabus and the English course that has evolved from is are discussed. (23 references) (Author/LB)