Traditional academic approaches to the study of rhetoric must be modified by those who explore the rhetoric of black Americans. Black rhetoric is inherently interactive, combining verbal, tonal, musical, and physical behaviors, whereas traditional white-oriented rhetoric can be viewed in terms of standard verbal and literary aspects of…

This book is a selected distillation of linguistic scholarship which describes from both a historical (diachronic) and a contemporary (synchronic) viewpoint that conglomerate set of dialects and idiolects called English. The emphasis is on contemporary American English. But foreign language examples are also given in an attempt to demonstrate the…

One of the results of the seventeenth-century revolution in learning was the rejection by scientists of classical rhetorical theories. The scientific societies established in colonial America reflected the European wish to replace the classic emphasis on "artificial" rhetorical style by making language usage more concrete, simple, and clear. In…

This handbook examines the role and the skills of professional journalists in newspaper, radio, magazine, and television reporting. It is designed for use in the college classroom and in professional courses aimed at improving the skills of newsmen. It can also serve as a handbook for the practicing journalist wishing to increase his knowledge…

This bulletin reports on condensations of tape-recorded lectures and discussions from a workshop which trained a nucleus of Baltimore City Public School personnel in new approaches to the study of the English language. Designed to serve as an orientation, it is made up of six major sections: (1) Charlton Laird discusses the history, nature, and…

Thirty essays on language and communication in their contemporary social contexts are brought together in this volume which differs significantly from other language readers in that it (1) treats only those aspects of the subjects that have demonstrated their appeal to a wide range of students, (2) emphasizes their social and cultural…

Recent studies suggest that the language deficiency often attributed to disadvantaged children, especially disadvantaged black children, is not a language deficit so much as a difficulty in dialect switching. The disadvantaged child's language patterns are different from the language patterns of the child from the mainstream of American society. A…

This paper considers 12 paintings which are a cross-section of the art work done by a kindergarten class of 5-year-olds in an attempt to support the following assertions: that there is a qualitative correspondence between the level of maturity evidenced in the paintings and in their speaking about them; that the degree of development in both…

The purpose of the pilot reported here is to compare pupil's learning of English grammar and usage through a programed course, "English 2600: A Scientific Programme in Grammar and Usage," and a traditional method of grammar instruction used in an eighth-grade English class. Procedures used in the experiment are described. Statistical results are…

The study of registers in language is the study of language as it varies according to "use." The situation in which language is used imposes certain constraints on the structure and lexical ingredients of the language. In this report, the author investigates the use of verbs in two different registers in English. The frequency of verbs in both…

The sociolinguistic variation of speech among Detroit Negroes is described. The analysis is based on the speech of 48 Negro informants, evenly distributed in four social classes. In addition, 12 upper-middle class whites are included. The social variables investigated in relation to speech differences are class, style, sex, age, and racial…

This paper is a study in language acculturation with special reference to the Indianization of the English language. It briefly traces the history of the diffusion of bilingualism in English on the culturally and linguistically pluralistic Indian subcontinent. The functional roles of English are discussed and the formal influences of Indian…

This text contains 50 lessons in Dagbani for the student of Dagbani as a second language. The principal emphasis of the lessons is on developing skills in the spoken language, and study is preferable with a native speaker of Dagbani. The use of English is to be avoided except when absolutely necessary. Because of the attention given to oral…

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…

Methodological and theoretical options confronting second-language textbook authors are outlined. Analytic and synthetic methodological approaches, linguistic options, geographic variability, registers of language, spoken versus written language, cultural materials, and learners' level are discussed. (SW)