This theme issue, devoted to the relationship between language, culture, and identity, contains three articles, all by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood, and a commentary by Florence L. Johnson. The first article, entitled "The Heart of Culture," reports on an interview with Henry T. Trueba, an educator specializing in the roles of language, culture, and…

Born in Cicero, New York, in 1826, Matilda Joslyn Gage became one of the leaders of the American women's rights movement. Her book "Woman, Church, and State," first published in 1893, is a work of feminist history and theory that anticipates many of the feminist critiques which are now familiar: social class, imperialism, sexual…

An analysis of the status of Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin (ANP) looks at its origins and evolution in Nigerian history, its location in the Nigerian language situation, and its current sociolinguistic status. It is concluded that ANP possesses linguistic structures that have stabilized enough to give the speaker an impression of good and bad grammar.…

There is no escaping the oral, but many people believe that it is detachable and not central. A dominant, assumed belief conveys the idea that spoken words (like knowledge in writing) are escapable. This belief is held by people who tacitly view speaking as a convenient tool that can be applied as necessary. Scholar-teachers know that it is not…

A study investigated the dynamics of second language classroom dyadic interactions in which one participant assumes the expert role and one the novice role. The study was conducted in a university-level Japanese language class, in which pairs were videotaped doing role play; analysis focused on one particular pair playing the roles of a teacher…

Three studies of language brokering among linguistic minority (LM) children are reviewed and discussed. In child language brokering, children act as linguistic mediators, not translators or interpreters, for their limited-English-proficient parents and relatives. The purpose of the studies was to describe brokering in LM communities and to examine…

In the broadest sense, rhetoric and rhetorical studies are primarily concerned with using language in context and, thus, must focus on the collaborative, negotiated dynamics of discourse and discourse production. These broad principles provided the basis for the "Lyceum Project" (named for the public forum first developed by the Greek…

This paper draws on research that was conducted in a computer-mediated basic writing class taught during the Fall of 1994--the study focused on how computer mediated communication influences students' discourse strategies. The paper discusses how the act of "writing up" a research report constructed the subjectivity of the researcher and…

This report identifies a set of research questions for linguistics related to the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) launched by the National Science Foundation to increase understanding of the nature and causes of problems related to improving human resources. It is argued that the broad scope of linguistic inquiry in the United States has…

Names themselves have great power. Teachers and students of language know that certain words resonate and have the power to make connections to forces that cannot always be identified, or, at least, named. Names are certainly in this category of words--they define an individual, tell who he or she is, and connect a person to his or her ancestors…

This paper presents an overview of the effectiveness of writing and cooperative learning in developing thinking skills in technical theatre education. The paper first offers a statement of purpose and an outline of a survey of university technical theater personnel and design students in an introduction. The four parts of the paper then discuss:…

The goal of genre theory is to construct useful similarities between different texts. It is the meaning-making practices of a community, and particularly its system of intertextuality that determine which possible similarities will count as significant. Whether educators approach genre as a rule or a resource is a moral choice. Rules restrict,…

A discussion of the teaching of English for academic purposes (EAP) focuses on criticism that the content of such courses is thin and that they are offered as a service to other disciplines. It is proposed that the emphasis of EAP instruction be shifted to the role English plays as a medium for conveying meaning to the ways in which English is…

The bibliography contains over 1,000 citations of books, ERIC documents, government documents, journals, magazine articles, newspaper articles, unpublished works, and videotape recordings on the debate over establishment of English as the single official language of the United States. Citations are listed alphabetically by author within each of…

A study examined traditional Hindi songs typically sung by women during north Indian weddings, using pragmatic and semantic analysis. Some historical and cultural background for the practice of women's singing at weddings is offered. It is suggested that gender roles are defined and regulated through the language of this speech event, and that…