This study investigated how and when foreign language competence makes a difference in the international operations of U.S.-based corporations, what skills are required, and how companies access them. Thirty-two interviews were conducted in nine companies of varying size and type, with people representing a variety of perspectives in human…

Current thinking about academic language and the variety of language appropriate to school and similar settings is discussed. Recent literature concerning academic language is explored, and common themes and significant observations that emerge when the concept is viewed from a sociological perspective are examined. The research reviewed includes…

Composing written text in an educational context engages both students and teachers in struggles between convention and choice, resulting frequently in the negotiation of compromises with which neither teachers nor students feel comfortable. The linguistic traditions of a discipline are powerful determinants of the nature of the language in which…

Two essays discuss the need for improved international transfer of scientific and technical information and propose the international language Esperanto for that purpose. "The Role of Esperanto" by Ouyang Wendao suggests that the burden of time and energy spent in translating scientific literature quickly and well and the difficulties of…

This report outlines the basic characteristics of native languages in Ontario, the degree to which they are being maintained, and the aspirations of native people for their future development. The report covers only the Algonquian and Iroquoian families of languages spoken in Ontario for many generations and still spoken at present, including…

Research in the fields of education, linguistics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, politics, anthropology, rhetoric, and computer science has yielded a large body of knowledge about how language is produced and used in different types of communication, how language systems affect conceptual frameworks, and how language competence contributes to…

This profile of the English language teaching situation in Denmark examines the role of English in Danish society and in the educational system. The status of English as the principal foreign language since the Second World War is noted as well as the wide usage of English as the principal medium of communication between Danes and non-Danish…

This profile of the English language teaching situation in Hungary discusses the role of English within Hungarian society and within the educational system. It is noted that English is taught as the main foreign language after Russian and that it is offered mainly in the gymnasiums and on the university level. The composition of the teaching cadre…

This profile of the English language teaching situation in Zimbabwe examines the role of English in society and in the educational system. It is noted that English is officially the second language of the African population and the medium of instruction in all schools. The status of English teaching is surveyed from primary school on up and in all…

A series of 11 propositions about the role of language in learning emerged from the data collected and analyzed in a semester-long collaborative seminar in language arts methods for inservice and preservice teachers. A discussion of each proposition reflects the data that support it. The focus was on teaching as inquiry or research for the…

Literacy of Navajo Indians within an isolated community of a northeast Arizona Navajo reservation is discussed, based on an ethnographic investigation. Functions for English and Navajo literacy in two community settings where Navajos use standard and vernacular print are described. Using literacy artifacts, participant observation, and interview…

Discussions about the value of language-across-the-curriculum policy are often clouded by confusion over two different underlying principles or motives for its implementation: that it stimulates and enhances learning and that it consolidates the teaching and learning of writing in a variety of subject contents. In practice, it is the second…

A study and review of the revisions of professional writers reveals 11 functions of revision: (1) altering form, (2) organizing information, (3) creating transitions, (4) deleting information, (5) expanding information, (6) emphasizing information, (7) subordinating information, (8) creating immediacy, (9) improving syntactic structures, (10)…

Gender is a structure of language and an attendant attribute for each noun and all of its immediate qualifiers, providing a set of categories into which the nouns of languages are divided. Through the phenomenon of concord, verbs, adjectives, and articles are made to agree with nouns in gender, person, number, and case. Gender classifies language…

A collection of papers resulting from a research project on the role of language in the life of a Puerto Rican community in New York City focuses on the discourse of English and Spanish speakers, especially conversational interaction, speech events, and narratives. The papers include: "Toward a Social Theory of Language Variability"…