This conference report of a UNESCO meeting concerns the aspects that are essential in planning and implementing a second language teaching program in a plurilingual context. The relevance of the following kinds of factors are described: (1) the variety of plurilingual contexts; (2) the specific didactic components of teaching a second language in…

The linguistic situation in Nigeria might be represented as a pyramid with a base composed of 400-500 native languages of which about 100 have been alphabetized. Of these, 51 with more than 100,000 speakers each, are considered regional languages; ten, with more than 1 million speakers each, are considered inter-regional languages; and three…

This paper deals with the cultural attitudes which one either learns or inherits as a speaker of English. It is a discussion of the attitudes observed as a student of English, in the use of English as an international and auxiliary language, and in the teaching of English as a second language. As English becomes an international language,…

Belgium is a multilingual country divided into three linguistic areas: (1) the Flemish-Netherlandic speaking area in Flanders; (2) the French-speaking area in Wallonia; and (3) the German-speaking area in the East of Wallonia. An educational experiment on English as a foreign language (EFL) in the primary school was undertaken at the Educational…

This work attempts to provide an overview of linguistic diversity in South Asia and to place this diversity in a cultural context. The work tries to describe the current state of knowledge concerning socially conditioned language variation in the subcontinent. Each of five major language families contains numerous mutually intelligible and…

In classifying bilingual education following William F. Mackey's typology, single or dual media or instruction may be used for gradual or abrupt conversion to a wider or narrower culture. Bilingual education in the United States is usually dual medium, either for maintenance or conversion to a wider culture, aiming to produce a bilingual…

The present volume is designed to help the student of child language, especially the beginning student, discover the high points of American and international research, such as French, German, Hebrew, Polish, and Russian. The selections in this reader are intended as an introduction to various fields of child language and to different theories and…

This paper discusses the historical conditions and socio-political factors affecting the development of Japanese language schools in Hawaii. It traces the development of these schools from the time they were established to prepare Japanese children for their eventual return to Japan through years of legal battles and disfavor to the present, when…

The problem of interference caused by linguistic transfer in second language learning does not increase with the number of languages that the student has acquired. The ability to learn a second, third, or fourth language depends on what Chomsky calls "the language acquisition device," which is a capacity or a sensitivity formed by a combination of…

Describes language lab listening activity designed to serve needs of the English as a second language class comprised of students at different levels of language proficiency, divergent native languages, multicultural backgrounds, and varying levels of formal education. Multilevel tasks are drawn from a common text, allowing students to do…

To be an English teacher today is to play an inevitable part in the globalizing of English. This volume canvasses important questions for English language teachers that are posed by the phenomenon of a global English: (1) Whose language? English speakers today are more likely to use English with multilingual speakers than with monolingual…

This books examines the interrelation between language and society in contemporary Italy and provides an up-to-date account of linguistic diversity, social variation, special codes, and language varieties within Italian society, and in situations of language contact both within and outside Italy. Part 1 covers the evolution and variations of…

This publication is intended for parents, teachers, and anyone in the wider community who has an interest in language, language acquisition, and second language learning; bilingual and multilingual education; bilingualism; language, culture, and society; language and power; and literacy. Extensive long-term research was conducted on a number of…

This paper describes responses to linguistic pluralism in Australian policy in relation to Australia's Asian language context, and the teaching and learning of Japanese within these two frameworks. Finally, the paper considers some ideas relating intercultural language learning to all second language study termed: the Third Place. There are three…

A discussion of multilingualism in Hungary begins with an overview of the role of minority and majority languages in the population since World War I, then focuses on the language situation as of 1991. It examines public policy concerning language, the importance of the existing multilingualism in language planning, the pervasiveness of…