As English progressively becomes the global language, many native English speakers move to foreign countries to work as English teachers. However a review of the literature reveals that there is little research on their actual performance compared to the non-native local English teachers. This comparative case study examines pedagogic practices of…

All languages encode aspects of culture and every culture has its own specificities to be proud of and to be transmitted. The papers in this book explore aspects of this relationship between language and culture, considering issues related to the processes of internationalization and localization of the English language. The volume is divided into…

Arabic Literacy acquisition was studied among Israeli Palestinian low socioeconomic status kindergartners within the framework of an intervention study, implemented by teachers. On pretest, letter naming, alphabetic awareness, and phonological awareness were very low. Whereas the comparison group hardly progressed throughout the year, the…

Background: Cantonese-English mixed code is ubiquitous in Hong Kong society, and yet using mixed code is widely perceived as improper. This paper presents evidence of mixed code being socially constructed as bad language behavior. In the education domain, an EDB guideline bans mixed code in the classroom. Teachers are encouraged to stick to…

This paper reports on the development and evaluation of a project to support the learning of the mother tongue by children aged 4-8 years. The aim of the project was to: actively involve and engage children with learning their mother tongue for functional use; involve parents in the learning process and support them in doing so; and increase…

This paper challenges the characterization of bilingual behavior derived from the code-switching model, and especially the notion of linguistic independence on which psychological studies of bilingualism have focused almost exclusively. While linguists have concentrated on the situational determinants of code-switching, psychologists have focused…

This paper reviews issues and analyses in bilingual switching, or intercalation, and offers a topological model to represent the activity of code switching, sometimes under the same environmental conditions and with the same interlocutors. The topological notion of catastrophe is proposed as a means to model the various factors that influence code…

Focusing on the alternation of languages in a bilingual classroom, a conceptual framework is discussed that utilizes the teacher's communication competence. Language alternation on the part of the teacher and the student is an active process of negotiation, creating a high level of linguistic and social exchange. (SLD)

Code switching is a widely observed phenomenon especially seen in multilingual and multicultural communities. In ELT classrooms, code switching comes into use either in the teachers' or the students' discourse. Although it is not favoured by many educators, one should have at least an understanding of the functions of switching between the native…

A study examined the shift from standard spoken Japanese to dialect and compared it to the shift from formal to informal forms, within the context of several theories of code-switching and style-shifting. A five-minute segment was taken from a 30-minute conversation between three female native Japanese-speakers, all familiar with the Osaka…

Examines the simultaneous development of two linguistic competences in the bilingual child. Special attention is devoted to the role of functional categories in the development patterns attested, and a position is taken that is intermediate between two hypotheses: the strong hypothesis and the weak hypothesis. Childhood bilingualism is viewed as a…

Interpreters working in southern Florida courts are witnessing the genesis and proliferation of a non-standard Spanish variety due to the constant interaction of Spanish and English. Interpreters' ability to interpret "Spanglish" and to deal effectively with other code-switching is essential to achieving the communicative competence…

A description is given of a model of the bilingual speaker. The model is based on Levelt's (1989) "speaking model," which sketches a framework in which a number of highly autonomous information processing components are postulated. (56 references) (JL)

Examines two works, "Pnin" (1957) and "Pale Fire" (1962), by writer Vladimir Nabokov, a polyglot with strong metalinguistic awareness. Shows how Nabokov used a polylinguistic matrix to create a subtext partially accessible to monoglots but only fully comprehensible to those who know several languages, literatures and histories.…

Proposes that interlanguage constructions are driven by different types of morphemes, and argues that the reason why morphemes are not acquired at the same rate is that they are projected differently from the mental lexicon. Claims that early IL forms are the consequences of the learner's incomplete acquisition of the abstract lexical entries of…