Africa's educational systems are undergoing a quiet revolution. As these systems move away from working exclusively in the old colonial languages, usually English or French, bilingual schools which use local indigenous languages are springing up in many regions of Africa. This paper points out the historical processes driving the bilingual…

This study examines the multilingual and multiliteracy practices of a group of Tibetan female youths from South Asia (India, Bhutan, Nepal) newly arrived in Toronto, Canada (N = 24). The main data are derived from a questionnaire surveying their language practices across contexts indicating the roles of education, community, and society in…

Since the post-Soviet context is not particularly well known to the majority of readers, the author uses this introduction to provide a general background against which developments in particular post-Soviet countries can be better understood. The author begins by placing these developments in the sociohistoric context of language policies of the…

According to the Medical Council of Malawi, one of the conditions for a licence to be granted to an individual who wants to practise medicine in Malawi is the practitioner's ability to speak and write English fluently. This means that the expatriate medical practitioner is not required by law to demonstrate fluency in Chichewa (the national…

This study explores Spanish language maintenance in Southbridge, Massachusetts, a suburban town with a vibrant Puerto Rican community. The investigation focuses on the extent to which Southbridge Puerto Ricans use Spanish and English at home, and their attitudes toward Spanish language maintenance. Survey data, especially the impact of factors…

The notion of site is critical to ethnography and provides a sense of spatial stability--somewhere the researcher enters in order to research what is contained within. Using contemporary understandings of space, the author reflects on two studies to explore the (im)possibility of poststructuralist ethnography. The first study was undertaken in a…

The Pennsylvania German (PG) linguistic situation offers a unique insight into the mechanisms of language change, and specifically of syntactic change. Pennsylvania German consists of two primary varieties, (Plain (PPG) and Nonplain (NPG), a distinction based on the Anabaptist socioreligious affiliations of the former group that has produced two…

Characteristics of the Korean population in Los Angeles, intergenerational cultural problems, and efforts to promote language maintenance are described. The majority of Koreans in Los Angeles have been in the United States less than 10 years. A high percentage are from middle class and professional backgrounds. The traditional hierarchical family…

Studies the English-speaking and French-speaking populations of the Gaspe, focusing on socioeconomic status, mother tongue retention and bilingualism rates. This is followed by a detailed study of a small, linguistically mixed community in Gaspe East, reconstructing the community as it was in 1925 and describing it as it was in 1970. (Author/RM)

Describes the use of a small set of linguistic variables in different types of radio programs from Radio Cymru (the Welsh language radio network), to see whether variation does correlate with style as it does in the community. Results show that broadcasters followed community norms for these variables. (SED)

Discusses the status of the Same (Lappish) language which is distributed into six different dialect groups. Earlier research into the problems relating to the linguistic behavior of a Same group living in Finland and the position and use of their minority language is analyzed in terms of demographic, social structural, and political-legal factors.…

Discusses the assimilation process of the Kven (descendants of Finnish-speaking immigrants from Northern Finland and the Tornio River Valley in Sweden to Northern Norway) and the historical factors and government policies which has lead to their status today as an assimilated group speaking the majority language. (SED)

Using acid rain as a metaphor, discusses the status of the Frisian language and culture as one which, though apparently thriving, is really threatened. Examines the sources of this threat, i.e., the education system, the church, mass communication and transportation, and the demise of the Frisian village community. (SED)

Argues that economic development as well as the lack of technical terms in Gaelic and decline in use of Gaelic in the home may adversely affect the language of a given area. Reports on a survey into the linguistic impact of three industrial enterprises in Western Ireland. (SED)

Asserts that in order to participate in and contribute to the development of a cohesive multicultural society, it is not necessary for the members of minority groups to become monolingual speakers of English, and that the goal of a multicultural society should be to appreciate the value of each cultural group. (SED)