Research has demonstrated that many linguistic features correlate with social stratification of speakers and that these features often serve as social identifiers that trigger language stereotypes. An experiment was conducted to verify these findings with regard to Portuguese ethnic groups. Judges from four Portuguese-speaking ethnic groups…

Students could gain considerable insight into the philosophy and methods of scientific experimentation if instructors adopted procedures based on an understanding of and respect for writing as a process. Laboratory courses in psychology offer such an opportunity. These courses usually involve a heavy workload for both students and faculty, for, in…

One of the most memorable eulogies delivered in the United States Senate is the one by Senator Michael Mansfield for President John F. Kennedy. An analysis of his word choice reveals that he (1) forced the audience to participate in the creation of the message; (2) employed active, forceful descriptions; (3) focused on praiseworthy qualities of…

The chief aim of this style manual is to promote clarity and consistency in writing for publication. The chapters are intended to help writers understand the publication process that begins with a need to communicate with a particular audience and ends with the distribution of the finished product. The first chapter on planning and producing a…

Filled with detail and trivia, this book is an informative, nonspecialized, and often humorous consideration of the vitality and variety of the English language. The book examines the origins of language and the history of English; the process of word formation and the origins of words; the problem of jargon; the prevalence of slang; synonyms,…

Explores the role of sex of speaker and sex of addressee in determining the appropriateness of forms of address. (AM)

Advocates a reworking of lexical pedagogy with reference to the instruction of techniques of expression. (Text is in French.) (AM)

Discusses the role of the university, in particular the Canadian university, in FL instruction. (KM)

Attempts a preliminary typological study of sub-languages constituting one national language. Three types of sub-languages are distinguished: natural language, language of science, and informational language. They are compared to the three levels of language analysis, speech, norm and system. (RM)

Received Pronunciation (RP) has traditionally been presented as a teaching model in Nigeria though performance has not measured up to expectation. In recent years, there has been much confusion regarding the choice of an English teaching model in developing countries, especially since the emergence of local varieties. On the one hand, experts…

The specific concern in this study is to consider the nature, social significance, and consequences of syntactic variation in the question forms used by judges when taking guilty pleas from criminal defendents. Nine judges from a court of general jurisdiction in Arizona were observed and tape-recorded while presiding over several procedures that…

The use of the term "strategy" in second language communication is discussed, and a typology of communication strategies is presented. Communication strategies are those systematic devices a second language learner uses in attempting to express precise meaning in the target language. Definitions of learning strategies and communication strategies…

As part of the evaluation of four different versions of a patient package insert (PPI) for diazepam (Valium) created by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the content, organization, language, and design of the PPIs were compared. One PPI was a short prose piece with clear organization that did not particularly highlight warnings or, indeed,…

Sixth-grade students were subjects in a study to determine whether they possessed a repertoire of situational language in which registers or speech styles were differentiated by language use. A methodology was developed to elicit and describe children's language in different social settings that require different situational uses of language. Four…