A major controversy in education in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been the choice of language for initial literacy education. It is now generally accepted by academics, education leaders, and politicians that this should be a language already spoken by the learner. Research suggests that this will contribute to better, not worse skills in English at…

"Autonomous" and "ideological" models of literacy are discussed in the context of the literacy-culture-politics relationship. Assumptions underlying literacy, nationalism, assessment, and the links among them are questioned, and approaches to alternative assessment procedures are considered. Arguments about the formation and…

An investigation of the relationship between the locus of control construct and the tribe, sex, and first language of two groups of southwestern American Indian adults (85 Navajo and 50 Pueblo subjects), as measured by the Rotter Internal-External Control Scale, confirmed the prediction that the groups would exhibit similar characteristics for the…

Previous research on differential responses to psychological procedure labels has shown that the general public makes no distinction between the labels behavior modification, behavior therapy, and behavior treatment, but shows a strong preference for the label counseling, compared to the labels behavior therapy and psychotherapy. To extend…

The concept of register refers to variations in language determined by function, medium and formality or style. An examination of the registers of verb forms and noun phrases yielded results important to the writer of English language courses. (CK)

Eighteen issues are outlined concerning theory and measurement of attitude, and language attitude in particular, and research motivated by these issues described. (RM)

In much current literary and rhetorical theory, analysis of text assumes greater authority than the text and its creator. Through a reexamination of the ancient Greeks' notion of "ethos" (the residue of the writer or speaker in the text), the writer, reader, and text can be reunited, particularly in light of the theory of meanings…

Efforts to simplify language used in consumer documents come from the consumer movement and a public disillusioned with big business and government. Even before President Carter's 1978 executive order mandating simplification in government regulations, some agencies were revising regulations for clarity. However, these efforts were based on too…

On college campuses today, the debate rages over whether self-restraint and tolerance for nonconformity is overriding a need to protect certain individuals and groups from objectionable speech. Some administrators, students, and alumni wish to prevent "bad speech" in the form of expressions of racism, sexism, and the like. Advocates for…

A discussion of the preservation of minority group languages, especially when the group is very small, in a pluriglossic community focuses on the situation of German in Sauris, Italy. The arguments commonly advanced against total linguistic assimilation into the majority language group are examined. Implications in support of minority language…

This book contains 15 essays on the relation of language to ethnicity, race, and culture. Although a wide variety of topics are covered, much of the discussion is intended to contribute to an understanding of the Western "ethnic revival" of the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s and the sociology of language in general. Chapter titles are: (1) "Language,…

A national language is useful as one means of creating social cohesion at the level of the whole country. It is also a symbol of national identity and of a nation's distinction from other countries. Probably no nation will ever be fully satisfied with a language that is a national language in the symbolic sense only, but the symbolic function of a…

By some standards, Brazil would be considered linguistically homogeneous because more than 85 percent of the population speaks Portuguese, but this view does not account for the multitude of dialects and Indian languages spoken there or for the German-speaking or other bilingual groups in the country. In addition, little information is available…

One composition teacher's experiences with the pluralistic student body of a two-year college led him to question the value of higher education, in particular writing and literature. Most current literature teachers were trained in the principles and methods of New Criticism, and most have found that these approaches are not adequate for their…

This paper reports on a continuing research project on metaphor in the language of teachers, and describes the ways in which an academic mainframe computer is being used in this research. Because the substance of the research and the computing procedures used are closely related, they are not readily separated. Following early sections dealing…