Notes the declining enrollments in language courses and the national lack of support for language studies. Five objectives to be sought in increasing university language studies, especially at advanced levels, are outlined. (CHK)

This essay affirms that people are not, like insects, genetically compelled to live and work collectively. Above all, language separates us from the rest of the animal world, allowing us to depart from reflex activity to consider the ambiguous and unknown and formulate new ideas. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

A review of contemporary research in second-language pedagogy highlights the arguments underlying three distinct rationales for multiple language acquisition: vocational opportunities, second languages in liberal education, and learning theory. (MSE)

Considers the linguistic creativity of West German users of English and their particular variety of English, its forms and functions, processes of nativization, the borrowing process, and West Germans' attitudes toward English, and highlights the unique social, cultural and linguistic role English plays in the German context. (Author/CB)

Argues that English is the major international language at least in part because it is the dominant world language of science and technology, and suggests that no country can afford to ignore the important role English plays in information access and technology transfer and still expect to compete professionally and economically. (Author/CB)

Seeks answers to two questions using an informal Functions of Print Test: (1) are kindergartners aware of the functions of print, and (2) what do kindergartners view as the reasons for reading in our society? Finds, in general, children are aware of the functions of print and recognize the purpose for reading. (NH)

The decline in the instruction of "close reading" and in interest in the power of language is to blame for students' frustration with and lack of interest in literature. Students want to believe in literature and language but don't know how. (MSE)

Observes that George Henry, with his speculations about the centrality of language for English education, has provided an insight into more effective English education preservice programs. (HOD)

Using Susanne Langer's concepts of presentational and discursive symbolism, constructs a theory of text production that describes presentation and discourse and relations between them as major components in the evolution of text from thought to written language. Concludes by examining the implications of this theory for understanding students'…

A participant in a British teacher workshop that focused on student talk describes the progress of the group toward defining the types of language they wanted to focus on in the classroom and the group's publication of weekly progress reports. (HTH)

This article, reporting a study of teacher attitudes toward the linguistic situation in their Caribbean communities, suggests that the social values attached to varieties of English in Creole Communities must be regarded as substantially different from those which obtain in more usual dialect situations. (POP)

The impact of radio and television on spoken and written language is discussed by a professor emeritus of Romance philology. Consideration is given to the relationship between the degeneration of language and the degeneration of customs and moral standards. (LBH)

By examining the works of classic American authors, this book presents the idea that individual human beings can break free of the structures of thought into which they are born and that, by reimagining the world, can change it. In chapters on Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, Edith Wharton, Richard Wright, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham…

A study examined the use of the ethnic language as it relates to ethnic self-identification in three generations of a bilingual family of Mexican origin in San Antonio (Texas). Family members were speakers of Texas Spanish and English. Two questionnaires and follow-up discussions examined fluency in Spanish and English; language preferences;…