Throughout Finland the different centers for Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), along with diverse interests of LSP instructors, account for a wide range of LSP curricula in Finland. This paper examines the situation in two centers and argues that any LSP program for postsecondary students who are likely to have professional contact with…

This learning activity package is designed to help apprentices understand some of the different ways in which words can be used to mean different things, depending on where and when one uses the words. It provides examples of words and phrases that are used in the workplace in ways different from the way they are used in regular conversation. Five…

This study analyzed doctor-patient communication from a sociolinguistic perspective, focusing on two issues: (1) why patients are not more effective in asserting themselves in talking with doctors, and (2) why doctors don't talk more like normal people (i.e., patients). Research on communication in health care contexts is reviewed, looking at such…

A study of question and response patterns in middle and secondary schools in Indonesia is presented. The study examines questioning from the point of view of several previous studies. Interactions in 12 classes in English and in Bahasa Indonesian were videotaped in three middle schools and three secondary schools. Analysis of the data revealed…

It is proposed that for second language learners to develop communicative competence, their instruction must address the sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic aspects of target language use. These three aspects of communicative competence are termed the "grammar of culture," and they are essential to understanding what is appropriate in…

Transferred epithets, adjectives that appear to have been transferred from adverb to prenominal position (e.g., "I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar..."), have been viewed as unanalyzable both grammatically and from the viewpoint of transformational derivation. However, another explanation is that these combinations show patterns…

This paper reports research into the linguistic and extra-linguistic or social-cognitive structure of problem presentation contexts. The effects of textual and social syntax were investigated, including the specific structure of the problem text by which situations, processes, actions, and number relations are implicitly or explicitly expressed,…

The materials status report for Uigur, a Turkic language spoken in the Sinkiang-Uigur Autonomous Region in northwest China and in the Soviet Socialist Republics of Kazakh and Uzbek, is one of a series intended to provide the nonspecialist with a picture of the availability and quality of texts for teaching various languages to English speakers.…

In this document black English is discussed in terms of its artistic and creative elements. A schematic design for the analysis of the artistic dimensions of language is presented. The "black" way of saying things, or sense of language, is described as putting a premium not only on how words function but also on how they sound. Various examples of…

The purpose of this paper is to provide classroom teachers with background information about code switching and its role and function within a bilingual community. The many facets of code switching and its varying characteristics are described in some detail, as well as code switching in the classroom and the importance of the teacher's attitude…

This booklet contains information on the Languages of the Disciplines Project, a federally funded program that seeks to identify the problems in receptive communication encountered by beginning university students in specific disciplines and the techniques for helping these students overcome their problems. The first section of the booklet notes…

A study relating mothers' language styles and techniques of family control to children's cognitive development was conducted with 163 urban Negro mothers from the lower and middle classes and their 4-year-old children. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There was a significant negative correlation between responses of status-oriented…

This paper describes the experience of a Basic Speech teacher with college-age Choctaw Indian students enrolled in a combination college and vocational training program. In the process of teaching basic speech techniques, the teacher learned a valuable lesson in Choctaw cultural patterns. Time concepts; social etiquette such as name-giving,…

This paper deals with the phenomenon of code switching among bilinguals. Whereas previous studies of code switching have, however, concentrated on instances in which code alternation can be correlated with a change in social occasion, this paper uses examples from the speech of Mexican-American and Afro-American bilinguals to focus on those…

The distinction between artifact and tool is introduced into the study of language diversity and the posting of linguistic universals. A complicating factor in all language investigations is the use of language as the chief tool to create new language. Analogy and metaphor are considered as two major creative forces at work in all languages.…