The United States Department of Labor has revised the "Dictionary of Occupational Titles" in order to eliminate references to gender. Can language respond to official edicts, as well as to demands from feminists, and effect significant changes? This paper supports the position that language can and will change. The basis for such change depends on…

This insert in "Accent on ACTFL" is devoted to ways of promoting the study of foreign languages. The first section is a comic book, "The Continuing Story of Captain Fore Lang," created as an assignment by education students. The comic points out several benefits of language study. The second section is a language-specific promotion focusing on…

Proposes a conception of the term "literacy" in the context of the controls and the constraints that language usage exerts, demonstrating a marked distinction between literacy education and the "back to basics" approach. (RL)

Discusses the difficulties involved in analyzing the sociolinguistic situation in Guadeloupe. (AM)

Discusses language shift in one community from German-Hungarian bilingualism to the exclusive use of German. Young women are further along in this direction than others. The linguistic contrast is shown to represent the social dichotomy between a newly available worker status and traditional peasant status. (Author/RM)

Posits the hypothesis that both black skin and nonstandard speech make employment as a salesperson or supervisor less likely and discusses the research study designed to provide support for this hypothesis. (MH)

Describes the nature and impact of the Communist movement's revolutionary language which emphasized the particular pro-American Communist discourse which dramatized issues, events, and people. (MH)

Language instructors must look beyond practical and theoretical concerns to the social, psychological, and ideological implications of their profession. (Text is in French.) (Author/DB)

A questionnaire was submitted to Iranian students of English to determine their attitudes toward language, learning, and language learning. Responses were subjected to statistical analysis. Attitudes were generally favorable to second language learning, but confusion on some points suggests teachers might consider concepts of language and language…

Four hypotheses explaining the origin of Berbice Dutch, a Dutch-based Creole language spoken in the county of Berbice in Guyana, are explored. The most likely explanation is that the language was first spoken by Berbice slaves as a means of expressing the identity of a newly created "ethnic" group. (Author/CB)

Reviews the present status of the categories developed by the Writing Research Unit at the University of London for classifying discourse function. (HOD)

Examines the impact of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms (1982) on minority groups in Canada, focusing on linguistic minorities and handicapped citizens. Considers each group in a political, economic, and social context, offering selected comparisons with the U.S. (DMM)

Argues that the real problem in English education has nothing to do with its definitional scheme; instead the crisis is how to discriminate among practices that may be offered in the name of such a scheme. (HOD)

Attitudes of 50 eighth-grade students are reported as gleaned from written instruments and comments made during individual interviews. The importance of mathematics, reasons why they liked or disliked mathematics, and their rating of topics are included. (MNS)