There is evidence that the technical sphere of argument has been elevated generally at the expense of the public sphere, and specifically to the detriment of the public's ability to understand and participate in the formation and administration of public policy. Oversight of regulatory agencies by all three branches of the government holds the…

A discussion of government language policies involving more than one language looks at two policy issues: the teaching of ethnic languages and the teaching of foreign languages. A primary issue in ethnic language policy is the reconciling of competing claims of different language communities, which often represent extralingual competition and…

Recent developments have occurred which English teachers need to know about to make an accurate assessment of their role in combating the still growing form of nativism created by the English Only movement. First, a breakthrough in national politics has provided a tolerance and an appreciation of multilingualism in the United States. In the…

Modern Hebrew is an excellent example of a national language, an indigenous language that its speakers view as uniquely related to their common history, values, and identity. Hebrew was a unifying factor for millenia before the rise of modern national movements. When the movement for the restoration of Jewish political self-determination arose,…

The linguistic bases for bilingual education (i.e, the nature of language, the structures of the native and target languages in a bilingual education program, and the way the two language systems interact) need to be examined and understood as a sound basis for administrative and pedagogical decisions and procedures in the programs. Linguistics is…

Addressing two recurrent concerns in educational debate--how a discipline can contribute to students' analytical and critical thinking, and how to improve students' ability to express themselves orally and in writing--the Language of Critical Thinking course is designed to strengthen critical thinking skills by using a legal case study approach.…

A Norwegian study of the effectiveness of teaching young children to read and write using their vernacular as the medium of instruction is reported. In 1980-81 and 1981-82, ten classes of beginning primary students were given all initial instruction in reading and writing in the vernacular. Because no language standardization occurs in the…

The emergence of a modern or "new" rhetoric has been characterized by its attempt both to recover and reexamine the concepts of classical rhetoric and to define itself against that classical tradition. The distinctions that are persistently drawn between classical and modern rhetoric fall under four related heads: images of man and…

Taking France as a case in point, 3 situations are discussed for which organized language instruction seems necessary: 1) the export market, 2) national industry abroad, and 3) foreign workers in the country. These situations show the strong links between second languages and employment and the pragmatic necessity of foreign language education.…

The 'Association Linguistique Franco-Europeenne' analyzed 1600 questionnaires completed by French students to find out the motives for choosing the languages they study versus which languages they would like to study. The results are tabulated. The general conclusion is that multilingualism is beneficial to world peace and should be encouraged.…

Fifty-six bidialectical rural Hawaiian children participated in a study to determine whether they possessed comparable communicative competence in both dialects (Hawaiian-Creole English and standard English). The subjects, selected from kindergarten, first, third, and sixth grades, worked in groups of two to complete a communication task. Half of…

Forty undergraduate students were subjects in a study to discover students' attitudes toward language and grammar and to determine how the demand for grammatical correctness affected them in preparing and delivering public speeches. The subjects each completed an 11-item interview schedule that elicited demographic information as well as feelings…

The areas of language planning and the language of oppression are discussed within the theoretical framework of existential sociolinguistics. This tradition is contrasted with the contemporary models of positivism with its assumptions about constancy and quantification. The proposed model brings in social history, intent, consciousness, and other…