As a powerful tool for education, language informs, influences, discloses, and communicates. Research on the use of language has found that it also discriminates. Among the different manifestations of sexism in language are (1) the use of "he" as a generic pronoun; (2) the "generic" use of "man" as an exclusively male referent; (3) the use of "you…

Two studies of the innovative semantic distinctions and innovative uses before the acquisition of conventional number classifiers by young Japanese children (aged 5-7 years) are discussed. The findings suggest that lexical acquisition is an intricate process which often requires more than simple mappings of forms onto categories, and that…

The research of W. O'Barr and B. K. Atkins found that the use of "women's language" features--the use of tag questions, interrogative intonation, sex-specific vocabulary, hedges and fillers, empty adjectives, and hypercorrect grammar; the inability to tell jokes; and the tendency to use fewer expletives than men--was associated more with…

Slobin (1991, 1996a,b, 1997) has argued that the typological differences between languages with either a satellite-framed or a verb-framed lexicalisation pattern (Talmy, 2000) have important discourse and rhetorical consequences for the expression of "paths of movement" and "manner of movement". These differences are especially…

A rating instrument for describing nine structural characteristics of written compositions is presented and explained. (JH)

The author reviews the literature to show a disproportionate number of minority group children are being placed in special classes because of linguistically and culturally biased placement tests. (LC)

Fifth graders (18 boys, 15 girls) listened to tape recordings of adult male-female speaker pairs reading an identical passage and selected for each pair the speaker they would prefer to have as their own teacher. Girls selected female significantly more often than male speakers, and boys selected male more often than female speakers, but not…

The purpose of this study was to gather information on the acquisition of non-Indo-European languages. The field work was conducted in the village of Faleasao on the island of Ta'u in the Manu'a group of American Samoa from June, 1968 to June, 1969. The data collected consists primarily of tape recordings of naturally occurring and elicited speech…

This paper describes an innovative method for teaching reading comprehension in a second language. The underlying assumption of this method is that a student who reads in his native language does not need to learn a theoretical system of grammar rules in the traditional sense of the term, since he already possesses the ability to recognize words…

Examines attitudes in the Black community towards the topic of Black English and specifically the controversy about the relationship of the speech of Blacks to that of Whites, the distinctive features in the speaking and writing of Black college students, and the attitudes of Black educators. Available from South Atlantic Modern Language…

This paper reviews the bilingual educational needs of Indochinese peoples in the United States and suggests ways that these needs can be met. Outlined are two models of bilingual/bicultural education. The first model, which emphasizes a strong English as a Second Language (ESL) component, meets the needs of students born in Indochina. The second…

This paper addresses the following problem: how do power relationships constrain what counts as knowledge in social studies education and thus constitute the field? By looking at speech acts performed in a given socio-linguistic community one can get insight into discursive practices of that community. The present concern is with power relations…

In the past, writers have chosen stylistic devices within the parameters of the traditional grammar of style, "Grammar A," characterized by analyticity, coherence, and clarity. But many contemporary writers are creating a new grammar of style, "Grammar B," characterized by synchronicity, discontinuity, and ambiguity, which…