Presents a database of the world's languages categorized in terms of their number of mother tongue speakers and their distribution. The database was created by going through the book, "Ethnologue: Languages of the World," page-by-page, analyzing individual language entries, collating them, and cross-checking them between countries. The…

The purpose of this study was to design a model for "first language" dominance over "second language" performance and the interference of one language over the other. Two sets of equivalence relations showing a common element (i.e., the reference) were established under different contextual conditions. One set ("first language") was over trained…

This paper explores interpreting in three-generational Italian-English bilingual families as a complex language brokering activity. Recent studies approach non-professional interpreting as language brokering in which bilinguals (often children) interpret for non-bilinguals (adults) in institutional settings (Hall 2004; Valdes 2003). These studies…

This paper presents the root causes of the resistance of mainstream European educational institutions to implementation of minority language programmes (bilingual programmes with both an official/dominant language and an immigrant minority language as media of instruction). Differential treatment of different minority languages in the mainstream…

This study addresses the question of whether language dominance and cross-linguistic influence are related by investigating the acquisition of determiner omission in four bilingual German-Italian children. The study begins by showing that monolingual Italian learners omit determiners less extensively than monolingual German learners. If bilingual…

Claims that the mother tongue function in foreign language learning over a background of two or more languages is transferable to any one of the background languages and that this transfer is predictable by a set of principles. Presents applications of the principles to multilingual settings of Nigeria and Cameroon. (SED)

Whereas in Quebec the use of English is seen as a threat to the French language, English words are often used in France, particularly in advertising. They imply certain values: British words suggest elite status; U.S. ones promise technological progress, freedom, and fun. The adaptation of English words is described. (18 references) (Author/LB)

Refers to Bourdieu's publication "Language and Symbolic Power," to explain the unwillingness of member states of the European Union to grant another language (other than English, French, and to a lesser degree German) recognition: an official language can be considered as linguistic capital that affords holders symbolic power.…

One result of accelerating globalization is the competition for human capital. On one hand, nations are investing more and more in their educational systems to create their own human resources; on the other hand, these nations are struggling to effectively and efficiently utilize their existing human capital. Additionally, there is a massive wave…

Background: An important issue in the discourse on language rights is the degree to which they influence the development and implementation of language policies or perpetuate inequalities in many language situations. Skutnabb-Kangas (1996, 2002a, 2002b) and May (2000), for example, have argued that language rights offer a reasonable framework for…

In order to better understand the complex dynamic that often occurs during writing center sessions between native English speaking (L1) tutors and English language learners (ELL), this study investigates linguistic dominance through time-at-talk, turn-taking, agenda-setting, and content analysis. We conclude that, in keeping with theory and…

Chinese translation to and from Japanese and English verifies the hypothesis that power differentials influence the flow and reception of translations. The Chinese tradition of translation has been characterised by fluency, but some scholars have recently advocated foreignisation for English to Chinese translation, and domestication for Chinese to…

The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to examine whether English finite morphology has the potential to differentiate children with and without language impairment (LI) from Spanish-speaking backgrounds and different levels of English proficiency in comparison to Hispanic English speakers and (b) to investigate the extent to which children who…

An experiment is described that is designed to test for the operation of an input switch mechanism in bilinguals. Their ability to selectively avoid processing words presented in one of their languages while they are attending to words presented in their other language is described. The 20 subjects were all French-English bilinguals. The specific…

The stability of an ethnic minority's language in a bilingual situation is viewed as a function of: (1) level of literacy in each of the two languages; (2) economic, social, and political power as related to the two languages; (3) geographic and social mobility; (4) social integration within each language group and across groups; (5) amount and…