Responds to comments by Canagarajah, which were written in response to an article that suggested that the role of English in endangering regional languages and cultures no longer holds true. (Author/VWL)

Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to identify the cultural factors that influence the usage of household French by three French/English bilingual children in Louisiana. Using 24 months of weekly tape recordings of spontaneous dinnertime conversation, a ratio of French to English utterances was calculated, and correlated with…

Explores language dominance and cultural hegemony within the Franco-Ontarian community in Canada. Looks at within-group dominance, ethnolinguistic vitality, and ethnocultural equity, presenting a complex composite portrait of this minority language community. Suggests it is under the dominating influence of the majority English population, but…

This study surveyed 86 parents who enrolled their children in a Chinese-English bilingual preschool in San Francisco. The participants were asked their opinions on bilingual education, the reasons for sending their children to a Chinese-English bilingual school, their attitudes toward bilingual education, their use of Chinese and English, and…

Situated amid tertiary-level institutions in the city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, India, this article explores how particular ideologies countering English inform pedagogic choices made by language teachers teaching in "vernacular-medium" (VM) college classrooms. The ideologies under discussion are two linked "thought…

Clahsen and Felser (CF) deserve praise for their superlative synthesis of literature relating to grammatical processing, as well as for their original contributions to this area of research. CF "explore the idea that there might be fundamental differences between child L1 and adult L2 processing." The researchers present evidence that adult second…

The global dominance of English as the principal language of international interchange in the teacher education field has, perhaps, diverted English-speaking scholars from the task of reviewing discourses in non-English languages. Taking as its focus the issue of professional knowledge in ITE, the present article considers scholarship…

This article analyses issues pertaining to language policy in Zimbabwean education beginning with the establishment of formal education under colonial rule. English is the official language of business, government and education, and the dominant language in the media. Official policy, before and after independence, has been characterised by…

In light of a major study on educational outcomes, this paper explores how Aboriginal language dominance and virtually exclusive use of oral communications in one Aboriginal group has been affected by its interaction with Western institutions. For several years negotiations have been undertaken among the Innu Nation of Labrador, the province of…

A study of the organization of the bilingual's mental lexicon is reported. First, three major hypotheses are examined: (1) Shared Semantic Store or interdependence hypothesis, suggesting a single conceptual memory system; (2) Separate Semantic Store hypothesis, that words and meanings are stored separately; and (3) Shared-&-Separate Semantic…

Jean-Francois Lyotard is considered by many as the pre-eminent non-Marxist philosopher of the "postmodern condition." This paper offers Lyotard's intellectual biography, describes his political writings and subsequent turn to philosophy, and discusses his views on capitalism in the postmodern condition and the problem of the legitimation…

The major threat to Native languages embodied in the "English Only" movement is discussed and ways that the United States historically has allowed language freedom is documented. The following points are made: (1) contrary to myth, the United States has never been a monolingual country; (2) for most of U.S. history, the dominant federal…

The determinants of dominant language fluency among immigrants and the labor market impact of this fluency are examined. The model is generally applicable, but the empirical tests are performed for adult foreign-born men in Australia (1981 and 1986 Australian censuses). The findings indicate that fluency responds to incentives, including economic…

This study examines the changing patterns of usage of Scottish Gaelic and English in the northern Scottish counties of Sutherland and Caithness during the period 1698-1901. The study explores the way these patterns resulted from processes found in different social situations. It is concluded that although the shift from Gaelic to English was not…

To examine the child variables which may affect the validity of a screening test in a heterogeneous kindergarten, 64 kindergarten children attending an international school in Taipei, Taiwan, were screened with the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning - Revised (DIAL-R). Thirty subjects were Caucasian, 21 were Oriental, and 11…