Developing the ability to speak in a foreign language is an arduous task. This is because it involves the mastery of different language subsystems, simultaneous focus on comprehension and production, and the impact of a range of social factors. This challenge is further compounded in situations in which learners have limited access to the target…

This book surveys situations in which language contact arises and focuses on what happens to the languages themselves: sometimes nothing, sometimes the incorporation of new words, sometimes the spread of new sounds and sentence structures across many languages and wide swathes of territory. It outlines the origins and results of contact-induced…

This collection of articles includes: "Introducing Applied Linguistics in Africa" (Sinfree Makoni and Ulrike H. Meinhof); "Language Ideology and Politics: A Critical Appraisal of French as Second Official Language in Nigeria" (Tope Omoniyi); "The Democratisation of Indigenous Languages: The Case of Malawi" (Themba…

On the basis of detailed analyses of 10 threatened language-in-society constellations and three formerly endangered but now secure constellations, this book develops a closely argued theory of worldwide efforts on behalf of reversing language shift (RLS). It also applies this same line of reasoning to the problems of maintaining the…

Chapters in this volume include the following: "Co-Constructing School Safetime: Safetalk Practices in Peruvian and South African Classrooms" (Nancy H. Hornberger, J. Keith Chick); "Codeswitching and Collusion: Classroom Interaction in Botswana Primary Schools" (Jo Arthur); "Language and Educational Inequality in Primary…