The paper presents the summary of the special issue of "JMMD" "Ethnolinguistic vitality". The volume shows convincingly that ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions as measured by standard methodology such as the Subjective Ethnolinguistic Vitality Questionnaires (SEVQ) are not reliable indicators of actual vitality. Evidence that ethnolinguistic…

What do students and teachers believe about the second language learning process? What if these beliefs are in conflict with each other or with prevailing applied linguistic theories? These are the types of questions that are investigated within folk linguistic research. Some researchers have taken a quantitative approach that relied on…

What Aneta Pavlenko discusses in this fascinating article is so widely researched, so cogently conceptualized and so richly reflected upon, that one feels like a spoilsport to bring up a debate which the author herself claims to have avoided, namely the "universalist/relativist debate about basic emotions". If I do so in this Commentary, it is not…

Describes a study that sought to characterize the Scotch-Irish influence on the dialect of southeastern Pennsylvania in particular and American English in general. A questionnaire was used to obtain lexical and grammatical data from 97 subjects. The study concludes that the Scotch-Irish linguistic heritage is rapidly disappearing. (19 references)…

Two types of verbal-report data (concurrent and retrospective) and four major introspective methods used in second-language research (L2) (thinking-aloud, questionnaires, interviews, diary-keeping) are described in a discussion of introspective L2 research studies. It is argued that, though incomplete, verbal reports from informant-learners offer…

Traces the formulation and norming of a questionnaire constructed for the self-reporting of English-as-a-Second-Language students on their preferred perceptual learning styles, focusing on the problem of reliability and validity in survey design. (CB)

Reports research in cross-cultural differences between Americans from the United States and Germans, regarding the connotations of vocabulary items, specifically two sample words: "Cliquen" and "Kneipen." Over a period of five years, more than 50 native speakers from both cultures, who had experience with the other culture, were interviewed on…

In 1984, a new corpus of spoken Quebecois French (Canada) was added to the existing data. In developing it, half of the native speakers participating in a 1971 study were re-interviewed, providing previously unavailable data on individual language development. The report describes in detail the sociolinguistic methodology used in developing the…

Based on personal experience, this paper examines the ambiguities of the Likert-type 5-point scale in learning strategy elicitation. Four parallel questionnaires consisting of the same batch of 20 items taken from the Oxford scale (1990) were administered among a group of 120 tertiary level, non-English majors in China. Questionnaire 1 used the…

This paper discusses language planning measures in Guernsey, Channel Islands. The indigenous language is spoken fluently by only 2% of the population, and is at level 7 on Fishman's 8-point scale of endangerment. It has no official status and low social prestige, and language planning has little official support or funding. Political autonomy has…

Background: Politeness strategies vary from language to language and within each society. At times the wrong strategies can have disastrous effects. This can occur when languages are used by non-native speakers or when they are used outside of their own home linguistic context. Purpose: This study of spoken language compares the politeness…

This new serial publication is designed to provide teachers, administrators, and policy makers who work with English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students with a forum for presenting innovations, concerns, and recommendations related to the schooling of language minority students. The main section of the publication, "Describing Our…

This document is the first of 17 volumes on indigenous Mexican languages and is the result of a project undertaken by the Archivo de Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico. This volume contains information on Zapotec, an indigenous language of Mexico spoken in the Isthmus region of Juchitan, Oaxaca. The objective of collecting such a representative sampling…

This document is one of 17 volumes on indigenous Mexican languages and is the result of a project undertaken by the Archivo de Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico. This volume contains information on Trique, an indigenous language of Mexico spoken in San Juan Copala, in the state of Oaxaca. The objective of collecting such a representative sampling of the…

This document is one of 17 volumes on indigenous Mexican languages and is the result of a project undertaken Archivo de Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico. This volume contains information on Mixtec, an indigenous language of Mexico spoken in Santa Maria Penoles in the state of Oaxaca. The objective of collecting such a representative sampling of the…