Suggests that use of grammatical and lexical features of non-standard English varieties may contribute to the confusion of international students at Australian universities when discerning the intended meaning of written words. Suggests that the establishment of assessment criteria may simplify assessment difficulties and urges that efforts be…

Presents the rationale and basic concepts for teaching about World Englishes. Describes a sample instructional unit based on the pilot project the authors conducted in a public high school in North Carolina, in which they provided instruction in linguistic diversity once a week for seven weeks. Includes activities and resources for these seven…

Examines a five year period of the perceptions of University of Durban-Westville (South Africa) student teachers who wrote narratives portraying a significant experience in their schooling. Explains that five themes emerged in the stories: (1) violence; (2) authoritarianism; (3) passive ways of learning; (4) poverty; and (5) language-medium…

This article examines the sociolinguistic competence of French immersion students. We first present an overview of the range of variation found in L1 speech and make a distinction between vernacular, informal, formal, and hyper-formal variants. We then compare the use of these forms in the speech of Canadian francophones and Grade 9 and 12…

Two traditional principles have served as the basis for the involvement of linguists in social issues, namely the principle of error correction and the principle of debt incurred (Labov, 1982). It is argued that an additional principle should motivate linguists to take a more proactive role in social issues, the principle of linguistic gratuity.…

A study explored, from a sociolinguistic perspective, the phenomenon of indoubill, patterns and usage of a special variety of Lingala, among a group of delinquent urban youth in Kinshasa (Zaire). It is proposed that: (1) at a particular moment in its social history, the community experienced sociocultural change that brought with it a special…

A descriptive study to be undertaken on the effects of contact between English and Quebec French in the French-speaking community of Welland in Ontario is also presented as a study of the "Ontarianization" of Canadian French. The first chapter summarizes previous studies of Ontario French and poses some of the salient research questions…

Under federal funding and with assistance from the Choctaw Indian Tribe, Mississippi State University has developed a teacher training program for Choctaw students who are majoring in elementary education. Students who take courses in the bilingual/bicultural education curriculum obtain knowledge and skills in the following areas: (1) development…

Supports a greater use of repeated recordings and elicited intuitions by sociolinguists in assessing the linguistic competence of individuals or groups. A replication of an earlier implicational analysis of pronominal variation in the Guyanese creole continuum shows that, with repeated sampling and the inclusion of elicited intuitions, the…

Two approaches to teaching English as an International Language (EIL) are outlined, noting their roles in a newly-formed undergraduate major in EIL at International Pacific College (New Zealand). EIL is defined as a form of English used by non-native speakers to communicate with other non-native speakers. "Implicit" EIL refers to a…

This paper discusses the use of francophone films produced in French-speaking areas outside France in the second-language classroom, using several films from African countries and Canada as examples. The idea is that such films give students more than an abstract idea of a francophone region outside France, and represent large views of language…

Discusses the implications of the tendency of adult second-language learners to develop a well-structured, simple form of language outside the classroom, i.e. the Basic Variety (BV). Focuses on the structural properties of the BV, the status of these properties and the reasons why some structural properties of "fully fledged" languages are more…

Describes the different effects for four types of activities on students' pronunciation of targeted second-language (L2) vocabulary used in oral presentations. Samples of pronunciation were elicited at three points. The observed effects over time are presented graphically, and the complex learning processes underlying these effects are discussed.…

Discusses the description of English discourse for teaching purposes, drawing on new information from analysis of CANCODE (Cambridge/Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English). Concludes that language teaching should be based on regularities and patterns, not rules, and that exposure to real, informal language of native speakers, with its…

Describes the experience of preparing Venezuelan English-as-a-Foreign-Language students at lower intermediate level to perform a Trinidadian dialect play before an international audience during a short course. The exercise was used to teach local culture in relation to the native culture of the students and also to teach functional and grammatical…