On September 22, 2011, Sharan Merriam visited Brock University to give a Distinguished Speaker Lecture. Based on her research about the future of adult education within a global context, Merriam's lecture sets the tone for this special issue on the impact of globalization for adult education and higher education. Subsequently, the authors of this…

In this article, I make a case for the inputs that Martin Heidegger's theoretical perspective offers to current concerns about the nature of mathematics, its teaching and learning, and the problem of subjectivity. In particular, I consider Heidegger's notion of positive science and discuss both its applicability to mathematics and its importance…

This essay considers the analysis Jacques Ellul carried out about the devaluation of language. This investigation also explores the consequences of that devaluation (or humiliation as Ellul called it) wrought by our orientation to technology. Our existence in technology transforms language and our use of it, shifting emphasis as well to the visual…

Cites examples of recent changes in language and suggests what forces are at work to produce language change. (DD)

Provides examples of ways in which the linguistic environment is constantly changing. (DD)

Speech, language, and composition professionals should take a leadership role in working toward a national public policy on language. The declining rates of literacy and educational achievement in AfroAmerican communities serve as evidence that such a policy is needed. However, the policy would govern language teaching and language use throughout…

Six propositions express central and crucial functions of language. Knowledge of these concepts constitutes language awareness, and they should therefore be used as a basis for designing language awareness curricula. They are that: (1) each individual has the ability to produce an unlimited number of different utterances from the limited…

Contains an interview with journalist Edwin Newman in which Newman urges that students be taught to use language with greater precision, and a response to Newman by John S. Mayher and Rita S. Brause. (DD)

Outlines a mode of speech that practices simplification of language through the use of short words. (MD)

Provides a framework for an expanded view of language--moving beyond traditional verbal language--that will be useful to educators in the 1980s. (DD)

Questions the validity of the concept of legal language, and examines the function and structure of "legal language", especially its performative function. (AM)

Examines the challenge posed by the naturalist philosophy of language--the view that the meanings of symbols are fixed by the environment. Compares the naturalist philosophy with that presented in an activist Native American essay that argues for the preservation of traditional native languages. (SRT)

The language teacher must teach not only language but also its cultural background. Students should be taught to avoid social or cultural pitfalls in areas such as accent, greetings, role relationships, idioms, and tense. (CFM)

Discusses the interpretation and application of contract language. Gives attention to the arbitrator's handling of ambiguity, intent, past practice, and prior record. (Author/IRT)

While verbal language has traditionally determined our view of intelligence, this limited view ignores other systems for expressing intelligent thought. An expanded concept of language considers verbal language as one part of a mental modeling system, or internal representation, for any kind of sensory information available to us, visual or…