Examines evidence from Expanding Circle settings that the norms for Standard English usage, teaching, and testing my not always be those of the Inner Circle. reference to recent research concerning the Expanding Circle nations indicates that in certain international and regional domains of language use in these countries, English functions as a…

Attempts to clarify the notion of language competence and draws on its relevance to language teaching practices. Language use competence may involve the adjustment of pre-assembled and memorized patterns and not so much the generation of expressions by direct reference to rules. (Author/CB)

In a sociolinguistic study of nonpathological language loss, residents of German-speaking background who arrived in Australia between 1970 and 1981 were interviewed. Quantitative findings show an insignificant difference in favor of the second language, whereas qualitative feelings of competence in the first language had decreased. (Contains 27…

Discusses the contemporary abuse of language in communicative behavior and in literature, and suggests that the speech profession concern itself with the aesthetic use of language as well as with messages and message sending. (MH)

A system for teaching foreign languages to adults is described. The course material is divided into categories based on the language needs of the students, and credits are given for each completed category. (Text is in French.) (PMP)

Accepting that language diversity is functionally related to other variables characterizing human societies, much discussion stems from the advantages or disadvantageous nature of language diversity in terms of national development and national unity. To discover ways of measuring language diversity would help, in part, to solve the language…

The objectives of this study were to determine the strength and importance of the relationships among features of oral and written language proficiency and their accompanying thought processes, and to dimensionalize variables that may be manipulated to assist development of disadvantaged children. Test scores from measures of language/thinking…

Analysis of language research and observation of two language classes suggest that, when teachers devote efforts to promoting students' encounters with and use of natural language, students will have the opportunity not only to learn about language, but also to arrive at proficiency in its use. (CB)

The issues of language assessment and placement raise several important questions: (1) What are the basic premises upon which current language assessment instruments have been developed? (2) What is the state of the art in language proficiency assessment? (3) What implications do current research findings have for language proficiency assessment?…

Outlines a mechanism for action in language preservation and renewal, preventing extinction of Canada's aboriginal languages. Proposes the Aboriginal Languages Foundation as part of a national strategy whereby the community retains control over language renewal programs with funding and resources from the Canadian government. Contains 37…

The prepositional phrases used in free play discourse by 45 African American preschoolers from low-income homes were analyzed. A statistically significant positive relationship was found between amounts of African American English (AAE) form use and relational semantic complexity. No significant relationships were found between simpler…

Study of the conversational interaction of elementary school children, about one-third of whom were limited-English-proficient, found that proficient classmates used little "caretaker speech" or "foreigner talk" and that the amount of social talk did not markedly affect second-language proficiency or the ability to use it in academic activities.…

A survey of 78 adults and adolescents of Cree ancestry in Fisher River, Manitoba, examined language proficiency, language use, and attitudes about language use in various public and private contexts. Generational differences on several measures suggest that adults were more favorable than teenagers toward Cree language maintenance and vitality.…

This article presents a replication of a study by Chaudron and Parker (1990) on the effect of discourse markedness and structural markedness on the development of noun phrase use. The study analyzed the language usage of 55 young adult Spanish learners of English, finding that only intermediate and high-level learners used zero anaphora. Contains…