A survey of the status of language usage in Algeria begins with an overview of the usage patterns of Arabic, the Berber languages, and French. The country's return to Arabic as its official language after independence from France in 1962 is discussed along with the resultant language planning, issues of language of instruction at the elementary,…

A survey of the status of language usage in Malawi begins with an overview of the distribution and usage of English (the official language) and the native Bantu languages: Chichewa or Nyanja (Chinyanja), the language used by half the population; and three other Bantu languages also used there--Lomwe, Yao, and Tumbuka. The social situation favoring…

A survey of the status of language usage in Angola begins with an overview of the usage and distribution of Portuguese as the official language, and the four most significant native languages and dialects spoken there: Umbundu, Kimbundu, Kikongo, and Lunda-Chokwe. The introduction of Spanish through Cuban trainers, teachers, and military advisors…

A survey is presented of the status and usage patterns of the lingua francas--common languages used as a medium of communication between ethnically and linguistically diverse peoples--of the African continent. The survey gives an overview of the general language situation and briefly describes the major languages: Swahili, Hausa, Fufulde,…

A survey of the status of language usage in Yugoslavia begins with an overview of the distribution of Serbo-Croatian, Croato-Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian, Albanian, and Hungarian, noting the status of all languages spoken there as nationality languages and as official languages in their speakers' republics. The equality of languages and cultures,…

A survey of the status of language usage in the Ivory Coast begins with an overview of the usage patterns of French, the official language, and the five most commonly used native languages: Jula, Anyi-Baoule, Senoufo, Bete, and Dan. Recent Ivorian efforts at language planning, development, and research are also highlighted. A matrix follows that…

A survey of the status of language usage in Senegal begins with an overview of the patterns of usage of French, the official language, and the six vernaculars spoken by 90% of the population and designated as national languages: Wolof, Pulaar, Serer, Diola, Malinke, and Soninke. Recent strong interest in promoting national languages and literacy…

A summary of the state of English language instruction in Belgium outlines the role and status of English usage in that country; English instruction at 11 levels of the instructional system, including elementary and secondary education in Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels, university instruction, examinations, and correspondence courses; English…

This overview focuses on the work of Applied Linguistics in North America with an emphasis on publications in the past 6 years. Follow a brief interpretive section on the nature and status of Applied Linguistics, the article reviews a number of major areas of research in Applied Linguistics. These areas include second language acquisition (and its…

This paper draws on data gathered from a five-month phenomenological study of middle school students' perceptions of the effects of computer-based technologies on a learning community in an online synchronous environment. Twenty-four eighth-grade students participated in the Web Pen Pals project, a university-secondary telecollaborative…

This study is an attempt to identify social interactions which fit into a Piagetian model for cognitive change, and specifically to examine the degree to which the frequency of those interactions predicts the rate of cognitive development. The subjects were 74 elementary school children enrolled in 19 K-4 classrooms. These children were in the…

This is the fifth annual compilation of graduate theses and dissertations in English as a second language (ESL). This series is intended to provide researchers in ESL, bilingual education, and related fields with specific information on current graduate-level studies. Each of the sixty-nine entries provides the writer's name, thesis or…

Discourse analysis has provided a methodology for the study of conversational interactions between language learner and native speaker. This study examines the verbal and nonverbal strategies that native speakers use when communicating with second language learners in natural, non-academic, "survival type" settings. The areas discussed include:…

This profile in outline form of the English language teaching situation in Canada discusses the role of English within Canadian society and within the educational systems in the provinces. The discussion takes place within the context of the Official Languages Act of 1969, which declared English and French official languages for all government…

Dialect writing in nineteenth-century America has been used as a source of evidence about popular American language and culture. Works employing dialect have been studied as documents embodying perceptions of the relation between character, role, and moral values on the one hand, and speech variety on the other. Critics have noticed the difference…