South Africa's rich multicultural society is reflected by 11 official languages. The Language in Education policy stipulates that children should start learning at school in their home language until Grade 3. In most schools, the language of instruction for all subjects changes in Grade 4 from an indigenous African language to English, which means…

This study explored the affective factors influencing students' learning of Catalan across different year levels in a multilingual school community in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). Questionnaires were distributed to 176 students, from 12 to 17 years of age, registered in a public secondary school, the majority of whom were not born in Catalonia.…

Education and ethnicity cannot be discussed without taking language into account. This paper will argue that any discussion of ethnic minorities cannot ignore the question of language, nor can any discussion of human rights ignore the question of language rights. Unfortunately, in today's globalised world, governments and minorities are faced with…

On April 5, 1991, Spanish was made the sole official language of Puerto Rico, a move that replaced the 1902 Official Languages Act, which had put English and Spanish on an equal footing on the island, in name if not in practice. This paper analyzes this language status policy decision in terms of both its linguistic and extralinguistic purposes…

The history of language in the United States shows trends and movements that embrace and at times reject the accommodation of other languages in public life. However, there has always been resistance to creating an exclusively monolingual society. Instead, a cyclical pattern best describes U.S. language policy through the major periods in U.S.…

The simplified documents produced by the British and Rhodesian governments to explain the settlement proposals to Africans are compared in terms of syntactic complexity and lexical choice, and in terms of the audience to which the documents are addressed. (Author/RM)

In response to the movement to declare English the official language of the United States (by state legislation/ballot initiative or federal constitutional amendment), this pamphlet addresses commonly raised issues in the debate over language legislation in the United States. The paper urges the reader to reject the Official English/English Only…

Intended to help teachers of English, language arts, and other subjects interpret "English Only" language issues for students, parents, and school communities, this book addresses various aspects of the controversy. Articles, listed with their authors, are as follows: (1) "The Roots of Language Protectionism" (Harvey A.…

English has historically been accepted as the de facto language standard for the United States. Legislative efforts have attempted to manipulate language in this country, and there is presently an attempt to introduce a constitutional amendment making English the official language of the United States. Supporters of the amendment stress problems…

Language planning is official, government-level activity concerning the selection and promotion of a unified administrative language or languages. Language planning initiatives arise in response to sociopolitical needs and attempt to meet those needs by reducing linguistic diversity. Several stages occur in the language planning process. The first…

Chronicles the effort to preserve bilingual education in California following the passage, in November 1986, of Proposition 63 that made English the state's official language. On the day after the election in which this initiative was supported, its sponsors made public their intent to abolish California's bilingual education program. Compromise…

Two parties of different native languages communicate via a third of which neither is a fluent speaker. Lingua franca talk is discussed under four aspects: entrance considerations, non-comprehension problems, speaker frustration, and increasing entropy. Devices for achieving strategies in multilingual settings are discussed. Available from…

THIS READER, TOGETHER WITH THE "NEWSPAPER KURDISH" AND "SHORT STORIES" READERS, FOLLOWS THE "BASIC COURSE IN KURDISH" (BY THE SAME AUTHORS) AND ASSUMES A MASTERY OF THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF THE STRUCTURE AND WRITING SYSTEM AS PRESENTED IN THE BEGINNING COURSE. WRITTEN IN THE SULAIMANIAN DIALECT, THE OFFICIAL DIALECT OF…

THIS DOCUMENT COMPRISES THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION TO A SELECTION OF WRITINGS COMPILED AND EDITED BY M.M. GUXMAN--"VOPROSY FORMIROVANIJA I RAZVITIJA NACIONAL'NYX JAZYKOV (PROBLEMS OF THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL LANGUAGES)," MOSCOW, 1960. GUXMAN'S VOLUME IS A COLLECTION OF DETAILED STUDIES OF LANGUAGES…

Discusses the usage of French in Gabon. As in other nations of francophone Africa, French is the language of upward social mobility in Gabon, and it offers access to the international community. However, one factor peculiar to Gabon is the virtual absence of a Gabonese national language, which promotes a greater dependency upon a mastery of the…