Tok Pisin, New Guinea Pidgin English, is becoming increasingly important as a "lingua franca" in Papua New Guinea, even though English is the country's official language. Urban versus rural and spoken versus written varieties of the pidgin are examined, and the influence of English on Tok Pisin is investigated. 73 references. (Author/CB)

Factors affecting the survival or decline of French in Zaire are examined, including its social, cultural, and political status, the history of other European languages established in Africa, and the influences of intercultural needs and ethnic identity on the continued use of French. (Author/MSE)

A descriptive review of research on language-in-education policy and planning is offered. It covers national languages (North America, Southern Africa, Central Asia); minority languages (New Zealand, North America); European minority languages and language policies in the European Community; testing and evaluation; teacher education; and literacy.…

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in Western European countries covers the following: implications of the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, European Community initiatives, language planning at the regional level, the European Science Foundation, bilingual education, and the Council of Europe. (Contains 47 references.) (LB)

Reviews a book that documents the rise of the English-only movement in the 1980s and examines historical and sociocultural factors shaping the movement, potential effects of an official language on constitutional rights of language minorities, anti-immigrant sentiments and America's obstinate monolingualism, and the ongoing battle for equal rights…

Defines and discusses the concept of small languages. Topics addressed include political status; official status (e.g., as a national language); distinctiveness; robustness or the degree of feasibility; social function; education to support the language; functions of literacy; and appropriate technology for use with particular languages. (12…

Discusses globalization and diversification within four language issues for adult literacy: (1) the spread of a small number of world languages, (2) development of the varieties of language, (3) choice of language for education and official life, and (4) disappearing languages. (JP)

The consequences of migration for the position of the Frisian language in the Netherlands are analyzed. An annual model is presented that can estimate the effect of extraprovincial migration on the number of people speaking Frisian at home. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/LB)

Examines the role of English in Hong Kong, which is the language of business and government, but where it is spoken as a native language by only 2 percent of the population. (JL)

Assesses efforts to standardize the Malian languages, including the standardization of orthography and the creation of terminology in the Mandingo-Peul Project. Points to conflicts between technical and political considerations, and between local tendencies and balances among languages and the need to respect the ecolinguistics of the country.…

Discusses the independent Namibian government's goal of making English (currently the mother tongue of less than 5 percent of the population) the official language to unite various race and speech communities into one national entity, and proposes a systems approach to enable language planners to see the relationships between plans and other…

In response to a previous article, this article expresses reservations about the status, development, and future of English as an International language. takes issue with the changing role and nature of the English language as a result of the project of creating a unified Europe. (Author/VWL)

Discusses language planning in modern Spain in terms of policy formation and implementation. The article argues that the elevation of Castilian to a position of linguistic supremacy is closely connected with the history of the development of a Spanish centralized state. It is concluded that whereas linguistic pluralism exists in theory, social…

Cameroon, a central African state is one of the few countries in the world where, in addition to a very rich linguistically diverse landscape (a little below 300 identified indigenous languages) there is English and French (all vestiges of colonial legacy) used as official languages. Coupled with this, there is pidgin English which plays the role…

This article presents the author's response to Alastair Pennycook and Azirah Hashim. In this article, the author contends that learning a foreign language should not lock learners in an imagined homogeneous target culture, despite the efforts of textbooks to reinforce stereotypes and some learners' desire to identify with an essentialised Other.…