This study examined the results of a case study of a school that labels itself as a bilingual school. The study examines and describes language use in bilingual classrooms in the school and language use in the larger school environment outside of the classroom. (52 references) (JL)

Three categories of topic referents (nominal, pronominal, and periphrastic) are identified in 27 Belizean texts and 12 American texts, and the effects of referent choice of two variables (topic number and stylistic/lectal context) are investigated. One finding is that Belizean lects are strikingly similar to spontaneous styles of American English.…

Reviews recent research on the application of sociocultural theory to second language (L2) acquisition, focusing on activity theory and the relevance of motives and goals for L2 learning, the role of private speech in L2 learning, and learning in the zone of proximal development. An annotated bibliography discusses 8 important works in the field.…

Demonstrates the dimensions of the processes of simplification, transfer, and convergence in the contact situation of Chicano Spanish and English. It is argued that changes in a language may be accelerated by a contact situation, reviewing data on bilingual Spanish-speakers in the United States and monolingual Spanish-speakers in Mexico. (11…

Argues that the use of thanks in closing conversations reflects not only situational parameters but also local concerns of conversational management. Analysis of naturally occurring data from English and Italian service encounters suggests that cross-cultural differences in closings may be in part the result of differences in the preferred…

Describes a set of metadiscourse functions arising from the use of contrastive and non-contrastive expressions in academic argumentation. Describes interpersonal metadiscourse functions of connectives within argumentative essays. Proposes that interpersonal uses of connectives mitigate counterclaims and emphasize claims based on the assumed roles…

Describes a class exercise centered around the peculiar way in which English speakers invent and employ the words used to describe themselves and others, as well as how they affect human behavior. States that the exercise seldom fails to point out the inexact nature of labels, and that critical-abusive terms come more easily than positive terms.…

Discusses the language of criminal justice ("rehabilitation" and "incapacitation") and public policy. Uses statistics from the United States Bureau of Justice to show that United States society deals with convicted felons with an approach that does not put much emphasis on either rehabilitation or incapacitation. (SR)

Introduces some of the factors that have facilitated the standardization process and the concomitant deterioration of the Ryukyuan vernacular languages in southern Japan, and points out that present patterns of language use in the area suggest the language death of Ryukyuan and the society's impending shift to monolingualism in Standard Japanese.…

Discusses the minority Ainu people and language of northern Japan, focusing on the current locus of Ainu speakers and ethnic Ainu, the former extent of Ainu speech communities, publications on and in Ainu, and recent actions by the Ainu people to assert their linguistic and political rights in Japan. (168 references) (MDM)

Argues that second language teaching that aims to foster speaking skills and natural spoken interaction should be based upon the grammar of spoken language, not on grammars that mainly reflect written norms. Using evidence from a mini-corpus of conversational English, it is shown that popular pedagogical grammars are deficient in conversational…

This case study examined the acquisition of pronominal reference by a Moroccan learner of Dutch with little formal education. It details the subject's acquisition of Dutch pronouns and their use in standard-like and nonformulaic conversation. (eight references) (MDM)

A survey of 21 Hispanic, 22 Native American, and 10 Vietnamese American college students found that adoption or maintenance of ancestral language was related to attitudes toward ancestral language, beliefs about parental attitudes, and integrative motivation (toward family and ancestral ethnic group). There were significant differences by gender…

Offers a historical view of the Latvian language to show ways in which different political realities have affected Latvian vocabulary; for instance, in terms of loan words, and ways in which Latvian perceptions of loans shed light on cross-cultural aspects of translation. Discusses strategies by which Latvian translators have tried to solve these…

This article examines the acquisition of wh-questions and relative clauses in Sesotho, a language with no wh-movement in either questions or relatives, and in which wh-questions must be clefted. (10 references) (JL)