Presents a survey of 37 1st-year secondary and postsecondary Spanish textbooks for their coverage of the voseo, a frequently used, 2nd person singular form of address. Results indicate that only 16% of the analyzed texts included any reference to the voseo. The article recommends inclusion of the voseo in future Spanish textbooks and in class…

Shows that sociolinguistic patterns reflect and transmit sociopolitical patterns. The modernization of Israeli Palestinian society, resulting in a heterogeneous social structure, will probably lead to little conformity to any one social code. Supporting evidence is found in the differentiation of Hebrew and English words in Palestinian Arabic. (24…

Reviews the current state of World English. Subjects addressed include standard accents and dialects, prejudicial attitudes toward nonstandard "local" usages, the use of English as the language of diplomacy, American influences on the language, and the fracturing of English in non-English-speaking countries around the world. (17 references) (JL)

Explores the relationship between the theoretical study of institutionalized varieties of English (IVEs) and their application in teacher training programs. It is argued that, although there is a nascent awareness of IVEs, a monomodal paradigm based on native-speaker norms remains firmly entrenched among teachers and in most teacher-training…

Examines language, culture, and the curriculum from a linguistic perspective. Comments on the nature of language and its relation to society. Juxtaposes these ideas with the aims of governments trying to control a culturally diverse population. Claims that the imposition of "proper language" is one way governments silence minority…

A response to a Henry Widdowson article on the English language and its teaching focuses on three issues: the importance of the political context of language use; the notion of language as a weapon; and the recommendation in favor of teaching English for special purposes rather than general English in many cases. (MSE)

Discusses the description of English discourse for teaching purposes, drawing on new information from analysis of CANCODE (Cambridge/Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English). Concludes that language teaching should be based on regularities and patterns, not rules, and that exposure to real, informal language of native speakers, with its…

Investigates (1) how Malaysian linguists perceive and categorize sub-varieties of Malaysian English, as spoken by select speakers, along the lectal continuum; and (2) whether "gatekeepers" regard the same select speakers acceptable for delivering business presentations to different audiences. Discussion sheds light on what is and is not…

Describes the experience of preparing Venezuelan English-as-a-Foreign-Language students at lower intermediate level to perform a Trinidadian dialect play before an international audience during a short course. The exercise was used to teach local culture in relation to the native culture of the students and also to teach functional and grammatical…

Explores the effect of age of the intended addressee on the written performance of Japanese university students. Twenty-six female students each wrote letters to three people they knew from a recent study abroad program: one significantly older than themselves, one significantly younger, and one approximately the same age. Analysis of the…

A study investigated how four anglophone Caribbean students enrolled in an American college perceive their own language and writing in standard English, the morphosyntactic and semantic features that emerge when they write in standard English, and the extent to which discourse features revealed in their writing are attributable to Creole…

A study investigated the importance of three elements of intonation (tone units, key, prominence) in three readers of English radio news. Results indicate intonation is used to present the structure of information as the speaker intends it to be interpreted. Intonation functions can be categorized simply under a few discourse functions easily…

This study compared the effect of two language sampling elicitation contexts, free play and picture descriptions, on variability in the use of African American English (AAE) with 65 normally developing African American children (ages 4 to 6) from lower socioeconomic status homes. Picture descriptions elicited more AAE usage overall, a larger set…

Examines the constraints on the realization of "/t/" in New Zealander English. On the basis of an examination of the speech of two similar speakers from that country, a series of allophonic rules is provided. The article shows that the distribution of allophones for these speakers is not the same as for other speakers who have been…

This article examines the relationship between group and individual patterns of variation in one area of the grammar: verbal morphology. The results of studies of the acquisition of English and Hungarian verbal morphology by Chinese learners show that individual patterns of variation closely match group patterns on several dimensions. Multivariate…