This profile in outline form of the English language teaching situation in the Gambia discusses the role of English in the community and within the educational system. The number of hours allocated weekly to the teaching of English in the primary school, junior secondary and senior secondary schools and teacher's training college are discussed, as…

This collection of papers includes the following: (1) "A Brief History of American Sociolinguistics 1949-1989" (Roger W. Shuy); (2) "Reflections on the Origins of Sociolinguistics in Europe" (Louis-Jean Calvet); (3) "Models of the Interaction of Language and Social Life" (Dell Hymes); (4) "I Came to Sing:…

This book provides comprehensive information on all aspects of sociolinguistics. It includes 285 articles, of which 80 are short biographical entries. Fifty of the biographies and 42 other articles are entirely new, while the remaining entries are revised and updated from the "Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics." The book provides…

Public examinations in developing countries play a critical role in the selection of students for participation in the educational system. The examinations tend to be highly academic, bearing little reference to the everyday lives of students, limited to paper-and-pencil tests, and geared toward discriminating among high achieving students.…

In the assessment literature, a general recommendation has been to disaggregate scores and other data for students with limited English proficiency (LEP). This has rarely been done for most non-English language background (NELB) students in the United States, with the partial exception of Spanish speakers. Nationwide Spanish speakers make up the…

Because the current reform movement in education stresses the need for performance-based student assessments, it is imperative to train teachers to conduct the most appropriate and effective performance-based assessments of English language learners (ELLs). Accordingly, the purpose of this trainer's manual is to assist the teacher educator in…

Describes the teaching-learning process occurring as two university professors and eight fourth-grade teachers collaborated to promote science instruction by building on the teachers' insights about their students' languages and cultures. The study focuses on Hispanic and Haitian teachers whose students were still developing academic language…

Maintains that California and the nation's school districts have been challenged by growing numbers of limited English proficient students in grades 6 through 12. Presents a series of social studies classroom activities designed to improve students' reading and writing skills. Includes graphic organizers and activity objectives. (CFR)

Investigates the relationship between age of arrival in the second-language environment and a preference for prosodic versus syntactic cues to sentence interpretation in English. The study found that older English-as-a-Second-Language learners were just as likely as the younger ones to attend to prosody rather than syntax. (43 references)…

In this paper, I discuss a network-based collaborative project that focused on the learning conditions non-native speakers (NNSs) of Spanish perceived to be necessary to satisfactoraly communicate with native speakers (NSs). Data from online discussions, end-of-semester surveys, and final oral interviews are presented and discussed. The results of…

This bibliography is intended as a resource for teachers and service-providers who work with participants in LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) programs of basic English-as-a-Second-Language education. It lists and describes Canadian teaching materials appropriate for adult immigrants' English language learning and their…

The resource guide is designed for administrators, teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL), counselors, grade-level teachers, content-area teachers, and other school personnel who work with or make decisions regarding ESL students. Sections synthesize information on and suggest techniques for a variety of topics related to ESL. A section on…

The position taken in this paper is that the basic debate concerning the effectiveness of bilingual education has been totally "socially naive." A study investigated the concept that the ethnolinguistic vitality of a community determines the quality and quantity of linguistic contacts with one's own linguistic group and with other…

A study investigated the writing of incipient bilinguals (students who were in the initial process of acquiring a second language). A total of four Latino children were chosen for final, in-depth study over a 2 year-period at three middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Data included initial interviews and observations,…

Selected writings by Richard Lambert on languages and international studies include the following: "Foreign Language Planning in the United States"; "Southeast Asian Language Instruction"; "Implications of the New Dutch National Action Plan for American Foreign Language Policy"; "Distance Education and Foreign…