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The ways in which children learn a language--be it their mother tongue or their second language--can have a strong influence on their success in school. Researchers in linguistics and early child development have tried to determine the factors that can help and hinder language acquisition in young children, with some conflicting results. In this article, the author reviews the research and existing theories on language development, focusing on how pre-schoolers' social environment affects their ability to learn languages and their subsequent reading and writing skills. Because children from immigrant families and those with a low socio-economic status often have difficulty with language acquisition, this review looks in particular at language development initiatives for disadvantaged groups in daycare settings. Beginning with an overview of theories on language development, the author examines the sometimes-conflicting hypotheses that attempt to explain how children acquire their first language and how some become bilingual. Next, the role of the social environment is reviewed, beginning with the importance of verbal input for first language development, then looking at the complex phenomenon of second language acquisition. The author provides an overview of research on bilingualism and its various forms, focussing on children who learn a second language after they are already established in their mother tongue, as opposed to the less common cases of children who acquire two languages from birth. Looking in particular at research on migrant children, the paper explores the course and duration of second language acquisition, as well as the common linguistic behaviours that may arise. Conditions that influence children's adoption of a second language and culture are then examined, as well as similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition. Factors that influence the development of a second language such as age, motivation, interaction, educational style, socio-economic status, and experiences in daycare are discussed, and the impact of early language development on school success is examined. Finally, the author reviews several programmes aimed at fostering language development and literacy in infancy and early childhood in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, and concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research, providing several recommendations for practice. A glossary is included. (Contains 24 footnotes.)

This paper examines the influence of the Internet on the French language from a predominantly sociolinguistic perspective, noting the main areas of debate between francophone businesses, governments, and "Institutions de la Francophonie," while considering theories of language in contact and language policy. It analyzes a number of arbitrarily-selected, current, France-based, francophone Web sites in order to ascertain the level of influence of Internet-specific, English technical terminology on the French language (neologisms and Anglicisms, types of Anglicism, semantic Anglicisms, lexical Anglicisms, and graphical Anglicisms). The paper identifies and isolates linguistic tendencies that may provide clues about the reasons for this influence, and it verifies the existence of concrete evidence to justify French Minister for Justice Jacques Toubon's 1997 statement, "The dominant usage of English on the Internet is a new form of colonization. If we do nothing, it will be too late [...] we will be colonized." Three appendixes present a database of Anglicisms, a database of acronyms, and a list of French sample Web sites. (Contains references including books, Web sites, and dictionaries). (SM)

This paper investigates the impact of English as an international language on the German language and society. Even though English has influenced German linguistically for many years, the growing importance of English as a global language, and the increasingly dominant lingua franca in Europe, has drastically increased the presence of English in many domains of German life. This paper examines the role of English in contemporary German society, its impact on the German language, and attitudes toward English and the language change attributed to the influence of English. It concludes that, even though English has no official status in Germany, it plays an important role in many domains and is actively and passively used by many Germans. English has high prestige because it is considered a vital precondition for economic success. It is offered to most elementary school children at ever-younger ages as their first foreign language. English also serves as cultural identification in contemporary Germany. It is viewed as a symbol of internationalism and signals a new German identity that breaks with a nationalist past. German, like other languages, is undergoing rapid language change in response to fast technological, economic, and social change globally. An appendix presents examples of transference from English. (Contains 19 references.) (SM)

Linguistic diversity in the Nordic countries has several dimensions. One main division is between what the majority group thinks it is about versus what the minority group thinks it is about. This paper examines the situation in Finland and Sweden, noting implications for linguistic diversity. Finland and Sweden contain five main varieties of Swedish and Finnish: majority Swedish; Swedish Finnish and Meankieli (two varieties of minority Finnish in Sweden); majority Finnish; and Finland Swedish in Finland. In both countries, linguistic diversity is in many respects about the legal right to receive instruction in the mother tongue. Sweden has promoted active bilingualism for all migrant students during the last 3 decades. This paper focuses on the following: Finland (Suomi); Sweden (Sverige); migration patterns in Finland and Sweden; language contact patterns in Finland and Sweden; and differentiated outcomes of linguistic diversity in Finland and Sweden. It notes that through the slowly improving status and prestige in Sweden of Swedish Finnish, there is greater willingness among both Finland Swedes and Finns in Finland to connect their language policies to that of Swedish in Finland. (Contains 41 references.) (SM)

This paper examines the political status of Romani. the language of the Gypsies/Roma, in the European Union (EU). Even though some groups do not call themselves "Roma," all Romani speaking groups use the name "Romanes" for their language and "Romani/Romano/Romane" for everything related to their group. All groups use the same language, and all languages can be subdivided into dialects. Three aspects make Romani dialects more diverse than other EU dialects: absence of centuries long influence from a standard language or prestige dialect; influence from a variety of local languages; and a great number of communities of Romani speakers (with speakers not all in contact with each other). This paper highlights the following: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "The Roma"; (3) "Roma and International Organizations"; (4) "The Romani Language: Demographic and Sociolinguistic Data"; (5) "The Status of Romani in International Institutions"; (6) "Romani and European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (non-territorial languages and implementation); (7) "The Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities"; (8) "Article 27 of the Un-Covenant on Civil and Political Rights"; (9) "Country-by-Country Survey of Romani in EU Countries" (individual countries, Romani in education, and publications in and about Romani); and (10) "Conclusions: The Future of Romani." (Contains 47 references.) (SM)

This paper situates languages in the framework of European construction, analyzing problems resulting from the definition of languages' official status in the European Union (EU) juridical system. It explains that the process of European construction is historically defined by means of two distinct features (it is an open process, and at the same time, it is an accumulative process). The paper looks at the system of linguistic officiality in the EU (the Council, the Parliament, the Court of Justice, and Ombudsman), then it notes that the question for many policymakers, officials, and journalists is whether the current system is sustainable at this stage of the EU enlargement process. After summarizing a 1995 Parliamentary resolution on the use of official languages in EU institutions, the paper discusses minority languages, which are not EU official languages. It concludes that since the European construction process is an ongoing process, linguistic vertebration will continue to be a provisional matter. It suggests that if Europe is going to be constructed based on diversity and liberty, then Europe will be a place of bilingual people. (SM)

The Icelandic language has a long and stable history, and Old Icelandic is still accessible to modern day Icelanders. This is despite being ruled from Denmark, with influence by the Danish language, for about 500 years. Icelandic may now be under a more serious threat from the onslaught of English. This paper evaluates the linguistic situation in Iceland, assessing whether language maintenance or change is the likely outcome. It shows how social factors such as age, gender, and education have influenced spoken Icelandic and how purist language policies have attempted to stamp out any variations. Iceland's strong social network has resisted change over the centuries, while the other Nordic languages have undergone dramatic changes, particularly in morphology. This resistance has been due in part to pride in their strong literary tradition and high literacy levels. At the same time, Icelandic has assimilated foreign words throughout its history, and it is likely that foreign vocabulary (predominantly English) will continue to be assimilated, and many neologisms will be invented. Information technology is the largest threat to the use of Icelandic. The globalization of English, although having an enormous impact in Iceland is also having the effect of strengthening Icelandic's resistance to change. (Contains 25 references.) (SM)

This paper describes the communicative situation of 17 Mexican immigrant women in San Diego County (California), focusing on a set of narratives of personal language experiences in everyday life. Data collection included intensive fieldwork in an adult computer literacy project serving predominantly Mexican immigrants and interviews with seven project coordinators, seven participants, and four nonparticipants. Subjects' English language proficiency ranged from none to full bilingualism. To exemplify how events involving communicative challenges took place, the women reported on dialogues that occurred in different situations. By quoting others' words, the women were not only reporting speech, but also assessing the problematic nature of the incident. Analyses of these dialogues include setting, unexpected event, psychological response, attempt to resolve the challenge, and consequences. Examples presented in detail involve the women's interactions with doctors, other medical staff, school personnel, their own child in a school situation, and a priest. In monolingual U.S. institutions, the women experienced "invisibility" (exclusion) responses from the people they interacted with. The examples show that the invisibility responses occurred when the women did not have enough English to defend themselves, when language judgments were mapped onto Mexican ethnicity, and when Spanish was underprivileged in institutions. (Contains 84 references.) (SV)

This report explores a range of issues related to the successful instruction of literacy-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) adults. The paper describes types of programs as well as factors that affect this population. Through a series of teacher interviews, the unique characteristics of these learners as well as suggested curricula are detailed. Appendices include suggested student materials and a reading list. The report is divided into six sections: introduction, types of programs, literature review (including native language literacy, age, trauma, family demands, cultural and individual beliefs, sociopolitical concerns), teacher interviews, curriculum (goals of a literacy-level course, sequence, presentation [including techniques and sample lessons], and assessment), and teacher training workshop materials. (Contains 50 references.) (KFT)

Rhaeto-Romansh is a Neo-Latin language with three varieties. Occidental Rhaeto-Romansh (Romansh) is spoken in Switzerland, in the Canton of the Grisons. Central Rhaeto-Romansh (Dolomite Ladin) is spoken in some of the Italian Dolomite valleys, in the Province of Belluno, Bozen/Bolzano, and Trento. Oriental Rhaeto-Romansh (Friulian) is spoken in northeast Italy, in the Provinces of Gorizia, Pordenone, Udine, and Venezia. The administrative and state borders separating these communities have determined particular linguistic developments and led to diversified forms of juridical defense. This paper examines juridical regulations for the defense of the Rhaeto-Romansh groups present in the Autonomous Province of Bozen, in the Canton of the Grisons, and in the Autonomous Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It highlights the regulations recently adopted in favor of the Friulian linguistic community, which until 5 years ago, was one of the least safeguarded Rhaeto-Romansh groups. It also examines Regional Law 15/96, which was the first organic law for the defense of the Friulian language, and describes Law 482/99, which put into practice the fundamental principle on the defense of minorities provided for by Article 6 of the Constitution. It concludes that once the Executive Rules of Law 482 are issued, Friulians will have many useful juridical instruments for making their linguistic rights prevail. (SM)

This report describes the development and approval of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. After discussing the expression of consent to the European Charter, the report focuses on the ratification process of and obligations assumed by Spain. Although Spain was one of the first signatories in 1992, the ratification was not signed until 2001. The initial Spanish Declaration strongly supported the protection of regional or minority languages, and Spain's ratification is also very supportive, though there are some exceptions related to university education and the media. The report notes that in general, the Charter's obligation to erase every distinction, exclusion, restriction, or unjustified preference that would imply a danger for the maintenance or development of a language opens up possibilities for a more positive interpretation for regional or minority languages. The Charter offers no capacity for enlarging Spain's linguistic law. The report suggests that its most significant contribution is that it offers an international guarantee of minimum protection for languages involved. (SM)

This paper demonstrates how a linguistic analysis of lifelong learning as a cultural keyword can be carried out in the context of a particular socioeconomic model with which it is associated, human capital, focusing on the dynamics of their relationship. Study data include a 900,000-word corpus of the recent British and European Union literature on lifelong learning (official publications, newspaper reports, and educational critiques), as well as a larger standard corpus used for reference. Using corpus linguistic methods to study its collocational behavior, key features of the syntax and semantics of lifelong learning are compared with the behavior of the word "learning" as it occurs in general use, and the sociocultural connotations of these features are interpreted and compared with the assumptions of human capital theory. The recurrent wordings that occur in the environment of lifelong learning demonstrate that its participants and processes are extending the meaning of "learning" as a socioeconomic activity and make it possible to show how linguistic categories become social categories). (Contains 37 references.) (SM)

This article describes how, over the past 25 years, sociolinguistics and education have entered into a methodological and intellectual dialogue that has significantly changed both views of language and theories of how language enters into school learning processes. The first section, "Literacy, Language and the Problem of Differential Learning," defines the relevant issues. The next three sections ("From Linguistic Deficit to Cultural and Linguistic Difference: The 1960s,""The 1970s: Teaching as a Linguistic Process," and "Schooling as a Sociolinguistic Process: The 1980s") discuss theories, methods, and findings, keeping in mind their relevance to literacy. The fifth section, "An Interactional Perspective," describes how this approach to schooling processes focuses on the interplay of linguistic, contextual and social presuppositions which interact to create the conditions for classroom learning. The sixth section, "Theory of Communication as Interpersonal Inferencing," argues that the task of interactional sociolinguists in modern educational settings is to chart the process by which theories of educability are put into daily practice, and to uncover the implicit theory of learning that underlies classroom strategies and that informs the teachers' practices and the schools' policies. The seventh section is a conclusion which discusses interactional sociolinguistics and literacy research. A section on future research issues concludes the paper. Fifty-four references are attached. (SR)

This paper focuses on language diversity in Chicano speech communities in the United States and its relation to the teaching of Spanish to Chicano bilinguals. Attempts to teach standard Spanish to Spanish-speakers in the United States have been unsuccessful for the most part, because the schools recognize only a single standard of "correctness" that is not always the same as that used in the communities. Attempts to teach Spanish as a mother tongue to Chicano students are reviewed, and the need to establish guidelines for the evaluation of current positions and programs is addressed. The sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and educational experiences of Chicanos are reviewed based on an assessment of the present sociolinguistic situation of Chicanos. This situation consists of a language repertoire with various codes that depart from the Mexican Spanish linguistic tradition, an asymmetrical type of bilingualism, and the use of Spanish viewed as transitional and not valued in the broader society. It is concluded that collaboration between sociolinguists and language instructors is needed since Spanish language instruction for Chicano bilinguals is not equivalent to instruction in a first language. (SW)

Differences between Cree and North American middle class patterns of interactional etiquette are discussed. Interactional etiquette is defined as the verbal and non-verbal conventions that are involved in communication among individuals, including greeting, leave taking, asking questions, disagreement, and interruption. The Cree communicate more with silence, interrupt less, and ask questions less directly than non-Indian North Americans. Old people, especially old men, play the central role in traditional education. The result is a potential for misunderstanding and conflict in classrooms which are based on the Anglo middle class North American model, often with a woman teacher. Teachers should be sensitive to the patterns of interactional etiquette of their students. The successes and failures of a pilot television project, attempting to incorporate principles of Cree learning and teaching are described. The Cree speak two varieties of their own language as well as a distinctive variety of English. It is maintained that attempts to teach children to use standard English are ineffective and tend to make all teaching seem to the Cree like the imposition of an alien culture. (Author/JB)

A corpus of Black English (BEV) data is re-examined with exclusive attention to the "is" form of the copula. This analysis differs from previous examinations in that more constraints have been introduced, and the Cedergren/Sankoff computer program for multivariant analysis has been employed. The analytic techniques that are used allow for a finer gradation of factors than is found in previous BEV copula research. This research has shown that NPs with determiners strongly favor both contraction and deletion rules, while NPs without determiners show no measurable impact on either rule. It is further demonstrated that, in the case of determiners, the variation must be attributed to grammatical forces. The adjective and locative categories, which were previously analyzed as a single constraint, are also separated and examined individually. Structural parallels to Jamaican Creole English emerged, lending strong support to Fasold's recent stages for the development of present tense "be" deletion in Black English, as well as reinforcing the Creole origin hypothesis. Finally, this analysis further substantiates the diachronic potential of the Cedergren/Sankoff program and demonstrates that variable rules can effectively identify cases of linguistic stability. (Author/AMH)

For second-language learners, the narration of highly personal experiences that entail strong affective relations relies on the conceptual processes underlying language. Relating personal narratives in a second language may be a highly successful communicative use of language even though extensive linguistic information for that language is lacking. Expression of the conceptual aspect becomes critical. A comparison of the narrations by two Vietnamese brothers of their departure from Vietnam and their development of a new life in the United States indicates the powerful role of psychosocial dynamics in second language acquisition, which can set up either positive or inhibiting conditions for second language development. The use of spoken personal narratives that draw on the dynamics of immigration and resettlement appears to be an indicator of active engagement of second language acquisition processes. Findings suggest that second language acquisition researchers and practitioners should look beyond the acquisition of forms and functions to gain further insight into the acquisition process. (MSE)

This issue of the journal includes these papers on contrastive linguistics: "A Question of Imperatives" (Tom Wachtel); "Contrastive Sociolinguistics--Some Methodological Considerations" (Karol Janicki); "How to Describe Phonological Variation" (Thomas Herok, Livia Tonelli); "Towards a Contrastive Pragmalinguistics" (Philip Riley); "The Perception and Imitation of Aspiration by Polish Speakers" (Danuta Wolfram-Romanowska); "Some Aspects of the So-Called Verbal Deletion in English and Polish" (Malgorzata Gorna); "The Transfer of Communicative Competence" (Carl James); "Equivalence in Phonology: The Case of Finnish Stops vs. English Stops" (Kari Suomi); "Towards a Pedagogical Contrastive Phonology" (Wieslaw Awedyk); and "Contrastive Studies and Interlanguage" (Janusz Arabski). (MSE)

Anthropologists have indicated that the need to act politically and to avoid the appearance of such action is marked in egalitarian societies. The perils of confrontation in such societies often foster indirect and highly allusive speech. This paper invesitgates the relationship between direct and indirect speech in an Indo-Fijian community which presents a case of the association of oblique oratory with an egalitarian social order. Two varieties of public performance are analyzed: (1) the "parbachan" or religious speeches which ostensibly deal with sacred topics but which carry a second, political message as well; and (2) the "panchayat," an ad hoc arbitration session organized to deal with a specific conflict in the community. Here issues, events, and individuals are discussed openly. While there is a range of political performances in this community, the dominant mode of conflict communication is indirection. Public political messages are deeply buried in religious speeches, and individual speakers cannot be held responsible for the secondary meanings. This accords with the notion that oblique reference is characteristic of political talk among equals. (AMH)

Recent studies have documented the importance of a variety of contextualization cues such as intonation, voice quality, volume, and pitch in conversation. The appropriate use of and response to them presupposes that one has certain kinds of linguistic and sociocultural knowledge. There remains, however, the question of how children acquire this knowledge. As a step toward understanding this acquisition process, this paper discusses how children among the Kaluli people in New Guinea learn about making and responding to requests based on a strategy of appeal. The particular type of interaction under study is called "ade." The relationship denoted by "ade" is one of caring and nurturing, and is a most important one in the society. The correct use of the term "ade" is important in evoking the "ade" relationship. The different aspects of the "ade" relationship in the contexts in which it is used in family interactions are examined. This examination includes ways in which children are taught to respond to requests based on appeal as well as the difficulties small children have in using the "ade" term appropriately. Finally a myth is presented which provides a larger ethnographic perspective to what the mother is trying to create in the relationship between her children. (AMH)

This paper illustrates how the sociolinguistic concept of code switching applies to the use of different styles of music. The two bases for the analogy are Labov's definition of code-switching as "moving from one consistent set of co-occurring rules to another," and the finding of sociolinguistics that code switching tends to be part of communicative strategy. At least two types of codes or styles seem to exist in music, diachronic and synchronic. Diachronic style pools exist in both classical and contemporary popular music. In many current sound recordings, both the past and present styles of music are incorporated in the same piece. Performers of contemporary music have to alternate styles to suite their audience. Another mode of code-switching is the superimposition of two sets of words on the same musical score. Three types of "ethnic code-switching" are apparently close to the concern of sociolinguistics. These are: (1) accomodation of the music to ethnically mixed audiences; (2) accomodating a minority culture's traditions to a mainstream musical piece; and (3) musical change brought about by contact between cultures. While many questions are left untouched, it is indicated that the analogies could lead to joint exploration of musical material by both ethnomusicology and sociolinguistics. (AMH)

This paper examines the effect of a teacher's management and turn-allocation acts on student performance during reading group lessons in a first grade classroom. The class was observed and videotaped for a year, and interviews were conducted with both teacher and students. The study focuses specifically on cases where management, turn-allocation, and academic activities are performed simultaneously by the teacher. It shows through a discourse analysis that one of the consequences of this practice is the disruption of students' reading turns. During the disruption, often another student provides the correct word to a student who had been hesitating over it. When this happens too often, the students who know fewer words have less chance of learning to read. The results of the study suggest that it is crucial that management be minimized as much as possible because of its negative effects. They also indicate the importance of including non-verbal behavior in future research on turn taking. (AMH)