In light of the ongoing attention to standards-based education in U.S. schools and the concern over how to effectively develop literacy skills in a first, let alone a second, language, this article reports on the drafting of the K-16 Student Standards for Learning Esperanto in the United States. Esperanto is ideally suited to aid children in the…

In this article, I address the miracle of human language from a socio-cultural perspective, emphasizing the role that language, and more explicitly, the critical study of language, can and should play in developing reflective, socially and politically aware and responsible teachers, administrators, and students. The article begins by examining the…

Linguists and language specialists, as well as the lay public, have generally viewed language from a perspective that is fundamentally positivist in orientation. We tend to assume that language as an abstract entity exists as just such a knowable entity. More problematically, we assume that particular languages also exist as knowable entities…

The case of South Africa is implicative for language studies. Although there has been a growing sensitivity among some scholars and policy makers with respect to the need to address the historically disadvantaged condition of the African languages in South Africa, these developments have been over-shadowed, occurring within the context of the…