Contends that traditional moral education's lack of critical perspective has resulted in its unwitting perpetuation of the status quo. Proposes adopting a critical postmodern approach addressing the fundamental interrelationship between language and power. Recommends sharing knowledge, power, and ideas between teachers and students. (MJP)

Describes the development of an instrument designed to assess the language competence of second language learners by observing natural interactions in transitional bilingual classrooms. A pilot study that assessed the social language of 24 bilingual fifth-graders in a summer math program provided data for examining the instrument's reliability and…

Discusses concepts of social agency, cultural mediation, and constitutive action for understanding inequality in schools. Describes the sociolinguistic argument about the structure of language, the interpretive school, and the demands of capitalism. Urges transcending the macro-micro or structure-agency dualism by demonstrating the situated…

This study applied social psychological constructs to examine the linguistic attitudes and motivations of 301 Hungarian high school students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Factor and correlational analyses of the results of a survey questionnaire revealed that xenophilic, sociocultural, instrumental, and media-use reasons were most…

This article discusses an investigation carried out with a group of young learners of English in a Brazilian language school aiming at these individuals' development of critical thinking and their involvement in a de-naturalization process of gender dualism. The study, which took place in an educational context witnessing important changes at both…

"Data Trends" reports present summaries of research on mental health services for children and adolescents and their families. The article summarized in this "Data Trends" discusses the role of culture in children's development and mental health, disparities, and cultural competence in children's mental health services. Access…

The report describes a study of a multilingual group of six adult literacy students, five women and one man, enrolled in an English literacy class at an Australian college. Subjects' countries of origin include Afghanistan, Indonesia/China, Lebanon, Iran, and China. The study examined factors affecting subjects' daily literacy practices and…

"Application Performance," a supplemental drill in the Japanese language program at Oregon State University, is described as a way to develop students' communicative competence. The approach is a type of role play, with pairs of students preparing a dialogue according to a situation provided by the instructor and then performed in class.…

Papers on a variety of linguistic topics include six papers from a Festschrift and nine others, as follows: "Attitudes Towards English as a Possible Lingua Franca in Switzerland" (Urs Durmuller); "Functional Stability and Structural Levelling of Dialects: The Case of Maastricht" (Anton M. Hagen, Henk Munstermann); "On the…

Papers from an international conference on the interaction of languages and dialects in contact are presented in this volume. Papers include: "Quelques reflexions sur la variation linguistique"; "The Investigation of 'Language Continuum' and 'Diglossia': A Macrological Case Study and Theoretical Model"; "A Survey of…

Focusing on the Hispanic deaf child, the book begins with an overview which briefly discusses the history, litigation, legislation, and recent trends in bilingual and special education, and the issues regarding minority hearing-impaired children. Next, the status of Hispanics in special education is discussed, followed by reports of a 1979-80…

The aim of this article is to analyze the nature of the historical and contemporary social contexts within which applied linguistics in Africa emerged, and is currently practiced. The article examines the challenges "local" applied Linguistics in Africa is confronted with as it tries to amplify applied linguistic programs emanating from…

This article discusses the incompatibility between the goal of communicative competence (defined more narrowly as minimal approximative communicative competence) and current practices of syllabus design, and suggests more relevant alternatives. Foreign language instruction is still dominated by the teaching of language structure for its own sake,…

Test fairness or bias may be defined in many different ways, and the existence of possible bias is difficult to demonstrate. Sociolinguistic analysis may be used to check for fairness or bias in test directions, test content specifications, or test items. Four sociolinguistic principles are held to be relevant for this task: (1) pragmatics--that…

The proceedings of the 1975 Southern Conference on Language Teaching include papers on a variety of topics. The theme of the conference was lifelong language learning, and areas covered include teacher attitudes, the interdisciplinary approach, public relations and public awareness of foreign language programs, career education and foreign…