Telecommunications networks were placed in 16 rural high school library media centers in 12 southside Virginia counties. With these units, the high school media centers are able to access the online public access catalog at Longwood College, the Lancaster Library's VTLS (Virginia Tech Library System) database. If a needed book is found, a request…

This article discusses the implications of "multicompetence" (Cook, 1991), defined as an individual's knowledge of more than one language, for language assessment. The growing psycholinguistic evidence highlighting variability in native speaker performance as a result of multicompetence is reviewed, evidence that further questions the validity of…

It is proposed that a process of "chiquitafication" has diminished the complexity of the languages and cultures of over 22 million Latinos living in the United States, and that this process has repercussions for their linguistic security, language maintenance, and ultimately, their hopes for a good life. Focus is on three aspects of this…

This position paper of the American Federation of Teachers contends that the most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. The paper states that the type of literacy instruction that includes a range of research-based components and practices has not made its way into every classroom, and that, indeed, a chasm exists…

Different types of stress, rhythm, and intonation used by Nigerian speakers of English are analyzed, and lexical differences are discussed. Problems with vowels, consonants, and syllable structure are also covered. (SW)

Owing to analyses of large spoken corpora the linguistic knowledge of conversation has grown in recent years exponentially. Up until now little of this knowledge has trickled down to the EFL classroom. One of the reasons, this paper argues, is the failure in the relevant literature to spell out clearly how teaching conversational grammar affects…

Advanced Danish students of English tried to identify the national origin of young men from Ireland, Scotland, England, and the United States from their speech and then rated the speech for attractiveness. Listeners rated speech produced by Englishmen as most attractive, and speech by Americans as least attractive. (Author/VWL)

Several issues make standardized assessment of ELLs a challenge and the information provided by these assessments unreliable. However, as educators, they do need to know how students are doing, what gains they are making, where gaps in their understanding exist, and what types of instructional strategies and topics need to be introduced to…

Discusses the Kingsman Report (Department of Education and Science, London) on teaching English in Britain, and considers its relevance for teaching English in other countries. The many kinds of English, the labels given to them, and the centrality of the standard language are briefly reviewed. (JL)

Introduces this special issue of the journal and presents results from comparative research into the principles constraining learner varieties (interlanguages) in use. Articles analyze the oral production of complex verbal tasks in second language Dutch, English, French, German, and Italian. (Author/VWL)

The term "political activity" can be interpreted in a myriad of different ways, but in this paper, it is taken to mean involvement in a variety of campaigns around issues affecting the way we live and the sort of society we want to live in. At a time when support for the main political parties has never been weaker, it is essential that…

Teachers who are not well prepared for ELL students struggle to address their needs in the classroom: How can I teach the students if I don't speak their language? What do I do when the students don't understand? If myths and misconceptions about those learning a new language are accepted, the type and quality of instruction for ELL students can…

Community colleges have been engaged for the last sixty years in providing open access to public higher education to anyone with a high school diploma. Recently, disappointing success rates for developmental students have driven some colleges to reduce or restrict access to college based on standardized test scores. The operative phrase in most of…

The development and present status of "Chicano Calo," a mixture of Spanish and English spoken in Mexico and the Southwestern United States, is surveyed. Originally a Romany (Gypsy) language, it is preeminently oral and has become fashionable in most sociocultural strata, but particularly among younger males to reflect mild rebellion.…

The study of the history of the English language can help students become aware of major issues in several academic fields, including history, literature, political science, anthropology, communication, economics, the Arts, and, of course, languages and linguistics. Even though instructors may not have an especially broad background in the…