Perspectives On Official English

The Contributions to the Sociology of Language series features publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It addresses the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches - theoretical and empirical - supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of scholars interested in language in society from a broad range of disciplines - anthropology, education, history, linguistics, political science, and sociology. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Natalie Fecher.

Addresses the complex & divisive issues at the heart of the debate over language diversity & the English Only movement in U.S. education. Offers a range of perspectives that teachers & literacy advocates can use to inform practice as well as policy.

This volume is the result of a colloquium on socio-political dimensions of language policy and language planning held at the 1997 American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference. The focus is on language planning and policy in the USA, but the issues raised will be applicable to other parts of the world as well. Three broad issues are addressed: general aspects, case studies dealing with certain languages or ethnic groups, and language planning in practice. The first, general, part, provides a historical analysis of language planning and language policy in the US, and proceeds to deal with maintenance and loss of indigenous languages, and the constraints imposed by current policies and how these constraints can be effectively dealt with. The second part contains a number of case studies. It discusses aspects of planning policies pertaining to pidgin languages, gestural languages used by the deaf (ASL) and constraints in foreign language education; this part also raises issues relating to ethnic groups, concentrating on the position of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in the US. In the third part some practical issues are raised by looking into the role of language and culture in teaching reading, foreign language policy in higher education, Hawaiian language regenisis, and gender neutralization in American English. The book is a tribute to Charlene Junko Sato, a sociolinguist and a language activist. She died in 1996 and will be remembered for her work not only in linguistics, but also for her dedication in advancing Hawaiian Pidgin, influencing language policy through various publications and court-room appearances.

How do educators balance the rights of the rapidly growing percentage of the United States' population whose first language is not English or whose English differs from standard usage with the rights of the majority of students whose first and generally only language is English? This two-volume set addresses the complicated and divisive issues at the heart of the debate over language diversity and the English Only movement in the U.S. public education. Blending social, political, and legal analyses of the ideologies of language with perspectives on the impact of the English Only movement on education and on classrooms at all levels, Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement offers a wide range of perspectives that teachers and literacy advocates can use to inform practice as well as policy. This exhaustive, two-volume collection not only updates existing information on the English Only movement in the United States, but also includes the international context, looking at the emergence of English as a world language through a postcolonial lens. The complexity of the debate is also reflected in the exceptionally diverse list of contributors, who speak from varying disciplines and backgrounds including sociology, linguistics, university administration, the ACLU, law, ESL, and English. Both volumes explore the political, legislative, and social implications of language ideologies. Volume 1: Education and the Social Implications of Official Language focuses in particular on the consequences for the classroom. In Volume 2: History, Theory, and Policy, the focus is on the implications for policymakers and language-program administrators.

Reproduction of the original: To Let by John Galsworthy