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Full-Text Articles in Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics

Mental Models Of The Nature Of Language In Kunming, China, Ellie Ash Oct 2010

Mental Models Of The Nature Of Language In Kunming, China, Ellie Ash

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The focus of this study is laypeople's mental models of the varieties of Chinese language. Chinese contains many varieties, primarily dividable into Putonghua (Standard Mandarin; hereafter PTH) and Fangyan (“topolect” 1). The Fangyan are traditionally considered “dialects of Chinese” by both Chinese and Western sources. Many Western linguists note that the dialects span a linguistic range that compares with the range of the Romance languages, but concede the label “dialects” because they share a written standard and because China is considered to be a single country, and especially because the Chinese themselves consider all the Fangyan to be varieties of …


How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc Jan 2010

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos' classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …


Attempting To Analyse (Language) Awareness: A Foray Into The Realm Of People's Perceptions Of, Attitudes Towards, And Conceptions About Language, Evan Zelezny-Green Jan 2010

Attempting To Analyse (Language) Awareness: A Foray Into The Realm Of People's Perceptions Of, Attitudes Towards, And Conceptions About Language, Evan Zelezny-Green

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents the process and results of a written questionnaire administered online to 200 individuals, designed to elicit their perceptions of, conceptions about, and attitudes toward language, The questionnaire was based on similar questionnaires presented orally in small groups to European pupils in the context of Language Awareness curriculum projects. The author presents respondents' answers to each question, grouped according to major patterns and underlying themes in the responses. Finally, possible questions for further research are posed, based on the patterns that emerged in the current study.