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The 75 Metis of Mission Metis, Alberta, exhibit three general types of linguistic behavior according to age. Traditional Metis, over 50, are trilingual in English, French, and Cree. Those aged 30-50 speak English and some Cree and understand but do not speak French. Those under 30 speak English. The Mission Metis English and Cree are not exceptional but the French is idiosyncratic as seen in the affrication of dental stops, vowel raising, treatment of gender, and expression of possession. The idiosyncracies suggest the existence of discrete sociolinguistic niches along a continuum characterizing lifestyle and social aspirations, as illustrated by three linguistic case histories. Traditional Metis use French and Cree as personal codes and English as a transactional code. However, they attach no prestige to any language and apparently have no favorite, thus accepting trilingualism as the basis of their identity. Their speech events take place most commonly at home and in the bush. Traditional Metis frequently demonstrate code-switching and code-mixing, especially at the morphological level, as illustrated in three narratives. Despite parallels, Mission Metis people are different from Cajuns. Their education should stress literacy and cultural maintenance through traditional skills, bodily expression, and oral narratives. (SB)

The data for the study were gathered in the course of a larger sociolinguistic survey carried out among francophones from Welland and Sudbury, Ontario. Among other things, the acquisition of spoken English by bilingual francophone students from these cities was studied in depth, using error analysis. The present study attempts to show that in a bilingual environment, the language most often spoken between parents and children plays a major role in the language acquisition of the children. For the study the spoken English of a sample of 15 Grade 2 children, selected from the French language schools of Welland and Sudbury, was analyzed. This sample was divided in two groups. Group I included children who spoke mostly French with their parents at home. Group II children spoke mostly English. The results of our study show that: (1) Group II children commit a lower proportion of interference errors (errors attributable to the influence of French) than Group I children. On the basis of these results we can say that the language most often spoken between children and parents seems to have a significant influence on the language acquisition of Grade 2 children in a bilingual environment. (Author/KM)

This report is the result of a sociolinguistic survey of the French-speaking minority of Welland, Ontario, most of which is bilingual. Interviews were carried out and taped in French with sixty French-speaking adults. Two series of closed questions and one series of open questions were asked, the former yielding detailed data concerning the linguistic aptitude and linguistic habits of the person interviewed. Results indicate that the subjects' linguistic aptitudes and habits are influenced by four principal variables: age, sex, social rank, and language or habit considered. Given the variation of linguistic aptitudes and habits according to age, predictions can be made concerning the evolution and preservation of French. The open questions yielded a significant linguistic corpus which should make possible a detailed analysis of spoken French in Welland. English elements in the subjects' French are also reported in relation to the four above-mentioned variables. A sample questionnaire is appended. (Text is in French.) (Author/AM)

Attitudes of four groups of elementary school students toward 10 socially relevant concepts, e.g., "self,""monolingual French Canadians,""bilingual English Canadians," and other areas are studied. Two of the groups were grade five and six English-speaking Canadian Students who had participated in either an "early" or a "late" French immersion program. For purposes of comparison, an otherwise comparable group of English-speaking Canadian students with no French immersion experience was included, along with a group of French-speaking Canadian students in a totally French-language school program. The paired dissimilarity ratings of the 10 concepts were subjected to multidimensional scaling analyses and analyses of variance. The results indicate that while language and ethnicity (French vs. English) were important dimensions along which all four groups judged social similarities, extensive experience with the other group's language (as exemplified here in "early" French immersion experience) led to a reduction in the extensity of the language-ethnicity dimension. It also reduced the differences perceived between self, one's own ethno-linguistic group, and the relevant other ethno-linguistic group. (Author/SW)

This paper focuses on teaching varieties of French spoken outside of France, examining how best to introduce American students to French spoken in many francophone communities. Highlighting the notions of functional competence and pedagogical norm as central criteria for developing effective, but realistic, curricula for introducing Quebec French into French language programs, the paper asserts that different situations call for different solutions. Specifically, it shows that while it is feasible, and probably desirable, to make French immersion students in Quebec not only capable of understanding different registers of Quebec French, but also of using them, such an objective is unrealistic and unnecessary in the context of U.S. foreign language classrooms. The paper follows up on Auger & Valdman's (1999) suggestion that U.S. students should be acquainted with Quebec French early on, but only for receptive purposes, proposing the use of popular songs by Quebec artists. It suggests that a carefully selected set of songs, presented in a sequence that considers students' French proficiency, can familiarize students with typical "quebecismes," teach them about the cultural and sociopolitical context in Quebec, and counter the mistaken impression of some students and teachers that Quebec French is a corrupt form of French better kept out of the classroom. (Contains 23 references.) (SM)

An applied research paper on how Canadian English differs from British and American English. Highlights ways for teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) to demonstrate these differences to their students. The notion of Canadian identity is also explored. A 3-item bibliography is included. (Contains 15 footnotes.)

The position taken in this paper is that the basic debate concerning the effectiveness of bilingual education has been totally "socially naive." A study investigated the concept that the ethnolinguistic vitality of a community determines the quality and quantity of linguistic contacts with one's own linguistic group and with other ethnolinguistic groups, which in turn strongly influence linguistic proficiency, ethnolinguistic identity, and desire to integrate first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) communities. A model to that effect is proposed and applied to about 1,500 grade 12 anglophone and francophone students in seven Canadian provinces. Effects of the degree of L1 schooling and those of the strength of the L1 network of linguistic contacts in the social milieu were analyzed. It was found that the latter were stronger than the former for these variables: desire to integrate L1 and L2 communities, ethnolinguistic identity in L1 and L2, L1 and L2 self-rated oral proficiency, and L2 cognitive-academic proficiency. L1 schooling had the strongest effect on cognitive-academic proficiency. Results support the hypothesis that additive bilingualism is best promoted by immersion in L2 for high-vitality groups and by L1 schooling for low-vitality groups. It is concluded that the effects of bilingual education cannot be understood without taking account of the strong influences of the students' sociolinguistic environment. (MSE)

During the 20th century there has been a widespread pattern of language shift among the indigenous communities of the United States and Canada. The language-of-work hypothesis posits that if the national language is used as the language of work for virtually all jobs in a minority-language community, the national language will, within a few generations, replace the minority language as language of the home as well. This language shift involves a series of steps: (1) indigenous language groups moving from kinship-based economies to wage-based economies; (2) a significant portion of community members using a language other than their mother tongue in the workplace; (3) a change in views as to what language skills children will need to prepare for the future; and (4) parents making the national language the language of their children. Other factors promoting language shift may include improved transportation and communication, government policy, intercultural marriages, etiquette, and intolerance. Language shift retardants may include religious use of the minority language, population size, linguistic similarity, and viability of traditional means of earning a living. Related theories for language shift are discussed with emphasis on their ties with the language-of-work hypothesis. Two appendices describe application of the hypothesis in three types of language-based work environments. Contains 44 references. (SAS)

A study investigated the linguistic behavior of three groups of speakers in reacting to accusatory complaints: (1) native speakers of Italian residing in Italy (SI); (2) native speakers of Canadian English residing in Toronto (CE); and (3) speakers of Italian residing in Toronto, first-generation immigrants, defined as speakers of Italian as a community language (ICL). The resulting description of linguistic and pragmatic behavior of the SI and CE was then used to explain the ICL speakers' possible patterns of divergence from the native norms of Italy, and possible patterns of convergence toward the norms of their adopted country. Speakers' performance was analyzed in terms of positive or negative face- orientation, as well as a number of variables, including social distance and dominance and weak or strong face threat of the complaint. Implications for research on speech act behavior are examined, and new procedures for collecting and analyzing speech act data are suggested, with the goal of understanding the relationship between the preferred or dispreferred status of the second components of an adjacency pair, and the face-orientation of a given speech community. Contains 39 references. (Author/MSE)

This bibliography includes 333 annotated references and 178 references without annotations. The articles represent a wide variety of work, including theoretical papers, statements of opinions and policy (both political and pedagogical), and empirical studies. The central theme was organized into six topics, which were then used as major categories in the classification scheme. The six topics are: (1) factors affecting attitudes and motivation; (2) social factors which influence second language acquisition; (3) costs and benefits of second language acquisition; (4) immersion programs and bilingual schools; (5) general reviews; and (6) individual differences in second language acquisition and perseverance in the programs. (CFM)

A study investigated the effects of mass media, interpersonal communication, and sociolinguistic background on adults' political, cultural, and economic attitudes and agendas. Data for the study came from two earlier research efforts: one conducted in Minnesota, involved 414 adults who were interviewed concerning their media use, interpersonal contact with Canada, socioeconomic status and background, and knowledge of and attitudes toward Canadian and American political and cultural events and persons; the other, similar in design, involved interviews with 814 adults in Quebec, Canada. Analysis of data led to the following conclusions: (1) since cultural settings are unique, it is not possible to take findings from one setting and assume they will apply in another; (2) media, interpersonal communication, and sociolinguistic variables do not operate in a uniform manner across different categories of variables; and (3) caution should be exercised when examining media effects studies that do not include interpersonal and sociolinguistic variables. (Extensive tables of data are appended.) (FL)