CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches 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 linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

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.

The impact of liberal globalization and multiculturalism means that nations are under pressure to transform their national identities from an ethnic to a civic mode. This has led, in many cases, to dominant ethnic decline, but also to its peripheral revival in the form of far right politics. At the same time, the growth of mass democracy and the decline of post-colonial and Cold War state unity in the developing world has opened the floodgates for assertions of ethnic dominance. This book investigates both tendencies and argues forcefully for the importance of dominant ethnicity in the contemporary world.

No detailed description available for "The Influence of Language on Culture and Thought".

This book argues that modern technology has radically and irretrievably altered our sense of identity and hence our social, political, and legal life. In traditional societies, relationships and identities were strongly vertical: there was a clear line of authority from top to bottom, and identity was fixed by one's birth or social position. But in modern society, identity and authority have become much more horizontal: people feel freer to choose who they are and to form relationships on a plane of equality. The author examines how modern life centers on human identity seen in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, and how this new way of defining oneself affects politics, social structure, and the law. He claims that our horizontal society is the product of the mass media -- in particular, television -- which break down the isolation of traditional life and allow individuals to connect with like-minded others across barriers of space and time. As horizontal groups blossom, loyalties and allegiances to smaller groups fragment what seemed to be the unity of the larger nation. In addition, the media's ability to spread a global mass culture causes a breakdown of cultural isolation that leads to more immigration and heavy pressure on the laws and institutions of citizenship and immigration.

This short volume provides a comprehensive and synoptic view of Joshua A. Fishman's contributions to international sociolinguistics. The two integrative essays provide readers with the essential understandings of Fishmanian sociolinguistics and his contributions to Yiddish scholarship. An up-to-date comprehensive bibliography prepared by Gella Schweid Fishman, as well as Fishman's own concluding sentiments, complement the integrative essays.

This book includes studies that employ a variety of research techniques from diverse fields targeting a better understanding of the second language (L2)/foreign language (FL) acquisition process including issues of heritage language (HL) learning. Specifically, the chapters discuss matters such as speech perception and production patterns in a second/foreign language, factors that facilitate second language acquisition, acquisition of heritage languages, teaching of a second/foreign language, and acquisition of second/foreign language grammatical and other structures, among others. The investigation of L2/FL and HLs is of paramount importance for updating the existing theories in the field and maximizing learning outcomes for the sake of effective communication, cultivation of intercultural understanding, career advancement, and personal development. The book is of interest to a wide range of disciplinary audiences, including linguists, psychologists, educators, and social scientists.

This book documents ongoing language shift to English among Latino professionals in California. It then describes current instructional practices used in the teaching of Spanish as an academic subject at the high school and university levels to 'heritage' language students who, although educated entirely in English, acquired Spanish at home as a first language. It specifically examines the potential contribution of these instructional practices to the maintenance of Spanish.