This book is a cultural-historical (rather than purely linguistic) introduction to American English. The first part consists of a general account of variation in American English. It offers concise but comprehensive coverage of such topics as the history of American English; regional, social and ethnic variation; variation in style (including slang); and British and American differences. The second part of the book puts forward an account of how American English has developed into a dominant variety of the English language. It focuses on the ways in which intellectual traditions such as puritanism and republicanism, in shaping the American world view, have also contributed to the distinctiveness of American English.

A compendium of American proverbs, expressions, slang, colloquialisms; British-US glossary; abbreviations and acronyms; and other various odds and ends. Widely used by non-native speakers and translators.

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 goal of The Oxford Handbook of African American Language is to provide readers with a wide range of analyses of both traditional and contemporary work on language use in African American communities in a broad collective. The Handbook offers a survey of language and its uses in African American communities from a wide range of contexts organized into seven sections: Origins and Historical Perspectives; Lects and Variation; Structure and Description; Child Language Acquisition and Development; Education; Language in Society; and Language and Identity. It is a handbook of research on African American Language (AAL) and, as such, provides a variety of scholarly perspectives that may not align with each other -- as is indicative of most scholarly research. The chapters in this book "interact" with one another as contributors frequently refer the reader to further elaboration on and references to related issues and connect their own research to related topics in other chapters within their own sections and the handbook more generally to create dialogue about AAL, thus affirming the need for collaborative thinking about the issues in AAL research. Though the Handbook does not and cannot include every area of research, it is meant to provide suggestions for future work on lesser-studied areas (e.g., variation/heterogeneity in regional, social, and ethnic communities) by highlighting a need for collaborative perspectives and innovative thinking while reasserting the need for better research and communication in areas thought to be resolved.

Lets face it: Theres no time like the present to learn English. Its the worlds most widely spoken language. It permeates nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Mastering pronunciation, figures of speech, and idioms are just a few of the challenges students may face. Even so, learning to actually use American English comfortably isnt among the easiest of tasks, Author Jeannie Yang hopes to help with that. Numbered lessons and regimented exercises only serve to make an already daunting task seem impossible. They dont help, so they arent welcome in this book. Professor Jeannie Yang has takes a new approach to learning conversational Englishinviting you to the conversation! Written in the form of a movie screenplay, these fictional scenarios innovatively invite you to actively engage in conversations on a variety of subjects and in a variety of settings. As you speak their words, you can imagine that you are one of the charactersand youll be learning at the same time. Youll meet Mi Heea sweet and spunky young woman from Korea who dreams of studying at an American university Kennyan intellectual from Hong Kong whos lived and studied in the United States for years RoyKennys best friend, whose liberal use of slang is in stark contrast to Kennys esoteric vocabulary Whether you are going on a cruise or heading for a job interview, this book serves as a practical and entertaining guide to getting more comfortable with conversational American English.

Many African American children make use of African American English (AAE) in their everyday lives, and face academic barriers when introduced to Standard American English (SAE) in the classroom. Research has shown that students who can adapt and use SAE for academic purposes demonstrate significantly better test scores than their less adaptable peers. Accordingly, AAE use and its confirmed inverse relationship to reading achievement have been implicated in the Black-White Test Score Gap, thus becoming the focus of intense research and practical interest. This volume discusses dialectal code-switching from AAE to SAE and stresses the benefits and importance of African American students becoming bi-dialectal. It provides background theory and science supporting the most promising educational approach to date, Contrastive Analysis, a set of longstanding methods drawn from Second Language research and used effectively with students ranging from kindergarten through college. It offers a deeper knowledge of AAE use by students, the critical features of Contrastive Analysis, and detailed information about successful applications which teachers can apply in their own pedagogy.

American national trade bibliography.