I-VI -- Part I: Language issues in wilder contexts -- Introduction -- The logical bases of linguistic prescriptivism: A parallel between Classical grammarians and Moslem legal theorists -- A methodological check on three cross-polity studies of linguistic homogeneity/heterogeneity -- Aménagements de frontière et datations des changements phonologiques -- L'etat, gardien de la langue: A diachronic view of language policy and planning in Québec -- Part II: Developments in second language pedagogy -- Introduction -- Interaction: The prelude to communication -- The scenario: Its use in interactive second language instruction -- Four conversations: Task variation and classroom learner discourse -- What do we know about effective second language teaching? -- Second language teaching methodologies: Past influences, current practices, future trends -- Communicative syllabus design -- Teaching across academic cultures: Toward an anthropology of ESL -- Part III: Research in the second language classroom -- Introduction -- Some observations on progress in research in second language learning and teaching -- Discourse processes in the second language classroom -- Tapping the peer interaction resource -- ESL children and children's literature -- Cooperative principles, computers, and classroom language -- Part IV: Bilingual education for language minority students -- Introduction -- Preparing teachers for effective bilingual instruction -- Competencies for teachers of language minority students -- The role of Spanish language varieties in the bilingual classroom -- Getting to higher ground: The development of thinking skills for Spanish-speaking students -- Lesson design for teachers of language minority students: Insights from a case study of curriculum development -- Using qualitative research to shape policy and promote effective practice in bilingual education: The case of Connecticut -- Part V: The testing of language proficiency -- Introduction -- Testing linguistic and communicative proficiency: The case of reading comprehension -- On teaching and testing learner proficiency in the case of foreign languages used in a diglossic situation -- The validation of oral performance tests for second language learners -- Part VI: Home and school contexts for language learning -- Introduction -- Ethnolinguistic minority groups and literacy: Tom, Dick and Harry at home and at school -- Using the ethnography of African-American communications in teaching composition to bidialectal students -- Home and school contexts for language development: The experience of two Mexican-American preschoolers -- Relating experience and text: Socially constituted reading activity* -- Recasting frames: Latino parent involvement -- Author Index -- Subject Index