English across Cultures. Cultures across English: A Reader in Cross-cultural Communication (Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL] Book 53)

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. Foreword The Authors The Editors Introduction PART 1 : ENGLISH ACROSS CULTURES Section One. The impact of différences in socio-cultural backgrounds of interlocutors on communication in English: Socio-pragmatic constraints Some types of communicative stratégies across cultures: Sense and sensitivity English as object and medium of (mis)understanding The (mis)identification of regional and national accents of English: Pragmatic, cognitive and social aspects Culture and language in classroom communication English for academic purposes: A hidden curriculum in ways of speaking Invisible culture in the classroom: Minority pupils and the principie of adaptation Section Two. The impact of differences in socio-political realities on communication in English: Macro-societal constraints Intercultural miscommunication as a source of friction in the workplace and in educational settings in South Africa Socio-political influence on cultural identity in Canada. Implications for cross-cultural communication in English English as problem and resource in Sri Lankan Universities They speak English, don’t they? PART II: CULTURES ACROSS ENGLISH Section Three. The impact of différences in socio-linguistic backgrounds of interlocutors on communication in English: Ethno-linguistic constraints British-American lexical differences. A typology of interdialectal variation Questions of standards and intra-regional differences in Caribbean examinations Structural mimicry in decreolization and its effect on pseudocomprehension Cultural congruence and conflict in the acquisition of formulae in a second language Dialectology in our time? The English of the Cajuns Flexibility in lexical usage in Cameroon English Cultures in conflict: Varieties of English in Northern Ireland Section Four. The impact of différences in socio-psychological identity of interlocutors: Identity constraints Patois and the politics of protest: Black English in British classrooms Code-switching in narrative performance: A Puerto Rican speech Community in New York Social and linguistic parameters of prosody in Chicano English Central Canadian English and Received Standard English. A comparison of pronunciation Indian literature in English Bibliography Author Index Subject Index As part of a series on the Sociology of Language, this volume attempts to examine verbal exchanges through the use of English when the communicative act has been organized and given meaning according to conflicting community norms.