Hawai'i Creole is a creole language lexified predominantly by English but also by other languages such as Hawaiian and Japanese. It is spoken by approximately 600,000 people in the American state of Hawai'i. For details on its lexicon and origins (including an account of the influence of other languages on its morphosyntax), see section I of the chapter on the phonology of Hawai'i Creole (Sakoda and Siegel, this volume). Although the lexicon of Hawai'i Creole is closely related to English, its morphology and syntax are quite distinct. In general, like other creole languages, the amount of bound morphology is less than that of the lexifier language and there are quite different morphosyntactic rules for expressing tense, aspect, modality and negation, as well as for relativization, complementation and focusing.

When people who speak different languages come into sustained contact, new varieties of language sometimes emerge. These are called 'contact varieties. This book deals primarily with contact varieties that have emerged in the Australia-Pacific region within the last 150 years as the result of colonialism. Although the focus is on two particular types of contact varieties, pidgins and creoles, other types are mentioned as well, including cindigenized varieties' and 'language shift varieties. Since all these terms are used in a variety of ways in the literature on language contact, I begin with some definitions.

This thesis investigates L2 structural priming in learners of English and the possible role of structural priming in second language acquisition. Three picture description production priming experiments were carried out in which speakers were exposed to prime sentences exhibiting a specific target structure. A pre- and post-test design was deployed to measure learning effects. In Experiment 1, fifty two L2 English speakers took part in a structural priming experiment targeting the production of get passives (e.g., the woman got arrested). Priming and learning effects were weak and were manifested in production of non-get passives. In contrast, in Experiment 2, where thirty eight L2 English speakers took part in another structural priming experiment targeting the production of stranded prepositions in relative clauses (e.g., a bed is something you sleep on), priming and learning effects were strong. The findings of learning through structural priming are interpreted as evidence of implicit learning of L2 structure. However, when the stranded preposition structure was primed in a different sentential context (i.e., the bed was too uncomfortable to sleep on) in a third experiment (n=40) only a weak priming effect emerged and there appeared to be no significant learning effect. These disparate findings suggest that the strength of L2 structural priming and subsequent learning effects might be modulated by the target structure. Implications for second language teaching and learning and theories of second language acquisition are discussed.

Languages are said to come into contact when their speakers interact with one another. The linguistic and sociolinguistic consequences of long-term contact between languages arc studied in the subfield of linguistics called 'contact linguistics'. Two of the major concerns of contact linguistics are contact-induced language change and the formation of new contact varieties such as new dialects, pidgins and creoles. However, the actual site of language contact is in the minds of individuals using more than one language (Weinreich (1970) [1953]). Thus, second language acquisition (SLA), an individual psycholinguistic process involving two languages is by definition a kind of language contact. Changes that occur in languages, or the new varieties that emerge, must have originated in individuals' ways of speaking. This chapter examines the role of processes of SLA in individuals that may ultimately lead to the outcomes of language change or the emergence of new contact varieties in communities of speakers.

This book is about learning a new dialect, and how it is different from learning a new language. In this introductory chapter, I start by describing the contexts where this kind of learning occurs and some of the questions the book aims to answer. As I have tried to make the content accessible not just to linguists, I have also included some basic information for readers without a strong background in linguistics. This is about differentiating dialects, describing speech sounds and studying variation in language. The final section presents a brief outline of the book. The study of second language acquisition (often abbreviated as SLA) examines how people who already speak a first language (L1) subsequently acquire a second or additional language (L2). This book focuses on a special type of SLA – when the relationship between the L1 and the L2 is close enough for them to be considered by their speakers to be varieties of the same language, or different dialects, rather than different languages. In this situation, the term "second dialect acquisition" (SDA) can be used. The study of SDA examines how people who already speak one dialect (D1) acquire a different dialect (D2) of what they or their community perceive to be the same language.

Pidgins and creoles are new varieties of language that emerge when people speaking different languages come into contact with each other. The study of these 'contact languages' falls mainly under the heading of sociolinguistics, but also intersects with many other subdisciplines, such as contact linguistics and applied linguistics. This chapter begins by providing some background: definitions of key terms and information about the current status and use of these languages. Then it describes four areas of research in pidgin and creole studies (sometimes called 'creolistics'). The next section concentrates on educational policy and practice. It discusses the use of pidgins and creoles for classroom instruction and special programmes aimed at speakers of these languages.

This paper renews the call for greater interest in applied work to deal with the obstacles faced in formal education by speakers of creoles (such as Hawai'i Creole and Jamaican Creole) and minority dialects (such as African American English). It starts off with an update on developments in the use of these vernacular languages in educational contexts since 1998, focusing on educational programmes, publications and research by linguists and educators. It goes on to discuss some of the research and public awareness efforts needed to help the speakers of these vernacular varieties, with examples given from Hawai'i.

Tok Pisin (or New Guinea Pidgin) is the dialect of Melanesian Pidgin spoken in Papua New Guinea. It serves as the main language of wider communication in a country where more than 800 separate indigenous languages are spoken by a population of nearly five million. The two other dialects of Melanesian Pidgin are Pijin, spoken in the Solomon Islands (with more than 80 indigenous languages and a population of around 480,000), and Bislama, spoken in Vanuatu (more than 100 languages, population 192,000). Torres Strait Creole (also known as Broken or Yumiplatok) - spoken by approximately 10,000 people around the northern tip of eastern Australia - is closely related to Melanesian Pidgin but is usually considered to be a separate language.

This chapter examines the influence of the social context on SLA from four different angles. Section 2 describes the various sociolinguistic settings in which SLA occurs. Here we will see if the type of setting is relevant to the generalizations about SLA that have been made over the years. Section 3 looks at various ways of analysing social context and at SLA studies that take social contextual factors into account. Here we will look at particular sociostructural and interactional factors that are relevant to SLA. Section 4 outlines various types of educational programs. Here we will see how SLA attainment depends on the interaction of the type of program, the sociolinguistic setting, and various sociostructural factors. Section 5 considers the importance of the perceived sociolinguistic relationship between the L1 and L2 and covers the now neglected area of second dialect acquisition (SDA). Here we will explore whether there are significant differences between SDA and SLA. Thus, this chapter focuses on the broader social factors which may affect groups of learners, rather than on the more immediate situational factors which may affect individual learners.

Pidgin and creole languages are spoken by more than 75 million people, but the vast majority of their speakers acquire literacy in another language – usually the language of a former colonial power. This paper looks at the origins of Pidgins and creoles and explores some of the reasons for their lack of use in formal education. Then it describes some language planning efforts that have occurred with regard to instrumentalisation and graphisation of these languages, and the few cases where they are actually used to teach initial literacy. The paper goes on to discuss how speakers of pidgins and creoles more commonly acquire literacy in the standard European language officially used in formal education. It concludes with a short sections on the role of pidgins and creoles in newspapers, literature and other writing.