In Schneider's (2007) influential model, the emergence of positive attitudes towards the local, post-colonial variety is an important step for the evolution of new Englishes, not least of all because it is likely to mark a shift from an external towards an internal norm. This paper explores attitudes towards varieties of English among a group of young Fiji citizens in tertiary education. The results indicate that British English is still a strong reference variety, while American English is clearly favoured over more local Pacific varieties, like Australian and New Zealand English. A closer analysis of the survey data indicates that a simple dichotomy of exo-vs. endonormative orientation may be difficult to maintain in this context.
In sociolinguistics, the advantages of web-based research are often lost because it can rarely satisfy the need for social variables without additional offline data. Facebook Graph Search is a new query tool, which allows highly specific retrieval of Facebook users and can thus mitigate this dilemma. In this paper, Facebook Graph Search will be introduced and a pilot study in computer-mediated communication and Fiji English will demonstrate the suitability of Graph Search for exploratory research in a speech community. The pilot study shows that there are differences in language choice based on age and context of use: English is preferred over local indigenous languages by younger users and in wall posts. The data further revealed not only the use of typical CMC features, but also locally influenced features and spellings.
Oregon State University (OSU) has established a cooperative program with Eastern Oregon State College (EOSC) to offer a Baccalaureate degree program from the College of Agricultural Sciences at OSU. Students have the opportunity to obtain a Bachelor's degree from the OSU crop and soil science, agribusiness, range science, or agricultural economies while residing at EOSC. The arrangement has benefitted both institutions by increasing total enrollment and has met a need for agricultural education in a large rural region of Oregon.
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