This book results from a collaboration between activists and academics. The editors believe that if grammar is to become politically important, then educated people must receive some grounding in a scientifically based descriptive linguistics before they are exposed to the prejudices of traditional prescriptive linguistics.

Issues covered include:

• the use of language as a form of ethnic defence
• the implications of the emergence of literary forms of languages without a written tradition
• the social position of speakers of these languages
• educational strategies for supporting students from these communities
• and multilingual education and its political implications.