The special problems of teaching Standard English in the officially English-speaking Caribbean are reviewed. It is argued that these problems are characteristic of situations where the vernacular of learners differs significantly in grammar from the standard language that is to be learned, but where at the same time, the vernacular derives a large proportion of its vocabulary from the standard language.

Commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat, this book is a useful addition to the literature on the 32 states which have populations.of less than 1.5 million each, and which, on the latter criterion, can be categorised as "small" within the 54 member Commonwealth. The book, by way of introduction, lists these states (Table 1, Figure 1, pp. 4&6) with their population numbers and some other information.

In Guyana it is recognised that the output of schooling at all levels starting at the primary level is inadequate to meet the challenges of the 21st century. This paper describes an attempt by the author, as Director of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development to address the problem of literacy at the primary level through curriculum development, specifically the use of Skills Reinforcement Guides.

It has often been suggested that lower social-class children are poor in their lang­uage abilities, and are in this respect deprived or disadvantaged. A suggestion contrary to this is here put forward; it is shown, by a comparison of language usage in upper and lower-social-class Jamaican children, that the two social-class extremes have different styles (formats) of communication, but that the two styles (formats) are equal in their capabilities.