Use AND to connect words that must appear in a document. This *narrows* your search.
"English as a second language" OR "English as a foreign language"
Use OR if only one word must appear in a document. This *broadens* your search.
exclusi*
Use an asterisk to truncate a word and allow for different endings, for example, exclusive, exclusion, exclusivity, etc.
"code switching"
Use quotation marks to enclose a phrase or words that must appear together in a document.
Babel NOT Isaac
Use NOT to exclude words or terms from a search. (If you're looking for articles on the Tower of Babel, you don't want articles on literature by Isaac Babel.)
Articles in this database provide an overview of research on important topics in a broad range of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science.
Library Guides -- and Subject Guides in particular -- can help you choose databases that are relevant to a specific disciplinary approach. There is a Subject Guide that corresponds with each Whitman major.