Describes a research project carried out in Sweden to study the acquisition of Swedish syntax of negation by adult second language learners. (CFM)

Describes the linguistic backgrounds of Sweden and Finland and presents a few examples of recent sociolinguistic research in these countries. (CFM)

The field manual for a series of coordinated studies of the spontaneous acquisition of a second language by adult immigrant workers provides a theoretical and practical framework for the entire project and a source of information about it for other researchers. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the project's objectives and organization. Chapter 3 reviews…

A project currently being conducted in Sweden on free written composition at the middle level of comprehensive school is described. The principal aims of the project are listed under three headings: linguistic quality and linguistic development, stimulus measures preparatory to writing, and social differences in writing ability. Included in the…

A study investigated the use of tag questions in the private conversations of Swedish men and women. Conversations took place in single-gender dyads (six with two men and six with two women) and six mixed-gender dyads. Informants were aged approximately 25 or approximately 50, of different social classes, chosen by random selection, and asked to…

Reports on three investigations concerning the acquisition of a third language in bilingual immigrant students in Germany and Sweden. The results suggest that immigrant students who always use Swedish at home but have passive knowledge of their first language clearly perform better in English than do Swedish monolingual students. (SL)

The studies reported here constitute part of a project on language development and social influence. The question of what to do to obtain a linguistic development that is not retarded by an unfavorable environment is discussed, relative to different value systems. In the first three chapters a theoretical background is given in which…

This edition of a newsletter for second language researchers and teachers features an article by Lars Henric Ekstrand, "Report on Organization and Research in Programs of Bilingual and Bicultural Adaptation in Sweden." Programs of instruction in Swedish for immigrant adults and children, including teacher training policies, are…

To raise a child bilingually, parents may need assistance with increased second language input from outside the home. One way to do this is through the use of mother tongue playgroups for young children. (SL)

Five papers on bilingualism are presented. "Giving Transfer a Boost--Describing Transfer Variation in Learners' Interlanguage Performance" by Claus Faerch suggests, outlines, and illustrates a heuristic principle for describing the result of positive transfer from one language to another, based on the assumption that learners maximize…

THE CONSTRUCTION, REVISION, AND STANDARDIZATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL IN GERMAN IS DISCUSSED IN THIS REPORT AFTER CONSIDERATION IS GIVEN TO THE METHODS AND GOALS CONNECTED WITH THE PRODUCTION OF LANGUAGE MATERIAL. THE ROLE OF RESEARCHERS, AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS, TEACHERS, AND STUDENTS IN DEVELOPING COURSE MATERIAL IS OUTLINED. DESCRIPTIONS ARE…

This newsletter discusses a Swedish research project investigating the command immigrant school children living in Sweden have of their native language and of Swedish as a second language. The project's objective is to describe the children's language proficiency and factors promoting or inhibiting it in the classroom. The study is undertaken in…

Describes a bilingual education program for Finnish children in Sweden. Analyzes some of the factors influencing the school and language achievement of the Finnish pupils and compares their achievement level with other relevant student groups. (EKN)

This article describes part of an experiment aimed at elucidating the relationship between speaker, speech act and listener from a sociolinguistic and sociopsychological perspective. High school students were asked to judge the taped speech of Swedish informants from Boras, Trelleborg and the Torne Valley. (CFM)

Semilingualism is discussed as a sociolinguistic concept and is viewed as a mediating variable when the society reproduces the class structure and vocational structure of suppressed minorities. A Finnish group of immigrant children in Sweden is the minority considered. It was found that the longer the Finnish children were educated in Finnish, the…