Discusses the historical region of Istria, which is now divided between Italy, Slovenia, and for the largest part, Croatia, and where three national languages, Italian, Slovene, and Croatian function as standard varieties in the respective territories. Focuses on the role of Croatian in language planning and presents statistical data on language…

Reviews recent literature concerning what to do to help foreign learners of Italian develop communicative competence, i.e., a functional knowledge of the uses of the language. This literature shows that to be conceptually fluent in a language is to know how that language encodes concepts on the basis of metaphorical reasoning. (33 references) (CK)

Emphasizes the importance of pronunciation in the teaching of Italian as a second language and discusses a course in phonetics and phonology taught at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy. Common difficulties are highlighted, and lab exercises to overcome these difficulties are provided. (27 references) (CFM)

Analyzes changes that have occurred in language and culture teaching in Spain, Italy, and France in each country's specific context and discusses the scientific and pedagogical implications of each country's early bilingual education developments. (Author/CB)

Defines English phrasal verbs (EPVs) and analyzes Italian students problems when studying them. Through contrastive analysis of English and Italian syntax and study of student errors, important insights are offered. (over 100 references) (LET)

Presents a historic overview and analysis of the Sardinian language (actually a system of dialects), and defines diglossia and bilingualism. A discussion focuses on research conducted in two junior high schools to determine the differences in linguistic behavior in two contrasting situations (village and city) in regard to Sardinian and Italian.…

After a brief summary of the literature on interference and code switching, research with adult Sardinians living in Rome is discussed to determine the relationship between dialectal phonological interference and the degree of identification with the new culture. (26 references) (CFM)

Explores ways in which advanced conversation classrooms may provide the aural and written comprehensible input necessary for fostering the students' continued acquisition of the target language through examination of research and literature on: prelistening, decoding, intensive listening, comprehension, and skill application. (CB)

Teachers of foreign languages should continually reflect on the appropriateness of language courses (especially English as a second language courses) and the level of satisfaction among its learners. Teachers should examine the "routine" ways of developing curricula for such learning, exploring whether or not objectives developed from…

Data from the fifteenth American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages survey on foreign language enrollment are presented in charts which indicate public high school enrollments (in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Italian, and Latin) from 1980-1985, foreign language enrollment by state, level of instruction, and enrollments in less…

Examines and compares five available computer programs intended for self-instruction in Italian, focusing on their attention to learning strategies and personalized learning pace. Content, format, and other features of each are noted. General issues discussed include overall organization, cultural content, sequencing, exercise types, and ancillary…

While substantial evidence exists that classroom immersion in a second language teaches students about cultural diversity, raises cultural self-awareness, and improves communicative competence in the target language, most of the research has been performed at the elementary and secondary school levels. Implications for developing rationales and…

Discusses language policy matters and the management of cultural and linguistic diversity in the area of education, with particular reference to Eritrea in East Africa and its application to Australia's language situation. The article presents examples of the impact of the tyrannical imposition of language usage, including the long-term…

Reviews common pronunciation problems experienced by learners of English as a second language who are native speakers of Vietnamese, Cantonese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Greek, and Punjabi. (CB)

Issues related to school instruction in students' heritage or ancestral language are discussed, particularly in regard to dialect-speaking children or children with some degree of competence in the language. The first chapter considers similarities and differences between second language instruction and heritage language education. The findings on…