Examination of two sections of Benedetto Varchi's sixteenth-century document on Italian language usage reveals an uncommon appreciation for living usage, recognition of common linguistic practice, and a significantly greater awareness of social differentiation than that typically reflected in other sixteenth-century manuscripts. (31 references)…

Describes the high Italian speech variety commonly used by Italian Americans, based on a study of 39 Italian Americans that included interviews and questionnaires. Dialectal characteristics, convergence with English, and language maintenance and language shift in the Italian-American community are discussed. (CB)

Presents a proposal to bring literature into the basic program of instruction and make it a meaningful component of the learning process. A model lesson describes how literary texts can be perceived and studied as performances of a language. (CB)

Describes and analyzes the language of young people in Italy today. Particular focus is on the expressions using "para" (e.g., "in para totale" = to be very bored or worried) and the phrase "una cosa da panico" (something terrible or its opposite something wonderful). (CFM)

Discusses the writing of literary works in languages other than English in the United States with a a particular focus on authors who write in Italian. Asks whether it is possible to talk about multiculturalism in the United States without multilingualism and whether or not texts written in languages other than English can be part of the American…

Argues for the introduction of the syllable in the teaching and learning of Italian and to show that using a structural representation of the syllable can enlighten facts about the distribution of the definite masculine markers "il" and "lo," as well as other Italian morphemes. (Author/VWL)

Argues comprehension is a complex, non-linear process, conditioned by multiple individual and contextual factors. Outlines DeMauro's models of comprehension, presents an integrated model that combines the interlacing and the circular models, uses the integrated model to analyze a series of interviews based on viewing of a magazine advertisement.…

Considers the behavior of certain classes of personal pronouns which have come to be known as clitics, covering the categories of clitic pronouns as special elements, a framework for clitics, stressed clitics, clitic doubling, Piedmontese clitic inversion, subject clitics, clitic clustering, clitic movement, and causative and perception verbs. (CB)

Describes a workshop offered at the Middlebury College Italian School on contemporary Italy. The morning sessions consisted of a discussion by a native Italian scholar of contemporary Italy and of related readings and the afternoon sessions consisted of readings and discussions and hands-on activities in lesson preparation. (SED)

The initial phase of Porta's mature poetry, composed between 1801 and 1805, is discussed in the context of dialect translation and parody of famous literary texts. (Author/LB)

Presents criteria teachers can use when evaluating software designed to teach grammar to students of Italian-as-a-Second-Language. The importance of collaboration between programmers and academic experts is stressed in creating software and the need for teachers to choose software as carefully as they select textbooks. (CFM)

Cites problems in the current method of teaching the subjunctive to English-speaking students of Italian. The ineffectiveness of associating the indicative mode with reality and the subjunctive mode with possibility is discussed. Psychological explanations, not grammatical ones, are presented to explain this use. (CFM)

Martoglio's work is discussed in terms of the relationship of dialect literature and sociolinguistics in Sicilian culture. His ability to inform the speech of a character with the qualities of a particular code, somewhere between dialect and standard, is noted. (31 references) (Author/LB)

After reviewing previous research on speech acts, this article describes a study that analyzed the behavior of speakers of standard Italian in refusing an offer of food. The importance of "face" is explained, and the refusal strategies are classified into four categories: explicit, tactical, decisive, and conclusive. (CFM)

Addresses the current status of teaching Italian, outlines problems that teachers of Italian must confront, and offers recommendations for improving the Italian pedagogical scenario. (CFM)