Arguments about the existence of language-specific neural systems and specifically about the independence of syntactic and semantic processing have focused on the event-related brain measures (ERPs) as tool to monitoring moment-by-moment the cognitive processes underlaid. In the present experiments, the available evidence indicates that the ERP…

In this article we discuss findings from a case-study related to the distance education of teachers of Italian as a second/foreign language. This case-study has examined interactions among teachers during their discussions in a web-forum exploiting the model of content analysis proposed in the "Practical Inquiry Model" by Garrison, Anderson, and…

The formation of relative clauses in the work of 48 Italian high school students of English as a foreign language who performed a variety of written and oral tasks is analyzed. Results indicate that markedness can be a valid predictor of interlanguage but that it can also constrain intertask variability. (CB)

Presents and discusses results of study on the specific linguistics needs of Italian scientists who must use English for science and technology for study and work purposes. Writing and listening were considered to be the most difficult skills to master. Questionnaire appears in Appendix. (LMO)

Reports the results of three years of developing computer-assisted instruction in Italian for college first-year courses and discusses the program's advantages and disadvantages, including the use of the Commodore 64 computer, the alleviation of computer fear, computer mastery, and the possibility of error. (Author/CB)

Provides a listing of doctoral degrees granted in foreign languages, literatures, cultures, linguistics, and foreign language education in 1982. Entries are ordered by (1) major field, (2) institution, (3) dissertation author, (4) dissertation title, and (5) dissertation supervisor. (EKN)

Focuses on personal pronouns in business discourse, using data from four business meetings: formal and informal, in Dutch and in Italian. The article focuses on the pronouns "I" and "we," commenting on the frequency of Dutch inclusive "we," absent from the Italian data. The article also discusses indexical and…

Examines politeness strategies used in intellectual discourse, concentrating on reference forms in various languages and in particular on the phenomena of power and solidarity displayed through the use of pronouns. The article identifies the differences and potential source of interferences in the domain of reference forms. (27 references)…

Examines the transplantation of dialects of Italian abroad, particularly to Canada. Argues that any discussion of the language of immigrants from Italy has to start from the premise that they brought their dialect, not Italian, to their new home. Conclusions indicate that "Italo-Canadian" shares many linguistic characteristics with…

Presents a review of the literature dealing with the theory of the naming of colors. A comparison is made between the names of colors in Italian and Dutch, discussing the differences between languages in terms of the influence of the sociocultural context. (61 references) (CFM)

Compares the prosodic modifications in mothers' and fathers' speech to preverbal infants in American and British English, French, German, Japanese, and Italian. Speech samples were instrumentally analyzed to measure mean fundamental frequency, variability, utterance, duration, and pause duration. (67 references) (Author/CB)

Courses in business Italian have an important place in the traditional foreign language curriculum because they expose students to broader cultural areas in which they can exercise their foreign language skills. Guidelines for course development and some classroom activities are described. (CB)

Discusses the use of ethnic literature in the classroom. States that ethnic novelists provide insight into the conditions of their people that the historian would find difficult to document and discuss. Provides a list of books on the following ethnic groups: Afro-Americans, Jews, Norwegians, Italians, Slavs, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, and Irish.…

Addresses the principles underlying the merging of interlanguages in multiple-language acquisition. The article claims that there is an "interlanguage logic" in multiple- language acquisition and that one can see the structure of the basic learning strategy in interlanguage creation: "interlingual identification." (seven…

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)