The state of the art of bilingual education in the Soviet Union is surveyed. The social context of Soviet bilingualism is discussed with reference to sources of heterogeneity, modernization as a motivating factor, political dimensions, and Soviet bases of research. The sociolinguistic paradigm of Soviet society is viewed as a function of the need…

This article reports on the language planning efforts in the non-Russian republics of the USSR, where the Turkic languages spoken are highly divergent from Russian. Specifically described are the cities of Baku in Azerbaijan, the language in question being Azerbaijani, and Ashkhabad, in Turkmenistan, the language being Turkmen. The chief language…

The purpose of this paper is to review recent Soviet research on the child's development of Russian grammar, with detailed information on valuable methods for investigating this process. Cross-linguistic comparisons are made where applicable in view of their relevance for the study of universal aspects of language acquisition and linguistic…

This book examines changes in the first language (L1) of people who know a second language (L2), seeing L2 users as people who differ from the monolingual in both first and second languages. It describes a range of psychological and linguistic approaches. The 13 chapters include the following: (1) "Introduction: The Changing L1 in the L2…

Advocates national policy of multiculturalism and multilingualism, acquired through cohesive use of a common language (English) spoken by all Australians, yet retaining and incorporating the more than 20 major languages presently in use. Suggests provisions for efficient teaching of English and encouragement of all other community languages,…

A survey of the status of language usage in the Soviet Union begins with an overview of patterns of usage of Russian, Ukranian, Uzbek, Belorussian, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Armenian, Georgian, Lithuanian, Moldavian (Romanian), Tajik, Turkmen, Kirghiz, Latvian, and Estonian. The stability of these languages is discussed in the context of centralized…

Articles in this book on early second language learning are presented in 13 categories, with each category containing 4 to 7 papers. The categories include the following: the advantages and disadvantages of FLES (elementary school foreign language programs), FLEX (foreign language exploratory programs), and immersion program models; at what age an…

A representative sample of 4,000 adults aged 16 and over in all three nations of Great Britain were surveyed regarding the languages they currently speak, their current participation in language learning, and their future language-learning intentions. The following were among the key findings: (1) 29% of adults can speak one foreign language, and…