Suggests that one method to help advanced language students acquire new vocabulary is to study word formation and derivation. Suggests ways in which this can be done in the teaching of Italian. Discusses the process of derivation from three perspectives: (1) contrastive analysis, (2) lexical fields, and (3) etymology. (SED)

Demonstrates how native speakers of Italian and German rated the "native-speaker-likeness" of recorded speech of other native speakers of Italian and German. Findings indicate that subjects from southern Austria, whose own language norms differ from standard German, marked some German consonant realizations as non-native. (DK)

Uses a quantified version of a syntactic acquisition hierarchy to compare syntactic development in second language learners to that of other components of grammar, particularly inflectional morphology. (CB)

Compares conversion, a morphological process by which a word formed without explicit derivational mark, to phenomenon of multifunctionality; discusses with reference to alternative label of zero-derivation and directonality. Drawing on English and Italian second-language acquisition data, study shows process is productive from initial stages of…

Compared apology exchanges in Italy and the United States by having 10 Italian university students view American situation comedy television programs and rewrite particular conflict and apology exchanges in an Italian context. The status and role of the programs' participants affected the Italian students' choice of apology strategies more so than…