The aim of the Regional Dossier series is to provide concise descriptions of regional or minority languages in education, mainly in Europe but also in other parts of the world. Friulian is a Romance language, traditionally recognised as part of the Rhaeto-Romance sub-family. It is spoken in Friûl (in Friulian)/Friuli (in Italian), a territory…

Recent research in second language acquisition found that learners reached higher levels of achievement when grammar practice included the processing and negotiation of meaning. Explored the degree to which certain textbook activities reflected earlier findings. Activities for two grammar points from Italian texts still rely heavily on…

Examines recent studies of linguistic corpora in Italian, and presents the results of an analysis of "piace" and "piacciono" conducted on a corpus of 3.5 million words of written Italian, accessible at the University of Birmingham in England. Focuses on pedagogical applications of the data and on the inductive methodologies…

This paper discusses the development and content of a third-year Italian course entitled "Italian for Business and Communication," taught at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. Since there are few texts that focus on business Italian, the instructor conducted on-site research at three Italian companies in Milan. Observations and…

Discusses a study designed to verify the validity and effectiveness of the summary as a teaching and testing tool. The subjects were Italian students enrolled in second year French at the university level. (CFM)

This study investigated sensitivity to morphological, semantic, and syntactic cues to grammatical gender among 64 students of college-level Italian. Results showed sensitivity to cues in word-final phonemes, but low awareness of gender associations of derivational suffixes. Students had more difficulty dealing with multiple cues, particularly when…

A yearly cross-section of current work in Edinburgh University's Department of Applied Linguistics is offered with the aim of eliciting reactions and criticism. Papers in this compilation are: "Discursive Aspects of Metafiction: A Neo-Oral Aura?"; "The Reaction of Learners to Tape-Based Listening Comprehension Materials in French,…

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…

Argues that from the perspective of second language learning, college teachers should focus on an integrated undergraduate curriculum combining the teaching of linguistics and literature with language learning in an instructional approach informed by second language acquisition research. Emphasizes that multiple benefits are derived from a…

A directory of United Kingdom (UK) organizations and centers that provide services of interest to language teachers and researchers is presented. The organizations are associations and societies that are concerned with language, linguistics, language teaching and research, and the most important groups concerned with educational technology and…