A discussion of young children's production of English utterances with missing constituents focuses on the omission of subjects. The theory that young children have different grammars from those of adults is disputed, and it is suggested that, instead, subjects are omitted due to performance factors. Processing limitations in child language are…

Traditional descriptions of Italian phonology have occasionally suggested that some type of connection exists between "raddoppiamento sintattico" (RS) and the word internal consonant length contrast. (RS is defined as a systematic lengthening of the first consonant of the second word in a two-word sequence in certain syntactic and phonological…

Explores role of discourse functions in children's use of "because" ("perche" in Italian). Disputes of 172 preschoolers were analyzed in terms of interactive move, argumentative strategies, and communicative acts. Results showed causal connective tends to co-occur with justification acts and may work as device introducing new information and…

This study analyzes two versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" as told by a bilingual three-year-old girl in English. (CFM)

Defines English phrasal verbs (EPVs) and analyzes Italian students problems when studying them. Through contrastive analysis of English and Italian syntax and study of student errors, important insights are offered. (over 100 references) (LET)

Presents a historic overview and analysis of the Sardinian language (actually a system of dialects), and defines diglossia and bilingualism. A discussion focuses on research conducted in two junior high schools to determine the differences in linguistic behavior in two contrasting situations (village and city) in regard to Sardinian and Italian.…

After a brief summary of the literature on interference and code switching, research with adult Sardinians living in Rome is discussed to determine the relationship between dialectal phonological interference and the degree of identification with the new culture. (26 references) (CFM)

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…

This journal publishes scholarly articles on all aspects of language pedagogy, linguistics, foreign cultures and languages, and comparative, classical, and foreign (Asian, French, German, Italian, Luso-Brazilian, Scandinavian, Slavic, Spanish, and Spanish American) literatures. It is published annually, based exclusively on a representative number…

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 examines the perception of English vowels by native speakers of Italian. In two preliminary experiments, Italian university students who had lived in Canada for 3 months were found to have difficulty discriminating because they often identified both members of each contrast as instances of a single Italian vowel. The participants in two…

A study is reported of the language behavior of trilingual 9-to-12-year-old native Italian speakers in Montreal, some of whom were studying Italian on Saturdays and some of whom were not. The study focused on their available vocabulary in the three languages (Italian, French, and English) and on their language productivity during their various…

Children aged 2;0 to 4;4, including native speakers of English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, and Turkish, were asked to demonstrate causative statements by acting them out with toy animals and dolls. The major analysis focused on the total number of correct acting-out responses and the way this score related to several variables. Performance improved…

This is a comparative study of the cognitive, reading, and achievement levels of Italian Americans in bilingual programs and of their monolingual Italian and American peers. Three groups of students age 10 to 13 were matched within and across groups, according to schools, grade level, dialect, and socioeconomic status. Group I was subdivided into…

The effect of formal instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) on the pidginized speech of a second language learner was studied. The subject was a 76-year-old Italian woman residing in the United States since the age of 37. Four one-hour tapes were made of the subject's speech in April of 1976, and during the last five months of a…