Explores special problems posed by idiomatic expressions for learners and teachers of second languages stressing need to integrate idioms into teaching. Presents program providing a classification of idiomatic expressions based on contrastive analysis of Spanish and English. (BK)

Discusses the experiences of a Malaysian student studying Spanish as a Second Language in an all-female Irish secondary school, focusing on common difficulties encountered by Asian students of Romance languages. It is argued that the teaching of Romance languages often unfairly presupposes a knowledge of Latin or French on the part of learners.…

The use of BE as an auxiliary verb with intransitive verbs has declined in all the Romance languages over the past five centuries. Today, Spanish and Portuguese use only HAVE, in Catalan and Romanian BE occurs in marginal contexts, and in French, BE is used with approximately 40 verbs. Italian is a notable exception, since BE is still used as the…

This monograph provides an overview of the language situation in Italy, within the framework of language policy and language planning. It presents an account of multilingualism, linguistic diversity, social variation, educational issues and phenomena of language contact both within and outside Italy. The four main threads are (1) the current…

A discussion of Occitan, a Romance language spoken in a large portion of France, looks at the history; irregular characteristics; orthographic and morphophonemic variations across dialects; and present status, which is in danger of becoming extinct because of neglect, of the language. (MSE)

A discussion of techniques for assisting native English-speaking students in understanding the concept of gender in such languages as French, German, Italian, and Spanish considers three issues: (1) What is gender? (2) What is a good way to learn the gender of nouns? and (3) How did the concept of gender develop and how can the concept help one to…

A discussion of the need to promote mutual comprehension among speakers of Romance languages describes one university program in France and looks at the possibility of extending multilanguage instruction to secondary education. The potential, and problems, of trying to teach students listening comprehension in several related languages are…

Examines the Modern Language Association database containing information on several institutional characteristics and foreign-language registrations in individual colleges and universities in selected years (1970, 1974, 1980, 1986, and 1990). The database permits assessment of changes through time in registration levels and the percentage of…

Discusses francophone studies as a race-diversifying strategy in higher education, examining the role of Romance language and literature departments. Francophonia requires an intercultural examination of French culture in the context of the cross-cultural (which could occur through an interdisciplinary alliance of the French department and African…

Derivations of the term "gerund" are examined as they pertain to native English speakers learning French, Italian, and/or Spanish. The form's etymology is chronicled from Latin, and its current usage in student textbooks in the three languages is examined. A solution to the terminological confusion surrounding the term is proposed. (41…

This study examines the effectiveness of teachers' incidental focus on form on vocabulary learning. Seventeen 45-minute audio-recorded teacher-led conversation, 204 learners' diaries (17 sessions x 12 learners) reporting what the participants had learned after each conversational class, 204 post-test translations, and 204 delayed post-test…

These materials illustrate the ideas presented in the "Guide for Foreign Languages in Utah." Learning activities, materials, and evaluation procedures have been written to help the language teacher who has never had a methods course, as well as the experienced teacher who is searching for new ideas. The materials begin with a basic unit similar to…

These materials illustrate the concepts presented in "The Guide for Foreign Languages in Utah." Three model lessons, in elementary, intermediate, and advanced placement Spanish, are presented as a means of illustrating the practical application of the teaching goals and techniques outlined in the Utah "Course of Study for Foreign Languages." The…

This volume, the first of two, contains 25 units of work; the first 24 units present new material and the last unit is a review. A portion of each unit is presented through programming, that is, information is given in a controlled sequence of steps so that the student may proceed at his or her own rate. Units 1-10 are largely geared to…

The aim of this study is to analyse the possible effects of Age of Onset (AO), Cognitive Maturity (Age at Testing--AT) and Amount of Exposure (AE) on the productive vocabularies of learners of English as a Foreign Language (FL). Three groups of bilingual Catalan/Spanish students were tested towards the end of Secondary Education. The groups…