Paper presented at the convention of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Washington, D.C., February 1972. (RS)

After a review of the role Italian immigrants have played in the development of the United States, the author reflects on the demand currently being made by other ethnic groups that they retain their cultural heritage within the society. The lesson for modern minorities is clear--to make it, one must forget the old ways, the old tongue, the old…

Reports the findings of a study of the emergence of ethnic interests among a sample of one hundred Irish and Italians, accompanied by significant questioning about the reality of the American dream", and opposition to the demands of Negroes for equal rights. (DM)

The insularity of Italian Americans is evident in their relationship with the Catholic church in America. By insisting on remaining Catholic, but only on their own terms, the Italians have won no support either from other Catholics, the church hierarchy, or the Protestants who hoped to convert them to Protestantism. (Author/MJL)

Studied kinship in Italian-American families with an emphasis on the sibling relationship. Focused interviews were conducted with 74 Italian-American homogeneous marriages, 98 inter-marriages, and 56 Protestants of European background. Found intermarried families more involved in kinship activities with the greatest differences between groups…

Presents data about two St. Louis neighborhoods, one Italian and one Black, to support the theory that forces in the larger society (such as social discrimination and the availability of housing and jobs) are critical determinants of ethnic solidarity or dispersion over time. (MK)

Reports on research on the acquisition of adjectives vs inflectional endings in Italian children. Patterns resulting from a longitudinal study involving two children and an experiment involving 84 children are compared to patterns of adults participating in the latter experiment. (Author/AM)

Notes that information presented in dialog form in a foreign language lends itself more easily to conversation than does intricate narrative prose. Using background information on Halloween, the article adapts the text to present information about the target culture as well as to humorously present facts about the North American festivity.…

Canadian English-Italian bilingual children were administered phonological, reading, spelling, syntactic, and working memory tasks in both languages. Results suggest English-Italian interdependence is most clearly related to phonological processing but may influence other linguistic modules. Exposure to a language with more predictable…

Describes the process of acquisition in learner varieties with respect to reference and referential movement in the domain of modality. Findings are based on data from the longitudinal ESF and P-Moll projects and on cross-sectional data of Italian learners of German. (Author/VWL)

Examined how Italian day-care teachers (N=5) spoke to young children and adjusted their language according to age and size of groups. It was found that teachers made both structural and functional modifications of language according to childrens' ages and the size of groups, with group size exerting a greater influence on the features of the…

Discusses the results of research to determine the success of the efforts currently being made in schools to teach pure Italian to the second generation of Italians in Australia in order to replace Italian Australian, a mixture of Italian dialects, Italian, and English. 33 references. (CFM)

A study examined the relationship between language experiences of Italo-Canadian students at home and school and their perceptions of group vitality and ethnic language maintenance. Subjects were in grade eight integrated and non-integrated heritage language programs. (58 references) (Author/MSE)

Analyzes the results of a study undertaken in Switzerland, which was designed to determine the degree of integration of non-Italian children in Italian-language nursery schools in the German part of Switzerland. Attempts to synthesize the ethnic and lingusitic elements of the study are made. (CFM)