A study attempts to refine the discourse domain hypothesis of second language learning, which holds that a second language is acquired with reference to speaker-specific topic areas rather than as a general, context-independent competence, by examining the discourse domains developed by one non-native speaker of English in conversations with two…

A series of studies examined the media use habits of Hong Kong students trying to improve their English. Subjects for the first three studies, 138 pre-service student teachers in Hong Kong, completed questionnaires. Frequency of media use provided some indications of students' level of commitment to the study of English. In study four, students…

A study investigated the extent to which native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of Portuguese understand implicatures in Brazilian television commercials in Portuguese. Subjects were nine Brazilian graduate students and 11 American students of Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. Correct inference of the…

A survey of 32 Japanese and 44 native English-speaking teachers of English as a Second Language investigated how the two groups evaluate the English speech skills of Japanese students. A 59-item questionnaire was designed to elicit comparative information on definition of oral proficiency, criteria (including newer ones derived from instruction…

A study of the use of the Maori language among residents of the North Island of New Zealand drew on data from interviews with members of 6,470 Maori families over the period 1973-1979. Over 6,915 heads of household gave data concerning their knowledge of the language, their use of it in a variety of situations, and their attitudes and experiences…

This Senate hearing received testimony expressing the concern that Alaska Native languages are dying, and suggesting ways to stimulate and improve Native language instruction in schools and community settings. The director of the Alaska Native Language Center (University of Alaska, Fairbanks) provided information about the history of suppression…

This report discusses an intergenerational project instituted in 1989 at the Jewish Community Center--JCCS David G. Neurman Senior Center in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). The project is based on the idea that children and older adult immigrants could share a learning environment in order to meet specific language objectives. Project objectives and…

The struggle of one Cree community, the Waskaganish (formerly called Rupert House) in Quebec, to maintain its own language and culture within the larger multicultural Canadian context has led to the creation and development of a linguistic experiment, the Cree Way Project. After a discussion of the Canadian historical context, this report…

This study examines the comprehensibility of Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian English by listeners whose native languages are Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian English. The subjects, 30 college students, were grouped according to whether they listened to male or female speakers. Results show native speakers are better at…

The validity of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) was examined for foreign students enrolled in U.S. graduate schools. Subjects included 1,353 foreign students for whom English was a second language (ESL) and 42 foreign students whose native language was English. The relationships between college departments' scores on the GRE General Test…

In an effort to develop non-biased assessment techniques for the native languages of native Canadians, and to facilitate identification and intervention for language disorders among native children, the ratings of children's Inuktitut language samples by an untrained Inuit teacher were compared with length complexity data derived by linguistic…

Two studies investigated: (1) aspects of the language of native-English-speaking (ES) and non-native-English-speaking (NES) parents of children learning English and (2) the demands made on the listening of young children learning English from native-speaking parents and non-native-speaking parents. Information in the parent study was drawn from…

This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to investigate some of the effects of bilingualism on perception. The subjects were Icelandic monolinguals and Icelandic-English bilinguals. The phonetic parameter under investigation was duration. The experiment was designed to test which of the following three hypotheses accurately…

This bibliography cites theses and articles pertaining to the teaching of English in Chinese schools. A wide range of topics are covered, from instructional materials and curriculum planning to teacher training and specific teaching problems. The theses were completed at universities and other institutions of learning in England, and most were…

This study examines the usage of the auxiliaries "avoir" and "etre" in the passe compose and pluperfect. The study is primarily based on a sample of French written by agroup of grade 9 Franco-Ontarian pupils from the Sudbury region. The students' written French is shown to include a high proportion of cases where intransitive…