In connection with the hypotheses of Whorf and Sapir, this article describes a test using Osgood's semantic differential technique on subjects who were monolingual speakers of English or French. The control group consisted of multilinguals. It is concluded that the experiement supports Whorf's hypothesis. (IFS/WGA)

Hebrew-English bilingual children, monolingual English children, and Hebrew monolingual children ranging in age from 5 to 8 years were tested for flexibility in syntactic rule usage, symbol substitution, semantic knowledge, and nonverbal system understanding. (JMB)

Discusses the pedagogical functions of bilingual education in Africa and outlines a tentative classification of African states according to the respective situations of the linguistic communities living in them. (Author/DB)

This book provides a novel approach to multilingual phenomena as discussed in psycholinguistic research, drawing together (second) language acquisition theory, bilingualism research, and dynamic systems theory. The focus of the book is theoretical, and the suggested model is intended to provide a framework for future research in general and…

Sensitivity to differences in lexical stress was studied in monolingual French-, German-, and Swedish-speaking four- and five-year-olds. For most discriminations the older children performed better, but for a trisyllabic discrimination not found in French, the older children performed less well, supporting an attunement theory of language…

The role of bilingualism in reading difficulties is explored in the areas of: categories and variations in bilingualism; misinterpretation of standardized reading test results; and diagnostic-prescriptive issues. Particular case studies are presented. (JN)

Argues that the monolingual method in foreign language teaching is not the best for imparting the meaning of new words. A more flexible approach should be followed, so that valuable time may be saved for more difficult tasks. (IFS/WGA)

Examines the possibility that bilingual experience in infancy may affect the unfolding of vocal precursors to speech. The results of this longitudinal study indicate that infants reared in bilingual and monolingual environments manifested similar ages of onset for canonical babbling (production of well-formed syllables), an event fundamentally…

Investigated the communicative interactions of dyads of 4- to 5-year olds during pretend play involving routine, or scripted, events as a function of the children's knowledge of the scripts. The study utilized measures of the quantity and quality of interaction and the strategies employed by the children to establish mutual knowledge. (37…

The United States is the most monolingual of all developed countries. Unstated U.S. policies toward bilingualism and the teaching of foreign languages are detrimental in today's world. Having many citizens who are multilingual is beneficial for individuals and the country; the teaching of languages must be encouraged. (SM)

Examines the acquisition of sex-neutral uses of masculine terms by English and Spanish speaking children and suggests that knowledge of the acquisition sex-neutral uses of gender markers may lead to insight into children's approaches to word meaning. The use of sex-neutral masculine terms and their impact on the status of women is also discussed.…

Forty-one French-English bilinguals in England and France participated in three segmentation experiments with English and French materials. Bilinguals formed two groups, defined by forced choice of a dominant language. Only the French-dominant group showed syllabic segmentation and only with French language materials. The English-dominant group…

Focuses on a group of bilingual children within a large cohort of children with specific language impairment (SLI) attending language units attached to mainstream primary schools across England. Comparison of the bilingual children with their monolingual peers revealed differential performance on standardized speech and language assessment…

Background: Although a number of studies have been conducted on normal acquisition in French, systematic methods for analysis of French and normative group data have been lacking. Aims: To develop a systematic method for the analysis of language samples in Quebec French, and to provide preliminary normative data on early lexical and syntactic…