Examines similarities and differences in loss of grammatical systems across languages, investigating structural changes in six attrited languages as compared to nonattrited languages and demonstrating significant parallelism in structural changes across languages. Correlation between levels of grammatical and lexical loss are discussed, noting a…

Describes one secondary Russian/English bilingual science teacher's practice and her literate students' experiences as they learn science and adapt to a new school. Discusses the notion of whether literacy skills in the native language are transferable to a second language. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a longitudinal study that examines first language vocabulary decline in a child whose native language input effectively ceased after her immersion in a second language environment. The subject was a Russian girl adopted by an American family and brought to the United States, completely isolated from any contact with Russian. (Author/VWL)

Reviews research on proficiency levels attained by foreign language students, and describes an advanced Russian conversation course, which is geared toward students who have achieved intermediate-mid or intermediate-high oral proficiency and who are striving towards advanced level speech according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign…

Autobiographical memories retrieved by bicultural Russian-English bilinguals were compared across languages. Results suggest that bilinguals' languages may influence cognitive styles, so that when speaking a language associated with a more individualistic culture, bilinguals produce more individualistic narratives, whereas when speaking a language…

Since the cessation of Soviet hegemony the Baltic Republics have endured drastic changes in their political, economic, social and linguistic situation. The official reinstatement of the respective state languages has been a key feature in the establishment of their newly regained national independence. Consequently, large sections of the…

This qualitative study investigated older Russian immigrants' reasons for studying English, their learning strategies, and barriers to their progress. Ten men and women in their 60s and 70s were interviewed. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Findings indicated that the participants' motivation for learning English was to…

This study examines orthography as one source of non-targetlike phonetic output and focuses on the acquisition by speakers of American English vowel reduction in Russian, a salient feature of the Russian phonetic system that is not reflected in the graphics of the Cyrillic script. The researchers conducted a structured interview and administered…

Teachers of courses on Russian for business and economics face the difficult task of bridging the objective and subjective needs of students. The need to have large and varied amounts of representative material to introduce unfamiliar concepts and new terminology is a challenge for course designers. Courses should expose students to three…

A handbook compiled for use in a one-day workshop on oral proficiency testing for teachers of Russian gives an overview of oral proficiency assessment principles and the available techniques. One section explains the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Educational Testing Service (ACTFL/ETS) Oral Proficiency Interview process and…

This article discusses the advantages and ways of using the Monopoly game in Russian language conversation courses in American schools. Procedures for developing a Russian language version of the game are outlined. (CLK)

The distinction between core and peripheral grammar made in government-binding theory sheds light on some questions concerning the acquisition of the inflectional morphology of different languages. The schedule for acquisition of the inflectional system may be determined not by the learning of particular affixes but by whether inflection is a core…

THE PAPERS IN THIS VOLUME--CATEGORIZED AS EITHER (1) AUTOMATIC ANALYSES OF NATURAL LANGUAGES, (2) STATISTIC AND SEMANTIC ANALYSES OF LINGUISTIC DATA, OR (3) ALGEBRAIC THEORIES OF LANGUAGES--ARE THE COLLECTIVE PRODUCT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS HELD AT GRENOBLE, FRANCE, AUGUST 23-25, 1967. TOPICS RANGE FROM…

AN AUDIOLINGUAL, SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL COURSE IN RUSSIAN, AS DESCRIBED HERE, CAN SERVE TO COORDINATE THE COMPLEX INTERACTION BETWEEN STUDENT, TEACHER, AND WORKBOOK. THE USE OF A PROGRAMED WORKBOOK AND TAPED MATERIALS IS DISCUSSED IN PART I, GIVING CONSIDERATION TO SUCH FACTORS AS COURSE PROCEDURES, CONVERSATION TAPES, PRONUNCIATION, AND READING. THE…

TRADITIONALLY OR OTHERWISE NONLINGUISTICALLY ORIENTED LANGUAGE TEACHERS WILL FIND IN THE NEW GENERATIVE-TRANSFORMATION GRAMMAR A REFUTATION OF MANY OF THE CURRENTLY ACCEPTED LINGUISTIC (SPECIFICALLY STRUCTURALIST) TEACHINGS AND A CONFIRMATION OF SOME TRADITIONAL IDEAS ABOUT LANGUAGE LEARNING. FOR INSTANCE, THE TRADITIONAL SPELLING OF ENGLISH (ALSO…