A Language-research experiment designed to examine the linguistic competence of bilingual Italian-American children demonstrates that structures shared by Italian and English are acquired in approximately the same order and at the same rate, and that the sequencing of specific structures reflects linguistic complexity. Structures appearing in both…

Academic self-concept and academic interest are crucial concepts for understanding students' academic achievement. Yet, few questionnaires currently exist that have been used and validated in more than one country. This study aimed at assessing these concepts using an academic self-concept questionnaire (Marsh, 1990) and an academic interest…

Much Italian-American culture and writing, beginning with the Italians' migration and settlement in the United States from 1880 to 1920, is forgotten today. Italians traditionally did not value literacy and education. Italian-Americans, for economical reasons that they share with other ethnic and racial minorities as well as cultural…

Eight subjects who had used "study packs" in their learning of French and Italian were interviewed by colleagues of the teachers who wrote them. This article presents an analysis of attempts at an ethnographic interviewing strategy, entailing an open-ended approach and adoption of an 'outsider' role. A coding system designed to measure…

Both Italian and English have four degrees of stress: emphatic, main, secondary and weak. This paper outlines some similarities, then reviews differences between the languages that can cause difficulties in learning the second language. (CHK)

The meaning of education to a second generation immigrant family is related through a narration of personal experience. (KM)

Principles, objectives, and techniques that focus on the challenge to and the role of teacher and student in the Italian conversation course, with a view to greater efficacy, are presented. (AM)

Discusses Italian adverbs that undergo gender/number agreement with noun phrases in particular environments and shows that the rules accounting for this agreement must be global. Classification of relevant adjectives and adverbs, and semantic considerations are discussed. Available from the MIT Press, 28 Carleton Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. (CLK)

The origins, socioeconomic growth, and present status of four Cleveland, Ohio, ethnic neighborhoods are analyzed in this report in order to determine their viability as inner city communities. The communities studied include (1) a "white ethnic island," the Slovenian/Croatian neighborhood on the East Side; (2) an area of "dying…

The simultaneous acquisition of Italian and English by a child living in Italy, the son of an American mother and Italian father, is discussed by his mother. In particular, the development of his vocabulary is analyzed. (Text is in Italian.) (CFM)

Speakers of Italian often have problems mastering Spanish because they erroneously believe its great similiarity to Italian makes it easy to learn. One of the fundamental problems is the lack of ability to choose the correct verb, "ser" or "estar," both equivalents of the Italian "essere." (Text is in Spanish.) (CFM)

A report on research on agraphia using subjects afflicted with sensory aphasia. It compares performance in Italian, a phonetic language, with performance in French. The disorders in the Italian language appear less varied than in French. (Text is in French.)

Study of Italian business high school students' (N=90) morpheme acquisition order in English-as-a-second-language indicated that present progressive, word order, plural, and negative structures are acquired in early stages, whereas object pronouns, possessive, irregular past, and third person singular present appear much later. (CB)