Based on the belief that the most appropriate focus of a language arts curriculum is the process and content of communication, these several unipacs (instructional packets) explore some essential elements of communication which should be incorporated into a curricular theory: (1) abstraction , which is the assertion that words may be classified as…

This document provides a description of the Chien-yang dialect of Chinese along with a comparative description of the Chien-ou dialect and a discussion of the entire Min dialect family. The Min dialects are considered with respect to geography (including maps), internal subgrouping, numbers of speakers, and mutual intelligibility. The main part of…

Mutual understanding and the strengthening of ties among the higher education systems of different countries depends largely on overcoming language barriers, and the national and international standardization of terminology would help in that process. (MSE)

Presents a study of foreigner talk (FT) in a minority language (Welsh) in a bilingual community and describes some of the most prominent features of Welsh FT. FT is defined as a simple form of a language used by native speakers to communicate with non-proficient speakers of the language. (SED)

Discusses the evolution of what is meant by "good" English in the classroom, arguing that the overall model of English that is presented to students, and by which their English is evaluated, ought to be considered in pragmatic rather than a priori terms. (19 references) (MDM)

Pronunciation teaching of the segmental aspects needs to be balanced with the inclusion of learner awareness of stress, rhythm, intonation and meaningful production. Yet many formats for pronunciation teaching do not place these skills and an awareness of the suprasegmental features in either a communicative format or a specific speaking…

The majority of the languages spoken in Papua New Guinea are highly diverse, belong to many unrelated groups, and are spoken by small language communities. This situation has resulted in widespread multilingualism and the emergence of "lingue franche," including the police-type, such as Hiri Motu. Hiri Motu, adopted as a symbol by the…

Describes an experiment comparing communication accuracy within and between various sign languages from different countries. Longer communications were generally more successful than shorter ones. Deaf signers understand their own sign language better than they do foreign sign languages. (Author/LMO)

Discusses research on secondary school students' language communication strategies. Shows that despite grammatical errors and limited vocabulary, even second year students can understand each other and are able to use paraphrases and circumlocutions. (EKN)

These papers on the subject of the Swiss German language examine the status and attitudes of the Swiss German speaker, the reaction of other linguistic communities to Swiss German, and the necessity and/or possibility of learning Swiss German. The following articles are included: (1) "Le 'Schwyzertutsch': ecran ou lien? (Is Swiss German a…

Of the approximately 40 languages in Uganda, some are very similar to one another and may be to some extent mutually intelligible. Because no one knows how to measure degrees of mutual intelligibility, the authors are attempting to establish reliable techniques which would be not only of practical value for the study of language problems in…

A language teacher urges the use of authentic listening materials that do not conform to the strictest standards of spoken usage, as a way of getting to know the language's norms and variations. (MSE)

This study compares the ability of 37 Standard-English-speaking graduate students to comprehend Black English versions of a set of 45 utterances with the ability of 37 comparable students to comprehend Standard English versions of the same utterances. Of the two stimulus tapes used (consisting of 45 sentences each), one was recorded in Black…

The present work is divided into two parts. Part I provides a general orientation to the material for both linguists and non-linguists. Part II contains information about 700 of the world's languages. Chapter 1 presents a few of the essentials about language and languages for non-linguists. Chapter 2 provides a brief explanation of how the data…

This paper reports two studies which examined sequential dependence in the dyadic interaction between mother and infant. In the first study, brief videotaped behavioral samples were collected for 24 primiparous mother-infant (M - I) dyads to examine the degree of reciprocal contingency in M - I interactions. Two coders, using a computer interfaced…