Adapting sociolinguistic fieldwork techniques for use in teaching a second language is presented as an activity that gets students out of the classroom and into the speech community to observe and use language in real situations. It is intended for intermediate and advanced students who need motivation and encouragement to interact with native…

With the idea of providing a valid conditioning and testing situation by which the student's self-confidence and effectiveness in communicating in a foreign language could be improved, this study evaluates a pilot project designed to identify and measure the effects of having a native speaker in the classroom for a period of time as opposed to a…

Lapp schools in Sweden and some of their current problems are described. In discussing teacher training and related educational situations, a brief history of Lapp education is given, beginning with the establishment of the Skytteanian School in 1632. From the second half of the 1700's, there existed both permanent and ambulatory schools in the…

This book serves as a guide for the native and non-native speaker of English in overcoming various problems in articulation, rhythm, and intonation. It is also useful in group therapy speech programs. Forty-five practice chapters offer drill materials for all the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants of American English plus English stress and…

Coincidental changes in the perceived nature of Australian society and in the linguistic sciences are creating urgent needs for the re-education of Australian language teachers. Recognition of the pluralism of Australian society has highlighted the inappropriateness of the languages, objectives, and methods of traditional language teaching.…

This paper examines the problem of language development and language growth in the English-dominant Spanish-speaking student who intends to increase his total command of Spanish for the purpose of functioning in that language at a level equivalent to that of most educated Latin Americans. Observations are based on the experiences of…

This paper examines the question of language loyalty in the United States and explores the implications that the institutional teaching of modern languages may have for ethnic language maintenance. The education of United States ethnics has always resulted in the loss of the ethnic tongue as a resource. However, although negative attitudes toward…

Papers for the fifth Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) Conference include the following papers: "The State and the Global Marketplace in the Provision of Minority Media Services" (George Jones); "Local Language Media: What Does It Take?" (Paul Lewis); "Power of the Media for the Good of Small Languages: An Indian…

This study explores two linguistically alternative options--English and Japanese--available to children from bilingual homes, some of which are immigrant families. To measure each child's bilingual verbal ability, the Bilingual Verbal Ability Tests (BVAT) were administered. Interviews with bilingual children's mothers were conducted. The results…

This guide accompanies a videotape that can be used as a tool to help prepare refugees for their life in the United States. The trainers who use this guide can help refugees to process the information that is presented in the video and relate it to their own lives. The activities suggested in the guide focus on the content of the video as well as…

This study was conducted at a public school with a population of over 900 students. Among the main language groups represented were Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Estonian, Serbian, Arabic as well as 23 other language groups. The author monitored over 75 students, in grades 1, 2 and 4. She was interested in exploring what strategies best promoted…

This study examined and compared the rhetorical structure of argumentative texts written by three groups of university students: 1) twenty Indonesian texts written by Indonesian native speakers (I.I.); 2) ten English texts written by Indonesian native speakers (I.E.); 3) ten English texts written by English native speakers (A.E.). Following the…

Presents evidence contradicting previous findings regarding the relative academic superiority of recent Mexican immigrants over native-born Mexican Americans. Discusses the problem of the relative achievement levels of the two groups in the context of three possible explanations: socio-economic differences; teacher expectancy effect; and native…

Current models of spoken-word recognition describe access to lexical representations in terms of activation and decay. This research investigated an important aspect of activation: the impact of processing time. The results showed a separable impact of time and signal on the activational state of lexical elements. (34 references) (Author/CK)

A series of partial studies aimed at understanding how much progress students can make in 1 year of second language study are described. The first concerns Swedish university students in their first year studying Spanish as a third language in higher education. Students were tested and interviewed for their perceptions of their language ability…