To examine the link between deaf children's language abilities and their knowledge of, attitudes toward, and self-endorsements of cultural gender stereotypes, 46 deaf children between the ages of 5 and 12 years were given measures of gender-related attitudes, knowledge, and self-interests. Teachers were asked to rate children's ability with signed…

A study investigated the usefulness of non-native speakers' subjective, relative word frequency estimates as a measure of second language proficiency. In the experiment, two subjective frequency estimate (SFE) tasks, one on French and one on English, were presented to French learners of English (n=126) and American learners of French (n=87).…

Perception and effects of foreign language publications in engineering research are examined. Through the use of both survey and archival sources, including coverage in major scientific and technical databases as vended by DIALOG, various aspects of the foreign language barrier were measured. A foreign language barrier is said to exist when…

The conversational narratives of 17 Japanese children aged 5 to 9 were analyzed using stanza analysis. Three distinctive features emerged: (1) the narratives are exceptionally succinct; (2) they are usually free-standing collections of three experiences; and (3) stanzas almost always consist of three lines. These features reflect the basic…

Second language acquisition (SLA) research is examined in terms of what might be used in the planning, design, and implementation of language courses. A conception of language and the communicative use of language that is appropriate for formal language teaching and learning is discussed, and different conditions are described under which second…

The morphological function of tone/accent is examined in a number of Cushitic languages, with the objective of determining whether any comparative statement can be made validly at the group level. Three languages, the Somali dialect cluster, Afar, and Oromo, are the basis for the study. Patterns in case, gender, and the jussive form are analyzed.…

A study in Moncton, New Brunswick, of second language use by language minorities and native language maintenance as it relates to the linguistic groups' vitality and the individuals' attitudes toward these groups is reported. Seven research hypotheses were proposed: (1) The first language group's perception of the second language group's vitality…

A study is being done, to be reported on subsequently, on the infiltrations of English into the languages of Europe. Objectives of the project, some problems encountered, and planned results and products are discussed. See FL 508 197 for availability. (RM)

Analyses of the Null Subject Parameter (NSP) suggest that several factors may influence the resetting process for second language acquisition, such as specific "trigger" data, awareness of agreement as a part of awareness of agreement (INFL), and stylistic rules such as subject postposing and anaphoric reference. Four tests were…

This newsletter discusses a Swedish research project investigating the command immigrant school children living in Sweden have of their native language and of Swedish as a second language. The project's objective is to describe the children's language proficiency and factors promoting or inhibiting it in the classroom. The study is undertaken in…

A study examined student responses to teacher-initiated questions in classrooms of English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study focused specifically on the similarities and differences in the questions asked by native-speaking (NS) teachers of ESL and by non-native-speaking (NNS) teachers of EFL, and to…

The work of researchers, theorists, and practitioners suggests that to facilitate academic success for college-level students of English as a Second Language (ESL), attention must focus on, but not be limited to, the following areas: (1) students need to become "acquirers," not just "learners," of the second language; (2)…

The purpose of this paper is to account for some of the results from a contrastive study of Spanish and Danish communicative behavior, where the focus of attention has been directed towards the microlevel of discourse in order to find recurrent patterns in the local management of conversation. The use of speaker and hearer references, topic…

The computerized morphological parser, AMPLE, grew out of work in computer assisted dialect adaptation. AMPLE contains no language-specific code, but is controlled entirely through external, user-written files, the notations of which were designed for linguists. AMPLE's constructs are linguistic: e.g., allomorph, morpheme, conditioning…

Six working papers in linguistics are presented. "The Semantics and Morphology of Mixtec Mood and Aspect" (J. Albert Bickford and Stephen A. Marlett) presents a relatively detailed description of the following grammatical categories in three Mixtec languages: Santiago Nuyoo, Santo Domingo Nuxaa, and Municipio of Tezoatlan.…