A discussion of the relationships between communication in a foreign language and metalinguistic thought given to that language focuses on formal French language learning by adults in their home countries. Experience with adult language learners suggests a resistance to grammatical explanations but an openness to explanations of meaning. It would…

A study investigated the role of certain discourse and language processing factors in the production of narratives under controlled conditions. Subjects watched a short segment from a movie and then narrated the events to a researcher. The narrations were taped, transcribed, and analyzed in terms of such factors as: (1) the number and types of…

The nature of the Creole-to-English continuum for Guyana is examined with two aims. The first of these is to critically assess the validity of orthodox variationist approaches as applied to similar language situations and the second is to produce the outline of an alternative approach that would work in this and other language situations as well.…

Structural features of the United States' foreign language teaching system are sketched, focusing on ways that different activities and organizations in foreign language instruction form a de facto national system and the extent to which the system serves the national need for a large, diverse pool of highly proficient second language users. The…

One of a series of semiannual reports, this publication contains 12 articles which report the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. The titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: "Coarticulatory Organization for Lip-rounding in Turkish and…

The literature on spelling strategies of normal and learning disabled children is reviewed, and suggestions for the classroom teacher are offered. After a brief examination of this century's attempts to improve the basic school speller, attention is directed to M. Halle and N. Chomsky's research on the English sound system and Chomsky's theory of…

"Correct English," published continuously between 1899 and 1950, was dedicated to the preservation of "proper" English usage. Josephine Turck Baker, editor and founder, understood that conventions of grammar arose from usage. It was her opinion that correctness was determined by clarity, not by the rules of Latin syntax. Thus,…

This bibliography lists 31 citations of research reports, books, journal articles, and other publications concerning Karakalpak, one of the smaller languages of the Soviet Union which has an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The citations are also indexed by reverse chronological order, country of origin, and subject. (MSE)

This study investigated whether or not preschoolers can learn novel words when viewing television. A total of 61 preschool children, ages 3 and 5, were assigned to either an experimental or control group. A 15-minute television program was prepared with two different voice-over narrations. The experimental version featured 20 different novel…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest explores researchers' current understanding of English spelling and its acquisition as the basis for spelling instruction methods other than memorization. After defining spelling and the relationship between spoken English and its written system, the digest explores how…

A study of the limits of native speakers' awareness of, and ability to express, the dimensions of his language for the researcher investigates this hypothesis: that the ease or difficulty of a native speaker's characterization of the use of the forms of his own language depends on certain general semiotic properties of the use in question.…

A line of reasoning used in recent research on language acquisition assumes that a child acquiring the language has only two reliable sources of information available about the target grammar: a set of grammatical principles and the primary data of the language spoken around him. A third kind of evidence, negative evidence, would be helpful but is…

The extent to which Basque displays ergative characteristics (an ergative language treats the underlying subject of intransitive clauses alike in some manner and differently from the underlying subject of transitive clauses) in its syntax is examined. The amount of evidence needed to conclude that Basque or any other language is ergative is…

The theoretical generalization that no lexical material can occur between a Wh-element and a verb in any clause in Basque is challenged, and it is argued that case is not assigned structurally in the Basque language. The account demonstrates how a number of well documented properties of Basque may combine to produce this grammatical result, and an…

In this paper the morphological argument for the conditioning of Sanskrit aspiration and deaspiration is renewed in theoretically current terms, bringing forth new arguments and examining previously undiscussed major weaknesses in the purely phonological (autosegmental) argument. Relevant phonological, morphological, and lexical facts are…