The process of development of a computerized database of instructional materials for the uncommonly taught languages is described. Content of the database includes information on materials for instruction in the less commonly taught languages, some previously stored in a semi-automated file. These include references and information on basic tools,…

A project introducing English as a third language in 30 elementary schools in the Basque Country (Spain) is described. The program, emerging from a national curriculum reform effort, begins English instruction when students are eight years old, three years earlier than previously. Students are already bilingual in Spanish and Basque, both official…

A study investigated four issues in language usage in the Republic of Congo: (1) the extent of intergenerational language shift; (2) patterns in language repertoire; (3) patterns of language usage among four generations, four topics of conversation, and four different locations; and (4) language usage differences in age groups. The languages…

This article discusses the system of reference as one of the linguistic systems operating in English texts. It introduces reference systems as systems that code cohesive dependency relationships between entities in texts. References in texts are treated as ways of introducing and keeping track of text participants. The cohesive operation of…

High Speed Projection (HiSP) is a classroom technique that employs a standard carousel slide projector to induce conditioned oral responses by students to unfamiliar symbols. HiSP enables active teaching of Japanese, Korean, and other non-Roman languages, drastically reducing the time and effort students must devote to learning the pronunciation…

An autosegmental account of the child's acquisition of grammatical tone in Sesotho, a southern Bantu language, is presented. The following theoretical questions are addressed: (1) When and how does the child figure out that Sesotho is a tonal rather than intonational, stress, or accentual language?; (2) How does the child acquire tonal rules?; and…

A study investigated how Samoan adults use genitive constructions in comparison with use by four young children. Results suggest that while adults and children both favor a clausal strategy of highlighting the affected object in a manipulative activity scene, Samoan children have difficulty exploiting the grammar of genitive noun phrases to encode…

Two studies investigated whether Japanese college students (as educated adult readers) and fifth-graders (novices after having learned about 640 "kanji") would use, either consciously or not, one of the compounding rules for kanji to understand a compound word. Subjects in the first study were two groups of fifth-graders (49 in each) and…

The process of acquisition of three syntactic structures in Engish (i.e., yes-no questions, wh-questions, and negation) was studied. The subjects were 30 school children whose native language as well as medium of instruction was Malayalam, one of the four dominant Dravidian languages. The children were in the second, fourth, and sixth year of…

A microethnographic study and intervention were conducted in a mixed-age preschool classroom with 3- to-5-year-old native speakers of English, Khmer, and Spanish. All were learning English and had native-language support. In the study's first phase, the language of five children was audiotaped during play time. In the second phase, the whole…

An analysis of the evolution of reflexive verbs focuses on reflexive to middle voice development in two-form middle systems, which include Russian, Old Norse, Turkish, and Hungarian. The diachronic processes associated with these systems are examined. The changes in the languages over time represent a gradual change in the semantics of the…

A guide for teachers of second language reading offers ideas for using authentic texts as instructional materials. The guide focuses on how to teach students to become strategic readers and use their background knowledge to enhance comprehension. Schema theory is proposed as a framework for approaching reading tasks, by providing relevant pre- and…

Three articles concerning the development of the rural press in Africa as a means of communicating and promoting literacy are included in this collection of reprints. "The Rural Press, Effective Rural Communication Medium" by Robert H. Sam-Kpakra describes this medium of communication by and for people living in areas with little or no…

English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students in general, and Chinese speakers in particular, often omit or misuse English prepositions in speaking or writing. A study traced the history and structure of the English preposition, using contrastive analysis and error analysis to find sources of Chinese error. To determine if Chinese speakers exceed…

This study gathered information on the acquisition of affixes in Urdu by native children. The research was carried out in the city of Irbid, in northern Jordan, and in the capital city of Amman. Data consist of tape-recorded, naturally occurring and elicited speech of 13 children aged 2.4 to 9 years. The children were native speakers of Urdu,…