This text provides a linguistic analysis of discourse register in English, Nukulaelae Tuvaluan, Korean, and Somali, using a multi-dimensional analytical framework and including sociocultural descriptions. Methodology included a description of the text corpora, linguistic features, and computational/statistical techniques used; theoretical issues…

A discussion of the choice of official languages in Nigeria first gives an overview of the current language situation in Nigeria, particularly of indigenous language usage, sketches the history of English, French, and Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin (ANP) both before and after independence, outlines the main proposals for language planning, and draws some…

A case is made for a broader approach to the study of politeness strategies, as has been demanded increasingly by linguists working on non-Western languages. Using data from a role-played dialogue involving a request in the Southern Bantu language Zulu, speakers are first located culturally, then the sequence of vrebal utterances as a whole is…

Characteristics and patterns of Ukrainian language usage expressing social distance are analyzed, with examples given from current usage and, to a lesser extent, perspectives drawn from historical usage. It is concluded that Ukrainian has a rich morphological paradigm to express distance, primarily through diminutive morphology, which can…

This paper describes the design of a new Maori, early childhood, immersion teaching diploma program at the University of Waikato (New Zealand). The program incorporates a strong focus on developing both the adult students' fluency in Maori, as a second language, and their skills for facilitating fluency in young children, many of whom will also be…

This study investigated the discourse strategies used by native speakers of Turkish in carrying out speech acts of correction and disagreement to status-unequal interlocutors. Focus was on: (1) the politeness markers preferred for softening the impact of words in face-threatening speech situations where the interlocutor corrects the mistake of an…

A study compared the narrative structures in stories told by monolingual Swedish-speaking children (n=19) and Finnish-speaking immersion students of Swedish (n=19), all in fifth grade. The immersion students had been taught in immersion since kindergarten. Subjects each told a story based on a wordless picture book, which was then analyzed for a…

The textbook in intermediate Czech is designed for second-year students of the language and those who already have a basic knowledge of Czech grammar and vocabulary. It is appropriate for use in a traditional college language classroom, the business community, or a government language school. It can be covered in a year-long conventional…

An analysis of story telling in Konni, a language spoken in Ghana, focused on how the climax of a story is characterized. The texts studied are six oral folk tales; two are appended, and portions of all are used as illustrations in the text of the report. First, the definition and characteristics of "peak," or climax of a story are…

The study reported here evaluated the usefulness of interactive videodisc technology and materials to teach second languages at the elementary and middle school levels, particularly in a context in which teachers lack expertise in the target language. A 3-year project used videodiscs to teach Spanish, French, and Japanese. The report presents, in…

As part of the Asian American Bilingual Center (AABC) Pilipino Language Arts Program, a curriculum suitable for students in kindergarten is presented. The program is geared both to the immigrant Filipino child and to the American-born Filipino child who learned to speak Pilipino at home, and includes kits that emphasize the AABC's major concepts:…

As part of the Asian American Bilingual Center (AABC) Pilipino Language Arts Program, a curriculum suitable for students in kindergarten is presented. The program is geared both to the immigrant Filipino child and to the American-born Filipino child who learned to speak Pilipino at home, and includes kits that emphasize the AABC's major concepts:…

Eight original research papers on Native American languages by faculty and students of the Linguistics Department and other related departments of the University of Kansas are presented. The titles and authors include the following: "Comanche Consonant Mutation: Initial Association or Feature Spread?" (James L. Armagost); "The Alsea…

Results of a national survey on foreign language enrollments in United States public secondary schools are summarized. Aggregate data are provided for fall 1989, and more detailed data are included for fall 1990. Data indicate a 4.5% increase in secondary school language enrollments nationally since 1985. The increase for high schools alone was…

The development of high school Japanese language programs (JLPs) in Oregon has been remarkable since the 1980s. However, high school students educated in Japanese face problems of articulation as they enter the JLP at the University of Oregon. Because little attention has been paid to the problem of articulation, a study of these students'…