Uses Weinreich's (1953) partition of bilingualism to describe the effects of a small typological distance on the organization of the bilingual lexicon. Using standard Dutch and the dialect of Maastricht, subjects performed an auditory lexical decision task. (30 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates the symptoms of acquired surface dyslexia in Hebrew. Four acquired surface dyslexic adults were compared with eight normal second graders in terms of reading strategy. Homophones and homographs were a major source of difficulty for native Hebrew surface dyslexic readers; the normal second graders used a non-lexical strategy. (45…

Examines an interlingual subtitling course for Welsh-English transfer designed to provide professional capability and developed over 10 delivery cycles. Analysis of student performance on course indicates the need for regular practice to maintain capability and the possibility of developing an individual style. (14 references) (Author/CK)

Measurement of quality of phonological input of 20 Saudi Arabian teachers of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) indicated teachers trained in English-as-a-Second-Language environment showed far fewer incidences and types of phonological error than those trained in EFL environment. Little difference was found among teachers who taught in…

Analysis of the use of a cloze-procedure test to measure the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) proficiency of Japanese college students revealed that the cloze test correlated significantly with an essay test and improved prediction of ESL proficiency, suggesting that carefully constructed cloze tests could be useful in integrative language…

Discusses the linguistic and psychological barriers that exist for English-speaking students of Arabic. The article explains theoretical and practical issues in teaching Arabic as a foreign language and describes the implementation of four principles in the Foreign Service Institute approach. Suggests that this approach is transferrable to…

Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother-child dyads each) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignments of words to lexical and functional item categories. Results show that sets of distributional, phonological, and acoustic cues distinguishing lexical and functional items are…

Discusses a teacher education course based on an action research project in Brazil. The article demonstrates how the project was refocused towards the study of cross-cultural interaction and describes the recasting of cross-cultural misunderstandings to serve the agenda of the local Guarani teachers. (16 references) (Author/CK)

Gives a summary of the theoretical approaches to the role of phonetics and phonology in language learning and teaching as developed by the Finnish-English cross-language project at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. Analysis was extended over the chains of connected speech to deal with all the phenomena that give rhythm in speech. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a small-scale ethnographic study carried out with lower secondary students of Urdu and Bengali at a mainstream school in East London. Focused on the use of the Internet and multi-lingual word processing within a Web publishing project and examined the role played by information and communications technologies at different stages.…

Bahasa Malaysia (the Malay language) was chosen as the national language to unite the linguistically diverse groups in Malaysia in the mid-1950s. This choice brought about a total change in education policy, whereby Bahasa Malaysia became the medium of instruction for all subjects (other than English) in public schools. The decision saw a complete…

This study examined discourse strategies used by males and females to convey embarrassing information to interlocutors of unequal status and unspecified gender. Subjects were 80 native speakers of Turkish (28 males, 52 females), from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and geographic areas. Data were derived from a written discourse completion…

This paper specifically focuses on the balance between local dialect and the language standard through the examination of generational markers reflecting upheaval and social transformation, as presented from a case study from Denmark, conducted over 8 years in three field trips. Generation is redefined as experiencing specific socio-historical…

This paper examines variables such as linguistic ability in the target language, schemata, and psychological factors affecting the English language reading success or failure of a 31-year-old Thai graduate student in the information system program at a U.S. university. The subject's self-assessment of reading, speaking, and listening in Thai was…

British editors and authors have applied Jim Cummins' creative ideas in various settings in British schools, by using a novel technique of curriculum related assessment with bilingual children. Articles in five chapters demonstrate the flexibility, promise, and limitations of this technique. Articles include: "The Development of a Model of…