The essays collected here describe events, trends, and issues in the development of language proficiency testing for African languages. Papers include: "A Brief History of Proficiency Testing" (Richard T. Thompson, Dora E. Johnson); "The 1986 Stanford ACTFL Training Workshop" (William Leben); "The 1987 Madison-MSU Team…

This paper reports on an investigation into the communication activities in a multicultural elementary school classroom in England. In the first exercise, the whole class worked in groups of three, each group led by a bilingual child, to devise a doctor-patient dialogue in that child's foreign language. When the dialogue was presented to the…

A study investigated beliefs about language learning held by two groups of students studying Arabic: 41 students in conventional classroom language instruction at the University of Wisconsin in 1992 and 1993, and 27 in an immersion program at the Yemen Language Center (Yemen). The survey instrument consisted of 47 statements in a Likert-type scale…

This guide is designed for Viracnon (Bikol) language training of Peace Corps workers in the Philippines, and reflects daily communication needs in that context. It consists of: phrase lists for a wide range of daily activities and needs; a list of targeted core language competencies, at three proficiency levels, for those daily activities; a…

This reader contains a selection of short texts and is intended for intermediate- to advanced-level students of Ukrainian. The reader is one of four in the Ukrainian Language Development series; the other three are "Conflict,""Deeds and Doers," and "Decisions." The book includes a variety of poems by Ukrainian…

This book examines language attitudes, focusing on individual attitudes toward majority and minority languages and bilingualism. Special emphasis is placed on research conducted on language attitudes in Wales toward the Welsh and English languages. Six chapters address the following: (1) the nature, definition, and measurement of language…

Five papers on African linguistics are presented. "Observations on Some Derivational Affixes in Kiswahili Predicate Items" (Assibi Apatewon Amidu) examines the few morphemes recognized in the Swahili derivational affix system and suggests changes in the rules of vowel harmony and in presentation and representation of the affixes in use.…

Issues in the debate in Ireland over Irish language instruction in the schools are reviewed in light of the establishment of the European Economic Community. In the first chapter, three points of view are compared: results of research on Irish, attitudes of the general public, and those of language interest groups. The second chapter provides a…

A study investigated the extent to which all-Irish primary schools in the Dublin (Ireland) area: (1) provide opportunities for parents not using Irish at home to send children to an all-Irish school; (2) provide impetus for an increase in Irish use in homes of attending children; (3) increase interaction among Irish-speaking families; (4) are…

A discussion of multilingualism in Switzerland begins with a description of the country's linguistic characteristics. Historical Swiss policy recognizing four official languages, one of which (Romansch) is spoken by very few people, is compared with the current situation in which internal and external migration and multilingualism are common. The…

Papers in this volume include the following: "Addressing Contextual Issues Relevant to Language Teaching in South Africa": Implications for Policy and Practice" (J. Keith Chick); "A Comparative Study of Compliment Responses: Korean Females in Korean Interactions and in English Interactions" (Chung-hye Han); "Can You…

The manual of standard Turkmen language is designed to teach basic language skills that Peace Corps volunteers need during a tour in Turkmenistan. An introductory section gives information about the Turkmen language, including a brief history, notes on the alphabet, vowel and consonant sounds, rules of vowel harmony, and specific grammatical forms…

This International atlas of language vitality offers a cartography of language functions, based on a quantitative measure of the vitality of each language. It covers the constitutional languages of India, and offers maps, graphs, and data tables illustrating the vitality ratings of 14 languages by state, domain of usage (religion, schools, mass…

There is a growing tendency to accept that schools can teach the concept of code switching in language awareness programs, and this has been done in Denmark, to an extent, for a decade or so. This research studied code switching as an interpersonal power tool in two minority children who participated in a longitudinal study of the bilingual…

The eighth grade unit in Ukrainian as a second language, the second in a series, is designed as a teacher's guide for use in Alberta secondary schools. The unit duration is approximately 15-20 lessons. An introductory section outlines the structures and vocabulary used in the unit and contains a dialogue in Ukrainian. A series of exercises…