This article discusses the goal of the French class, communicative competence, and the best method to use to achieve this goal, simulation. (Text is in Italian.) (CFM)

Discusses nonstandard forms of English and asks teachers not to emphasize the propriety of standardized English but to extend the student's range of language types. (RL)

This article examines the relationship between linguistic analysis and the psychology of language acquisition in current language teaching practice and illustrates how an awareness of this relationship may lead to new classroom approaches and techniques. (CHK)

Listening comprehension of foreign languages is receiving increasing emphasis in language instruction. It is important therefore to consider some divergences between spoken and written language, together with their implications for language learning and teaching. This article analyzes some such differences in French. (CHK)

Outlines major publishing houses' solutions to the common-gender singular pronoun problem. Maintains that the American English-speaking world employs different standards for speaking and writing, even in educated ranks. Argues that changing spoken language is probably hopeless. Proposes seven tactics through which to counter written grammar and…

The analysis of questionnaire responses of 888 teachers of the hearing impaired found that deaf teachers, teachers with less than six years of experience, and junior high and high school teachers reported incorporating fewer English grammatical features in their sign communication than other teachers. (Author/DB)

Summarizes contact-linguistic research on the Samis and Finns, the northernmost minorities in Scandinavia. The monolingual view of northern Scandinavian languages in the past is complemented with a multilingual perspective of the interaction between minority and larger languages. Among contact patterns discussed are North Germanic-Sami,…

Discusses the concept of politeness in language and its importance and implications in the foreign language classroom, covering interactional rules and competence, politeness as a social-psychological phenomenon, politeness as a learning goal and subject matter, and politeness in discourse. (CB)

Considers previous research and data regarding the relative frequencies of a wide variety of lexical items expressing doubt and certainty in written and spoken corpuses and uses the data to evaluate the adequacy of some well-known English as a second language textbooks. (Author/CB)

Examines the language used by native English speakers in business meetings and compares it with the language taught in English textbooks for use in such meetings, demonstrating that there is almost no correspondence between the two and raising questions regarding the usefulness of such textbooks. (Author/CB)

Describes the concept of "hypermedia," by which readers select and link segments of text, audio, video, or other media in a way that helps them to explore and understand information. A case is made for the use of "hypermedia" in helping students learn and understand language through its provision of massive doses of…

Advocates a "process" viewpoint of language use for second language proficiency testing and explores its potential for greater insights from five perspectives: text linguistics and discourse analysis; interlanguage; expectancy; negotiation and interaction; and communication strategies. (Author/CB)

Reports on the emergence of a new "Americanized" argot (Western cultural influences or objects) in post-Stalinist Russia. The characteristics of the argot's communicative code and the link between the code and the communicative competence of the argot-speaking groups are presented. (Author/CB)

Argues that culture, ethnicity, and class place the Puerto Rican student in a position subordinate to the majority and that administrators, teachers, and staff, by their tacit transmission of unstated norms, values, and beliefs, reproduce relations of domination and power and provide for differential schooling. (SRT)

Examination of the use of the simple present verb tense by three-year-old children (N=2) indicates that analyses in terms of tense or aspect are not adequate to account for its use. Results indicate a need to recognize the way in which the form implicitly refers to norms and thereby entails a type of impersonal motivation. (Author/CB)