Discusses the distinctions that exist among the uses of "ser" and "estar" in Spanish. They are explained with reference to the semantic values present in the three basic functions of these verbs: principal, auxiliary, and attributive. (NCR)

Foreign language students often find themselves unable to produce appropriate responses in certain social situations. A contributing factor is that until recently, linguists and foreign language educators have concentrated on the student's acquisition of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon), and have not concerned themselves with…

Examines the current situation regarding the study and use of French in various European countries as well as the United States. It is suggested that French language and culture can best be promoted through the promotion of the study of many languages. (AM)

The effect of Finnish language experiences on the way native speakers of English evaluate errors made by Finns in producing English was examined. The study was designed to show the role of the criterion of acceptability in the evaluation process and to establish some of the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors that may affect the…

In order to gain further information about the emerging metaphoric capacity of preadolescents, a training study was devised in which subjects were seen repeatedly over a period of several months. Thirteen fifth grade students from a lower-middle-class background were randomly selected to compose a training group and 18 matched subjects formed a…

This article investigates a specific foreign language (FL) learning problem, the substitution of /s,z/ for English unvoiced and voiced "th" by native speakers of Egyptian Arabic, and concludes that the facts are better explained in terms of language transfer than by an explanation in terms of inherent difficulty independent of native…

A number of claims made by Bereiter and Engelmann, two of the strongest proponents of the verbal-deprivation hypothesis, are examined in light of data gathered during a longitudinal study of two children acquiring Black English Vernacular. The "giant-word syndrome" and its proposed concomitants of absence of developmental stages, deviant…

This paper points out the irrelevance of the sentence-based grammatical explanations found in most grammar reference books and ESL textbooks with regard to answering questions such as: (1) when and why do native speakers of English use the passive rather than the active voice, and (2) when and why does the native speaker of English use the present…

Reports the results of a national survey conducted in the US to determine: (1) languages used in the home, (2) second languages learned, (3) current use of second language, (4) attitudes toward the worth of second language study, and (5) opinions about the opportunity and requirement to study languages at various educational levels. (AM)

This report assesses the state of the art of research into and accepted knowledge of "language in the classroom," particularly in Scotland. The discussion is organized in six sections: (1) language-related causes of educational failure and remedial programs set up with the intention of compensating for various kinds of deprivation; (2)…

This report, based on the materials used by the Committee on Irish Language Attitudes Research, describes the relations between language policy and socioeconomic development in the Republic of Ireland. Their contribution to central state planning in the maintenance and extension of Irish since attainment of political independence in 1922 is…

Language teaching typically reflects current research, and, until quite recently, grammatical competence (e.g., in the Chomskyan sense) was the major target of linguistic research. Emphasizing the spoken language, the term "fluency," as applied to the foreign language performance of a language learner, is correlated to foreign language…

A study of teacher attitudes towards prescriptive grammar instruction stresses the use of reinforcement as a teaching technique and reveals the importance of preservice and field experience programs geared to realistic presentation of practical classroom situations. (LH)

This is the third of a series of three volumes containing papers from a bilingual symposium held in 1975. Presentations and discussion at the symposium dealt primarily with suggestions for research which linguists should undertake to assist bilingual programs. This volume contains the following papers: "Sociolinguistics: Contributions to Bilingual…

The purpose of this paper is to classify the types of errors Arabs make with definiteness in English and to count the rate of occurrence of each. To accomplish this, 16 three-hour American history final examinations written by Arabic speakers at the University of Texas at Austin were examined. This discussion is limited to the four categories (out…