This book is a comprehensive treatment of the literature on second language acquisition in childhood, viewed in terms of contemporary process models. After a general introduction on bilingualism in society, six major topics are considered: first-language acquistion, language acquisition and learning in childhood and adulthood, simultaneous…

Surveys the linguistic situation as well as the organization of foreign language instruction in the countries of Western Europe. Although linguistic diversity would serve rather than hinder mutual comprehension and cooperation, monolingualism is the usual tendency in most of the countries with the exception of Holland and Luxemburg. (Text is in…

The Survey of Second Language Teaching was conducted in 1959-1961 to investigate the nature and extent of the problem of second language learning in developing nations. This document summarizes the survey. It identifies the second language factor in national development, discusses the nature and extent of its problems and surveys the resources…

The 'Association Linguistique Franco-Europeenne' analyzed 1600 questionnaires completed by French students to find out the motives for choosing the languages they study versus which languages they would like to study. The results are tabulated. The general conclusion is that multilingualism is beneficial to world peace and should be encouraged.…

The foreign language requirement in the educational system of West Germany has been reduced to one language. The state governments seem to promote English to the detriment of other European languages. Statistics are given for which languages are taught in which states and at what educational levels. (Text is in French.) (TL)

The Soviet Union (USSR) is an immense multinational and multilingual country. At the time of the Revolution (1917) there were 150 national languages spoken in the USSR and 180 recognized linguistic groups, however, 70% of the total population of the USSR was illiterate and the literacy rate of the Middle Asia varied from 1% to 5%. After 1917, mass…

Following a brief review of the history of interest in foreign languages in America, facts to be considered when interpreting falling enrollment statistics, such as a drop in the birth rate, are discussed. It is stressed that foreign language teaching cannot be neglected in a world having improved and extensive communication between people…

The languages of Nigeria and language usage in that country are discussed in a study designed to illustrate the need for a Nigerian lingua franca. Extensive data are first presented on Nigerian languages and dialects, their classification, and their geographic distribution. The remainder of the survey is devoted to a sociolinguistic study of…

Discusses the teaching of European languages and less commonly taught languages at all educational levels in Australia. Reference is made to multilingualism and language instruction in other countries. (AM)

Social norms, situational and geographic considerations, formality of spoken language desired, and educational attitudes ranging from normative to permissive inhibit the determination of instructional criteria. (Text is in French.) (Author/MSE)

This report describes the scope and aims of the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa. An outgrowth of a series of ICSLP conferences (International Conference on Second Language Problems, jointly sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics, the British Council, and the Bureau pour l' Enseignement de la Langue et de la…

Recent work in the field of sociolinguistics is discussed as it relates to problems of national integration in a multilingual society. The implications of such a situation for language teaching programs are also discussed. (RM)

This compilation of articles deals with practical questions of bilingualism that appear to be important to the development of education in Britain. The conference for which the papers were originally prepared concentrated on three general aspects: the existence of many thousands of bilingual children in Britain whose native languages are largely…

Belgium is a multilingual country divided into three linguistic areas: (1) the Flemish-Netherlandic speaking area in Flanders; (2) the French-speaking area in Wallonia; and (3) the German-speaking area in the East of Wallonia. An educational experiment on English as a foreign language (EFL) in the primary school was undertaken at the Educational…