Research for this essay was supported by the Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (DS)

American Italian exhibits interference from English in loanwords, loanblends, loanshift extensions and loan translations, and some of these are analyzed in this paper. (CK)

An investigation of the sociolinguistic features that govern contemporary use of the Italian formal ("Lei") and informal ("tu") forms of address suggests that teachers of Italian must help students become aware of the complex factors underlying the choice of form, rather than just drill them in usage. (12 references) (CB)

Reviews the limited amount of research regarding ways in which primary stress is assigned to second conjugation infinitives in Italian and then proposes a new perspective taking into consideration root vowels, root-final consonants, syllable onset, monosyllabic vs. polysyllabic roots, and canonical form. (CB)

Describes the high Italian speech variety commonly used by Italian Americans, based on a study of 39 Italian Americans that included interviews and questionnaires. Dialectal characteristics, convergence with English, and language maintenance and language shift in the Italian-American community are discussed. (CB)

Offers a sampling of results achieved by Relational Grammar in exposing "hidden rules" behind various facts of Italian, major conspicuous facts as well as tiny arcane ones. (CB)

Develops an extended and precise rendering of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in order to clarify difficulties in analyzing Italian. The method used is the paradigm method of analysis since there are no universal phonemic rules of pronunciation that will allow one to correctly pronounce Italian. Tables of transcriptions are included. (32…

Discusses strategies for enhancing vocabulary acquisition in first- and second-year Italian courses. The first part reviews the research on vocabulary acquisition; the second incorporates the implications of Danesi's model of neurological bimodality; the third part focuses on techniques for vocabulary elicitation; and the fourth presents examples…

Focuses on how the foreign language instructors' understanding of the historical development of forms and systematic language patterns enhances classroom presentations by transforming lists of irregularities and exceptions into coherent groups of related elements. Discusses examples of structures traditionally presented in lists or tables and…