EACH VOLUME IN THE CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS LANGUAGE HANDBOOK SERIES, WHICH ENCOMPASSES THE MAJOR MODERN LANGUAGES OF ASIA AND AFRICA, IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE AN OUTLINE OF THE SALIENT FEATURES OF A PARTICULAR LANGUAGE AND A SUMMARY OF THE LANGUAGE SITUATION AND LANGUAGE PROBLEMS OF THE COUNTRY OR AREA IN WHICH IT IS SPOKEN. THE ARABIC…

This is a study of tense variation in "si"-clauses in Buenos Aires Spanish which basically consists of the substitution of the conditional for the imperfect subjunctive. The highest frequency of imperfect subjunctive shows up in +Contrary examples, while the conditional substitutes much more often in -Contrary examples. When the…

This paper argues that it may be much more damaging, psychologically, to try to correct the written usage of persons whose nonstandard written forms correlate with their spoken dialect than to try to correct the nonstandard written forms of persons who do not use nonstandard forms in their speech. It is possible that nonstandard speakers will view…

Selected phonological, morphological, and syntactic evidence from two hours of tape recordings of conversations of a four-year-old Native American New Mexican was examined to determine its value in assessing the child's bidialectalism. (Author/SW)

Literacy education in Jamaica lacks an officially accepted policy and methodology for teaching creole speakers. This has led to a low literacy level across the population. The distinctive features of Jamaican Creole are highlighted in this article in order to give theoretical and pedagogical insights to literacy teachers. (VM)

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)

Twenty texts in the Chinese dialect of Shanghai city are presented as a tool for those familiar with some dialect of Chinese who are learning this variety. The texts, recorded as spontaneous speech, were originally collected for grammatical analysis and have been revised somewhat for print form. They are arranged in approximate order of…

A study analyzed the use of six nonstandard linguistic variables by eight adolescent and eight adult African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), each group equally divided into males and females, from Muncie, Indiana. The study was designed to investigate whether occupation, a social variable, also determines AAVE speakers' use of nonstandard…

Presents results of a study of the phonological, morphological, and syntactical oral language patterns of disadvantaged children of New Orleans. Many of the findings are relevant to beginning reading instruction. (TO)

Teachers should build on students' existing speech patterns, helping students to gain aural understanding of standard English, and providing oral and written practice. (NH)

Discusses the dilemma that language variation studies have caused concerning the choice of language variety to be used in language instruction, and outlines a taxinomic model for looking at language variation (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Uses W.E.B. Du Bois' prophetic analysis of the color line problem to forecast the 21st century's language line problem, noting how language is central to the reproduction of racialized identities at school and in society for African American students. Juxtaposes language and cultural and social reproduction, hegemony, and race and articulates the…

A discussion of the perception and use of tense in Moroccan Arabic proposes that the language expresses verb aspect much more readily than tense. Implications for teaching Moroccan Arabic as a second language are discussed, and an analysis of the system of tense and aspect in the language is presented. (MSE)

This study used quantitative and qualitative methodology to examine the phonological patterns of 24 3-year-old and 30 4-year-old Spanish-speaking preschoolers of Puerto Rican descent. The children acquired the sounds of their language at an early age and did not exhibit high percentages of occurrence on targeted phonological processes. (DB)