The English spelling system and the teaching of English spelling are discussed in relation to students who are learning English as a second (or foreign) language. The systematic nature of English spelling is described and a brief summary is presented of sound-to-spelling correspondences and of other spelling rules. Specific difficulties which may…

Although studies of Vietnamese refugees indicated that their language values and attitudes encouraged the use and maintenance of Vietnamese as well as the development of English proficiency, a study of adolescent Vietnamese suggested that "Vietnamese English" is an emerging dialect featuring modifications of English structures.…

A "system" comprising the learner-speaker, the specific linguistic system itself, and the interactions with native speakers is posited to explain the dynamics of the acquisition of French as a second language. Through self-regulation, this system devises solutions which pertain to that common area in language at the crossroads of…

This introduction to sociolinguistics is presented in four parts. The first part gives an overview of this branch of language study, its scope and principles of inquiry, and its basic and key concepts. This portion is written for individuals with no prior knowledge or expertise in the subject. Topics covered in this section include: the nature of…

Papers on French linguistics, most in French, address the following topics: micro structural treatment of regionalisms in three French dictionaries; effects of the use of Quebec French on the intelligibility of synthesized speech; reading comprehension as a constructive process; acoustic markers of the utterance in Quebec French; constraints and…

Language attrition research usually attempts to elicit all types of usage from speakers of all fluency levels in a dying language in order to abstract changing linguistic patterns from situational variation. Informants adept at hiding their vernacular and improvising in an obsolescing variety are reluctant to admit to such scrutiny. In a…

This instructional guide for Tunisian Arabic is designed to be used in language training of Peace Corps volunteers in Tunisia. It consists of 15 thematic units focusing on daily living skills and activities. Each contains a brief dialogue in transliterated Arabic, an English translation, lists of vocabulary and expressions, comprehension…

The monograph on the North Alaskan dialect of Inupiaq, an Eskimo language, makes a phonological comparison of the two sub-dialects, Barrow and Kobuk. An introductory section outlines basic word structure and standard orthography, and gives an overview of the dialects' phonology. Subsequent sections give an extensive phonological analysis of these…

The pragmatic expressions of Argentine Spanish (e.g., "bueno, viste, no? mira") are defined as deictic signals. They are deictic because they indicate elements of the communicative situation: transitions between text segments, conversational roles, or the social relationship between participants. They also signal contextual suppositions…

THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD "LANGUAGE" CAN BE LIMITED TO MEAN "A VOCAL AND AUDITORY MEANS OF COMMUNICATION, WHICH WORKS BY THE SYMBOLIC PROCESS, WHICH HAS A COMPLEX STRUCTURE, AND WHICH IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING SO LONG AS IT REMAINS IN USE." THERE ARE SIX IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DEFINITION--(1) ALTHOUGH LANGUAGE IS PRIMARILY AUDITORY AND VOCAL, IT CAN…

This study examines the usage of the auxiliaries "avoir" and "etre" in the passe compose and pluperfect. The study is primarily based on a sample of French written by agroup of grade 9 Franco-Ontarian pupils from the Sudbury region. The students' written French is shown to include a high proportion of cases where intransitive…

This document contains three reports in prepublication form on research conducted by linguists at the University of Colorado. The first paper presents an argument against the theories concerning the concept of the distributional syllable. Such theories are based on the assumptions that the syllable can and should be defined formally, without…

Examines competition between conflicting principles in Kenyan English (animacy hierarchy and discourse pressure to place given information before new), manifested in news discourse. Results suggest some differences between spoken and written Kenyan English pointing to a tendency toward a more standard native-speaker variety in news discourse, and…

In Bulgaria, a complex matrix of power relations governs English language education, and a triangle of international and intercultural relations between Bulgaria, United States, and United Kingdom. In the context of the changing economic and political milieu of central and eastern Europe, a study examines how Bulgaria fits into the emerging…