This article is the first large-scale study to document the speaking proficiency outcomes of intensive programs in less commonly taught languages in US higher education. Speaking proficiency was measured by pre- and postprogram ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interviews (N = 484) in 14 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Indonesian,…

Learning has been moving out of classrooms into virtual and physical spaces for over a decade now (Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula, & Sharples, 2004). It is becoming mobile "in space", i.e. carried across various domains (workplace, home, places of leisure), "in time", as it encompasses different moments of the day, and in…

This article describes the process by which the authors created a Virtual Learning Community for cultural and linguistic exchange between college students of Portuguese in the United States and undergraduate and graduate students of English in Brazil. In addition to describing the way the so-called tandem model for telecollaboration was adapted to…

A growing number of scholars invested in Iberian Studies are asking how peninsular literary and cultural studies might be reimagined, and reinvigorated, by placing the Spanish and Portuguese canons into critical dialogue with each other, and with Galician, Catalan, Basque/Euskadi, and Latin American and North African immigrant writers, cultural…

SINCE 1958, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has gathered and analyzed data on undergraduate and graduate course enrollments in languages other than English in United States colleges and universities. The previous survey examined language enrollments in fall 2009; here the MLA presents its twenty-third survey in the series, describing trends…

Examines the scope of Portuguese language maintenance and ethnicity in and around Newark, New Jersey, and analyzes social and linguistic situations that demonstrate how the relatively homogeneous immigrant group responded to external stimuli (educational, media, religious, and social) regarding language, culture, and ethnicity. (CB)

This monograph examines the language planning situation in Sri Lanka with particular emphasis on the planning of Sinhala as an official language of the country. It explores the historical, social, ideological and political processes, changes in language policy decisions, as well as the complexities of the language policy and planning situation in…

Discusses the Brazilian Sign language digital encyclopedia, which contains a databank of 5,600 signs glossed in Portuguese and English, along with descriptions and illustrations of their signed form. (Author/VWL)

Examines the role of the relative transparency of Portuguese and Spanish orthographies in schoolchildren's word recognition procedures. Both Portuguese and Spanish may be considered as transparent orthographies. Results are discussed in terms of the role played by the differing orthographic transparency of Spanish and Portuguese in young readers'…

Relates characteristics of the Portuguese language to cultural traits of the Portuguese people, focusing on Portuguese history, art, and outlook. (MSE)

Discusses two major theories regarding the origin of the Portuguese inflected infinitive: the imperfect subjunctive theory and the creative theory. Because the inflected infinitive is already established by the time of the earliest documents in Portuguese, no hard evidence exists that would permit a definite solution to the riddle of its…

Replicates and examines the methodology of Pamela Fisherman's study of Brazilian Portuguese speakers, "Interactions: The Work Women Do." The present study further develops the treatment of question forms and finds that not all have a function in developing and maintaining discourse. Few similarities were found in the results of the two…

Examines the process through which modern Portuguese borrows from other languages, mainly French and English. Portuguese adapts these derivatives to conform to its own rules of phonology, morphology, and semantics. (four references) (Author/CK)

Seven experiments conducted in Portuguese examined the role of orthography in blending phonologically defined CVC syllables written either with a final mute "e" (orthographic disyllables) or with a final consonant (orthographic monosyllables). (Author/VWL)

The belief in the unambiguity of specialist texts relies upon a conception of translation limited to purely linguistic levels and a central concept of "stable meanings." From the recognition that specialist texts are, to a great degree, linked to cultural and situational contexts, criteria important for the realization and evaluation of…