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,…

Critical languages refers to less commonly taught languages that the U.S. State Department has deemed necessary for U.S. national defense (Department of Defense 2000). In the current era of globalization and growing interconnectedness, the need for proficient speakers of critical languages has become increasingly urgent. While many foreign…

This paper is derived from a wider study of literacy practice that examines and explores the role played by Qur'anic literacy in the lives of men, women and children in a UK Muslim community. It also draws on the significant body of theoretical work being developed by Gregory and others on the role of siblings and older children in literacy…

This paper describes an attempt to combine the advantages of both example-based translation and stochastic translation methods in an attempt to develop a method for inferring symbolic transfer functions from a bilingual corpus. By formalizing the translation process and applying standard optimization techniques, a system can be developed that will…

This booklet describes the Urdu writing system, and is part of a series of teaching materials for teaching Urdu. A general introduction outlining the main characteristics of the system is followed by a presentation of the alphabet. Letters symbolizing the same sound are then discussed, followed by the vowels. Non-connectors, or letters not having…

Examines the origin, development, and nature of Pakistani English as a distinct language variation with its own cultural and linguistic identity. Lexical borrowing from Urdu is discussed as is the formation of new words through the use of English affixes with Urdu and English bases and though semantical or grammatical shifts. (JL)

This book focuses on the languages spoken by people of South Asian origin living in Britain and is intended to assist individuals in Britain whose work involves them with speakers of these languages. The approach taken is descriptive and practical, offering linguistic, geographic, and historical background information leading to appreciation of…

An annotated bibliography of universally available curriculum materials for Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, Khowar, Marathi, Nepali, and Panjabi contains listings for 33 items available through the large depository systems of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and ERIC. Some are available only in microfiche. An index categorizes the…

Examined the use of the mutual exclusivity constraint in naming objects among young children monolingual in English or bilingual in English/Urdu or in English/Greek. The study used three tests of the constraint: disambiguation, rejection and restriction. Findings revealed that bilingual children used the constraint to a lesser extent than…

Investigation of how 19 adult males listened to and recognized unknown foreign languages (Farsi, Punjabi, Spanish, Indonesian, Arabic, Urdu) indicated that the untrained listeners made complex judgments in describing, transcribing, and identifying phonetic, segmental, suprasegmental, and other impressionistic language details. (Author/CB)

Investigates the language use and literacy practices of 36 children from a Gujarati- and Urdu-speaking Muslim community in Northeast London. These experiences are explored in the children's three-generation families, in the community, and in school interviews, recordings, and observations. (Author/VWL)

This is a self-teaching textbook for learning Hindustani, based on the principle of exposure to the target language and practice. It is part of a series originally prepared for the Armed Forces and now offered to the public. The emphasis is on speaking rather than on reading or writing. The text is designed to be used with a native speaker of…

Focuses on the controversy among Nepali language specialists over the sources of lexical borrowing in Nepali. Lexical items currently are borrowed from both English and Sanskrit, and also Hindi/Urdu, Persian and Arabic. After reviewing Nepali history and language, the question of borrowing from different sources within different domains of…

The evolution of Usmania University in Hyderabad, India, is chronicled. The idea of establishing a university in Hyderabad in which instruction took place in Urdu was presented in 1878, 1885, and 1894, and in 1914 the proposal became a movement, with the nation's education department undertaking the early work, designing a syllabus to correspond…

Reports the findings of a study in which transfer of verb properties was investigated via syntactic data elicited from second language learners. The performance of Hindi-Urdu speakers on tests of English causatives was compared with that of Vietnamese speakers, because there are five significant differences between causativization patterns in…