Consonant harmony, a complex phonological assimilation in which segments (usually consonants, but sometimes even vowels) become identical, which occurs in the speech of young children and adult aphasics, is analyzed, particularly as it occurs in Finnish-speakers. Consonant harmony has an articulatory basis: it is a trend toward repetition of the…

A study investigated three issues: (1) differences between two types of rhetorical organization of expository text (problem-solution pattern and collection-of-descriptions pattern) in the reading recall of second-language readers; (2) differences between the two types on reading recall of readers at two levels; and (3) relationship between the…

In distance education to date, the nature of teaching and learning in all academic domains has largely been understood in terms of behaviorist theories, more recently drawing on cognitive science from which principles and models for course design have been derived. This paper takes as its starting point contemporary critiques of such 'traditional'…

Experiences with the data, analysis, and results in the Finnish Contrastive Discourse Analysis Project (1985-1988) at the University of Oulu are reported. The purpose of the project was to describe the conversational skills of advanced Finnish speakers of English, and especially to determine the level of their social competence or their ability to…

A collection of 27 syllabi for undergraduate and graduate courses on language and gender is presented. The syllabi come from a variety of departments, including linguistics, anthropology, English, French, German, and folklore. Special features of the collection include: syllabi for undergraduate and graduate courses; ideas for paper topics;…

The question in English-As-Second-Language (ESL) classrooms is not whether a teaching method is good or not, but whether the teacher knows how, for what purpose, for what kind of students, and in what language situation a particular method is used to enhance learning effectively. In teaching English to Chinese students at Xi'an Foreign Language…

This volume contains working papers on a variety of topics in linguistics. They include: "A View of Phonology from a Cognitive and Functional Perspective" (Joan Bybee); "The Geography of Language Shift: Distance from the Mexican Border and Spanish Language Claiming in the Southwestern United States" (Garland D. Bills, Eduardo…

A study investigating difficulties encountered by Chinese graduate students in asking questions in the American classroom, and suggested solutions, are presented. An introductory section describes features of the Chinese educational system, focusing on attitudes toward questioning. The first chapter offers sociolinguistic and pragmatic…

A discussion of the current status and future of Celtic languages in the United Kingdom looks at the social and linguistic history of the languages, problems facing the community of Celtic language users, specific tensions and relationships, implications for reform of social policy, and the role of formal language planning, legislation, and key…

To be successful, a vocabulary improvement program should teach vocabulary directly but in a meaningful context, involve teachers and use vocabulary from all content areas, and represent a long term commitment. Strategies promoting an effective program include the following: (1) teaching word consciousness, (2) using materials at students'…

This collection consists of 21 papers presented at the July 1983 Annual Summer Conference on "The Computer: Extension of the Human Mind II," in Eugene, Oregon. Six papers were presented at general interest sessions; 15 were from special interest group sessions. The general interest papers include David Ahl's "Keeping Up with Computers in Education…

A study investigated patterns in the apparent syntactic errors of native English-speaking, upper-level learners of Arabic as a foreign language. One hundred writing samples, including summaries, criticisms, and free composition, were gathered from a number of university courses. Error types analyzed included articles, subordinate clauses, two-word…

This paper is based on research that aims to provide evidence of which approach, contrastive analysis (CA) or error analysis (EA), is more adequate in dealing with errors in tense formation and usage made by Greek learners of English. A contrastive analysis of the English and Greek tense systems, providing points of correspondence and divergence…

Three articles on the orthography of Australian Aboriginal Kriol include: "Aspects of Developing a Writing System with Particular Reference to the Revision of the Kriol Orthography"; "A Guide to the Kriol Writing System"; and "A Resource Guide to Kriol." In the first two papers, issues of dealing with orthography in a…

The Instituto Caro y Cuervo of Bogota, Colombia, named after two outstanding Colombian intellectuals, was established in 1942 primarily to complete the lexicographic work of Rufino Jose Cuervo. It has continued its work through several reorganizations, and in 1947 was charged with the study of the present state of the Spanish language in various…