This collection of conference papers begins with "Introduction" (Ronald P. Leow and Cristina Sanz), then presents five sections. Section 1, "Morphosyntax," includes "Preterit and Imperfect in Spanish: The Early Stages of Development" (Joaquim Camps); "The Relationship between Syntactic and Morphological Abilities in Advanced FL Learners of…

Most of the population of Japan remains ethnically Japanese. For this reason, bilingualism has never been a subject of significant concern in Japan. With the recent influx of new groups of non-Japanese speakers into Japan, the society is becoming more multilingual. This book introduces the way languages are used in Japanese interlingual families,…

This collection of 29 original articles provides an informative overview of current linguistic research on Spanish in the United States. Many of the chapters focus on regional aspects, ranging from sociolinguistic issues among Dominicans in New York and Cubans in Miami to the adoption and adaptation of forms from Nahuatal and English in the…

Discusses the situational-structural syllabus with emphasis on more clearly defining objectives in both scope and content. Four directions for these syllabi are suggested: (1) priority of semantic and functional notions; (2) subordination of grammatical features; (3) introduction of spoken language discourse; and (4) reduction of grammatical…

Discusses the bilingual education-ESL (English as a Second Language) controversy, revealing similarities between accepted definitions of both approaches. Explains ESL theory and essential elements of bilingual education programs from an ESL viewpoint. Describes possible contributions to bilingual education programs from ESL teachers. Calls for…

Hispanic children in grades 1 and 3 were tested to examine the relationship between degree of bilingualism in English and Spanish, intellectual development level, and performance on two tests of cognitive-perceptual functioning or field dependence/independence. A positive, significant relationship was found between relative language proficiency…

Discusses the politics of bilingual education for minorities in China. The article notes that such education has been provided in some minority schools as a part of the government's policy to improve relationships with ethnic minorities in China. (24 references) (Author/CK)

Utilizes Uwe Poerksen's concept of "plastic words" to examine and criticize the preeminence given to research in art education. "Plastic words" refers to vague technical jargon that suggests meaning without actually providing it (e.g., development, process, goal-setting). Argues that this usage inherently corrupts and diverts any productive…

Investigated the effects of the number of tokens in the conceptual representation of the to-be-uttered subject noun phrase in experiments in Dutch and French, in which subject-verb agreement errors were induced. Findings revealed a distributivity effect in both languages, supporting an account in which neither null nor post-verbal subjects are the…

Examines the effects of a first-language orthographic system on second-language (L2) word recognition strategies. Lexical judgment tests using Japanese syllabic script were given to native English and native Chinese learners of Japanese. Results indicated that Chinese speakers relied more on visual information in L2 Japanese words, whereas the…

Discusses the ways languages of Europe render the "given"-"new" distinction on the basis of data collected by means of presenting speakers of various languages with the task of reconstructing a route on a map. The article raises questions about the nature of "wh"-pronouns in English and about what is shared by these…

Reconsiders Ioup's (1984) claim that individuals can only use phonological clues in identifying the native language of English-as-a-Second-Language students. Results indicate that Ioup's claim does not give sufficient regard to some crucial considerations, including the potential of bilingual judges to detect characteristic structural errors of…

A study analyzed repetition in the discourse of students of Spanish as a second language working on a writing assignment in collaborative dyads (n=5). Results show the sociocultural and mental activity was mediated by repetition of both first- and second-language utterances, whose effect was to create and maintain a shared perspective of the task…

Questions the plausibility of the unitary competence hypothesis, which assumes a universal structure of second language competence. New evidence, showing divergent structures in language ability subgroups and different influences of teaching styles on different language components, better supports a multidimensional model of foreign language…

This study examined linguistic interdependence in 98 bilingual Turkish/Dutch children of Turkish background living in the Netherlands since birth, to determine whether language and literacy skills can be transferred from 1 language. The results indicated that, although the transference of lexicon and syntax skills was limited, pragmatic,…