The role of four cues in the assignment of actor role in Arabic was studied. Fifty-four sentences representing all possible permutations of the cues were presented to 100 native speakers of Arabic who were asked to identify the actor in each sentence. (Contains 41 references.) (JL)

Describes a speech-interactive graphics microworld in which learners speak problem-solving directions to an animated agent and in which new scenarios can be authored. A proof-of-concept application is illustrated for sustaining basic speaking skill in Modern Standard Arabic. (Author/VWL)

Debate over language in education policies and practices in Lebanon has witnessed a shift in emphasis on the cultural-linguistic struggle between Arabic and French/English to emphasis on practical attitudes toward language education that is leading the country toward multilingualism. Discusses decrees and regulations issued by various governments…

Discusses the Military Language Tutor (MILT), a language-tutor authoring system, examining the development of a proof of principal version of MILT's two-dimensional Arabic microworld, which uses speech input to control an animated agent in solving an authored problem and describing an evaluation of the speech-driven microworld at Fort Campbell,…

This paper explores the problems of Arab children with hearing impairments living in Israel. It addresses the linguistic challenges involved such as the intrinsic problems of the Arabic language, the diglossia phenomenon expressed in colloquial dialects and literary registers, and the problems associated with a minority language in Israel. It…

The Arabic Proficiency Test (APT), developed in 1991-92, is described and details of its scoring are outlined. The APT is designed to measure general proficiency in literary Arabic in reading and writing, and in listening and production of standard spoken Arabic. Its proficiency rating scale corresponds to the American Council on the Teaching of…

A study investigated six aspects of the construction of meaning in second language reading: (1) meaning-making strategies used; (2) content and structure of recalls; (3) relationship between recall and meaning-making strategies; (4) differences in ways of measuring structure awareness for different text structure types; (5) differences in…

This issue of the journal includes these papers on contrastive linguistics: "On Some Assumptions and Principles of Contrastive Grammar Illustrated from the Area of Reflexivity in Danish and English" (Torben Thrane); "Deletion in Coordinated Structures in English and Dutch" (Robert R. van Oirsouw); "Methods and Goals of Comparative Systematics"…

A number of Arab countries, particularly those in which English is a foreign language, have gone to considerable lengths to stress and ensure the use of Arabic as a medium of instruction and expression for all branches of higher education. Progress in Arabicization has been accompanied by a diminishing role for the teaching of English to Arab…

A study explored the notion of writing as a sociocultural act in order to discover whether and how native cultural literacy and literary influences manifest themselves rhetorically and stylistically. Data were collected from 223 students in Australian grades 6 through 11, and representing three linguistic and cultural groups: Vietnamese,…

A set of instructional materials for introductory Tunisian Arabic is designed for a 12-week Peace Corps volunteer language course. It provides instructional notes for the teacher and a series of lessons on aspects of grammar, phonology, and morphology. Much of the text is descriptive. Lessons include grammar and phonology notes, exercises, and…

An annotated bibliography contains about 70 citations of instructional materials and materials concerning curriculum development for elementary school foreign language programs. Citations are included for Arabic, classical languages, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. Items on exploratory language courses and general works on…

Writing samples of four Arab college freshmen students of English as a second language were analyzed. The objectives were to classify the lexical problems found, determine the causes of the problems, and examine the students' choice of certain lexical items in an attempt to determine whether the students were more attuned to the form or the…

Presentations by students at a colloquium on student research on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the University of Laval's Faculty of Letters, March 18-19, 1988, include: "Une enquete sur la qualite du francais ecrit au Quebec"; "Amenagement linguistique et neologie"; "Analyse syntaxique des 'arrets et retours' en…

A computer-assisted instructional program to teach the Arabic writing system and elementary vocabulary and comprehension, which was developed at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Texas at Austin in cooperation with the university's College of Liberal Arts, is described. Among the benefits of the computer-assisted approach…