A study compared and contrasted the use of openings, summational closings, and closures in Italian and U.S. business letters to examine the role of culture in international business communication. It is argued that the Italian business letter should be studied in a functional intra-cultural perspective where its meaning creates and maintains…

A study investigated variations in five native Japanese-speakers' consonant patterns in English as a Second Language. The eight phonological segments considered were English consonant clusters and final consonants. Subjects listened to a recording of a text by a native English-speaker and then read the text aloud five times. A similar procedure…

A study of mother-child interaction focused on the contingent responses children make to various mother strategies to elicit language and the mothers' frequency of using that tactic. The subjects were six normal and four retarded children, matched for general language skills, and their mothers. Mother-child interactions videotaped at home were…

An examination of literature in translation is vital to literary interpretation and, ultimately, essential to mutual understanding among peoples from different cultures. Teaching translations requires consideration of linguistic, social, and temporal areas. Translations require alterations in language since languages never translate precisely from…

Documented sex differences in speech and their significance are considered. The research literature on sex-differentiated speech reveals the influence of sex-role stereotypes and assumptions about the relation of speech to sex-differentiated socialization. The more substantiated differences form three clusters: (1) the production of esteemed…

Many classics in children's literature have metaphoric structures that enhance the structure of the plot. Metaphor is not an added frill to creative writing, nor is it the private province of poets. It is a necessary part of everyday language. One viewpoint on metaphor can be found in studies on child language acquisition. Children do use…

Results of a study documenting the Mexican American's unique Spanish dialectal expressions used in the barrios of San Antonio, Texas, and its surrounding areas are presented. The expressions included are those which were not recorded in the "Diccionario de la Real Academia Espanola" (19th Edition) or which were recorded therein but with…

Twenty-two interviews were conducted with the owner, managers, employees, suppliers, customers, and competitors of an auto dealership employing 91 people in order to examine the oral traditions of that company. The interviews provided data on management styles, dynamics of the managers' interaction, general language usage, paralanguage, favorable…

Slobin (1991, 1996a,b, 1997) has argued that the typological differences between languages with either a satellite-framed or a verb-framed lexicalisation pattern (Talmy, 2000) have important discourse and rhetorical consequences for the expression of "paths of movement" and "manner of movement". These differences are especially…

Cultural and dialect differences affect the writing style of black college students in several different ways. Some stylistic features, such as hypercorrection that involves confused word choice, grammatical deviation, or incorrect word order, are undesirable in spite of the fact that they indicate a knowledge of the formality of writing and a…

Examines language and social stratification through content analysis. Linguistic forms, conditions and regulating functions are explored. (MH)

The article presents an audio-visual teaching method for advanced students of Italian, in which major emphasis is placed on phonostylistic and semiotic factors: intonation and stress, rhythm, and gestures. A sample exercise is included. (CLK)

Noting that the question of how to evaluate the effect of an educational program on child language reduces to the question of how to analyze child language, the author discusses ways to measure those functional aspects of child language which may be most sensitive to both environmental interferences and environmental facilitations. (Author/JM)

An attempt is made to answer these questions: (1) whether writing practice has a place in foreign language instruction; and (2) if so, what kinds of writing pupils should learn. Suggestions are proposed as to content and procedure of a continuing course in writing skills for Dutch secondary schools. (AM)

Discusses the semantic field of "expression" and the implications for the teaching of oral and written expression. (Text is in French.) (AM)