G. Richard Tucker

Subjective Reactions to Various Speech Styles in Egypt.

Egypt, with the widespread occurrence of Colloquial and Classical Arabic, is characterized by almost universal diglossia. In fact, AlToma (1971), Iskander (1972) and others recognize four distinct speech varieties which range in a continuum from the Classical Arabic of the Koran to the colloquial speech used by the man in the street. In addition to this diglossic mother tongue situation, nearly all children attending government schools in Egypt study English from grades 7—12. Some pupils attend private language schools where it is one of the official media of instruction. Moreover, university students in most specializations are required to write their graduate theses in English. Furthermore, many movies and television programs appear in English so that a large portion of the Egyptian populace has been exposed to English in some manner. The present study -the first of this kind to be conducted in Egypt — was designed to investigate the views held by Egyptians of various ages and educational backgrounds toward several of the speech varieties used in the Egyptian context (Classical Arabic, Colloquial Arabic, Egyptian English, British English and American English); and to ascertain the perceived suitability of these codes for diverse purposes within Egyptian society. We decided to use a variety of the matched-guise procedure in our study. This technique has been used in a wide variety of setttings to compare the reactions of judges who hear the same speaker reading a passage in contrasting languages (e.g., Lambert, Frankel, and Tucker, 1966; Tucker, 1968; Wölck, 1973); in contrasting dialects (Lambert, Anisfeld, and Yeni-Komshian, 1965); or in contrasting accents

Cognitive Consequences of Bilingual Schooling: The St. Lambert Project through Grade Six.

The cognitive, linguistic, and academic skills of two groups of children following an innovative bilingual education program were examined. These fifth and sixth grade anglophone children, who are being educated in French, are compared to groups of English and French students who are educated in their native language. The results indicate that the Experimental children are similar to thek English Controls in terms of academic, linguistic and cognitive skills. In terms of French skills, they function extremely well in their second language although they do not possess native-like proficiency. Les consequences cognitives de Tenseignement bilingue Le Projet St. Lambert jusqua la 6eme annee Les aptitudes cognitives, linguistiques et academiques ont ete mesurees chez deux groupes denfants suivant un programme detudes innovateur dans Ienseignement bilingue. Ces eleves anglophones de cinquieme et sixieme annee ayant re

Are French Immersion Programs Suitable for Working-Class Children? A Follow-up Investigation

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Judging personality through speech: a French-Canadian example.

This report presents the second evaluation of the progress of two groups of children from working class, English-speaking Canadian homes who have participated in a French immersion program for the first two and three years of schooling. The children in the experimental program are compared with control groups conventionally educated in French or in English at the appropriate grade level. The findings suggest that the children in the Experimental group have begun to master basic French and English language skills and are able to acquire content material taught via French without detrimental side effects. The progress of these children is comparable to that of their middle-class peers who are also in immersion programs.