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Scherre 2001 argue that the phenomenon follows language-internal developments. The present study focuses on variable marking ofcomplex/invariant plurals (nouns ending in /l, r, z/ and nasal diphthongs). Statistical runs reveal that a numeral adjective favors thedeletion of /s/ at the noun, regardless of its relative position in the noun phrase. The study advances the discussion of priorcreolization for PBP.Fred Field (California State University, Northridge) Session 88The double-whammy: Linguistic minority writers, rhetorical strategies, & salient grammatical featuresReading, presumably half of literacy, is not merely deciphering an alphabet or decoding written versions of what people say. Itinvolves considerable cultural knowledge, knowledge characteristically possessed by ‘mainstream’ children of traditionally literatemiddle class folks. When engaging in academic writing (literacy's other half), nonnative speakers of English and those who speaknonstandard varieties, including creoles, are typically penalized for both failing to structure discourse according to ‘accepted’rhetorical strategies and for surface grammatical errors (hence, the double whammy). I discuss links between cultural literacy andwritten language, popular culture and oral language, and their affects on teachers' expectations.Sara Finley (Johns Hopkins University) Session 7William Badecker (Johns Hopkins University)Vowel harmony & cognitive restrictions on feature-based learningWe present results from three artificial grammar learning experiments that support a cognitively biased, feature-based theory ofphonological learning. Adults listened to mini languages with morphophonological alternations that were modulated by back/roundvowel harmony (Experiments 1 and 2) and height harmony (Experiment 3). Training with positive data exposed participants to fourvowels in a six-vowel inventory. Forms with the two remaining vowels appeared at test only. If participants use features and naturalclasses, they should generalize to the novel segments. Participants’ generalization to novel segments correlated with cross-linguisticharmony typology, supporting the cognitively biased feature-based theory of learning.Malcolm A. Finney (California State University, Long Beach) Session 89Creoles as mediums of instruction: A realistic or an idealistic notion?I support the notion of using creoles as mediums of instruction and draw on linguistic and pedagogical principles for support.Acquisition and development of literacy skills are more effective with oral proficiency. Thus, literacy introduction is preferable in thelanguage--the creole--that children speak and think in. I address two possible ways in which this could be implemented, monolingualcreole instruction or a bilingual education program using both the creole and the existing official languages as mediums of instruction.I further address challenges in implementation including problems of standardization and codification, negative attitudes, andresources required.Malcolm A. Finney (California State University, Long Beach) Session 88Determining country of origin through language analysis: Asylum cases involving Sierra Leone Krio & EnglishThe civil war in the 1990s in Sierra Leone resulted in refugees purportedly from Sierra Leone seeking asylum primarily in Europeancountries, which have often relied on paid analyses and counter-analyses of recordings of language use (including Krio and English) todetermine accurate language use and in effect speech communities of applicants. As a counter-analyst, I use concrete examples frommultiple assignments I have been involved with to identify the strengths and challenges of such analyses. Language analysis could beuseful in identifying degree of fluency in a target language but not always in determining country of origin.R. W. Fischer (University of Amsterdam) Session 104Eva van Lier (University of Amsterdam)Comparable distribution of parts-of-speech & dependent clauses in Cofán, an unclassified language spoken in the Amazonian borderregion between Colombia & EcuadorIt has been argued that the distribution of a language's parts-of-speech (PoS) system is similar to the distribution of its dependentclauses (DC's) (E. van Lier, Folia Linguistica 40:239-304, 2006). We discuss Cofán (R. Fischer, A grammar of Cofán, in prep.) as acounter-example to this claim, because it combines functionally flexible DC's with functionally specialized PoS-classes. We arguethat similarity in the distribution of PoS and DC's should be regarded as a default pattern from which a language can deviate as long asit has others means (word order, case marking) to assure functional transparency.120