One of the ways to investigate the mental lexicon is to use word association tests. Empirical studies comparing associations by children and adults have indicated a tendency for children to give syntagmatic responses, whereas adults give paradigmatic responses. In order to investigate lexical development in L2 acquisition of Swedish we collected…

In this article, the author describes the French immersion program at Meriden Junior School, an Anglican school for girls from pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 in Sydney. Four teachers (one of whom is the coordinator) and three assistants are involved in the program. They include six French native speakers and one non-French-born teacher who speaks…

Five examples are presented of how native speakers may try to explain a grammatical point to a linguist, and in the absence of a suitable meta-language, adopt some "lateral" way of demonstrating the point. (five references) (Author/LB)

This paper explores how students adjust to life at universities outside their home countries. Much of the current research was conducted prior to the 9/11 tragedy and focuses primarily on studies within a single U.S. institution. This project expands the boundaries by including multiple institutions from around the globe post-9/11. Findings…

This paper explores the perceived parental influence (PPI) on mathematics learning among over 700 students across three year levels (Years 5, 7, 9) in China and Australia. It was found that the PPI of students was less strong as year levels increased in both countries. Students in China had stronger perceived parental encouragement and higher…

In 2003, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at The University of Western Australia (UWA) underwent a major restructure involving the move from eight-point units to six-point or twelve-point units. For the discipline group of European Languages and Studies this redistribution of points resulted in the creation of a new series of…

A study to determine the incidence of functional illiteracy in English among adults in the metropolitan area of Sydney is reported, which showed the incidence of illiteracy among Australian/English born adults to be lower than previously reported while that among non-English born is very high. (WL)

Aimed to investigate what cultural factors might influence the classroom performance of overseas-educated foreign language teachers in Australian classrooms. Particular focus is on the early classroom experience of Japanese native speaking teachers and trainees. (Author/VWL)

Results of basic skills literacy and numeracy tests administered to primary school students in New South Wales showed a large and consistent advantage in favor of students from English-speaking backgrounds. Although there was little evidence found for cultural bias, several test items were unnecessarily complex or unclear. (12 references)…

Discusses "border crossing" by individuals who augment their cultural valence through acquiring competence in and positive attitudes toward other cultures. Reports on two studies carried out according to the principles of humanistic sociology and based on memoirs written by university graduates. (Author/VWL)

Discusses some of the conceptual problems underlying distinctions between native and nonnative speaker, between foreign and second language learners, and the related difficulty of eliciting valid and reliable data about language background. Problems are illustrated with reference to a scheme developed in Australia involving the classification of…

Describes a project that aimed to provide target language experiences for second and third year Spanish as a foreign language learners in Australia. The project involved exposing students to native Spanish speakers. Findings show that students made a noticeable improvement in communicative competence, and they became more knowledgeable about…

Compares the linguistic acceptability of the various forms of "need" in non-assertive contexts (i.e. in interrogatives and negatives) between two speech communities: Australians as native speakers of English, and Hong Kong people as second or foreign language learners of English. (Author/VWL)

Investigates potential problems with training native speaker interlocutors to carry out a series of oral interactions with a candidate for overseas employment with the Australian government. Findings reveal the effects of interlocutor variables and audiotape quality on ratings. Evaluates the overall feasibility of the procedure and examines…

Examined spontaneous teacher/child discourse in two year-one Sydney classrooms, one where the majority of children came from non-English-speaking backgrounds and one where all children were native English speakers. Significant differences existed between the discourse in each classroom in terms of the frequency of the teacher's speech and the…