The question explored is whether native speakers'"simplified" or modified utterances, as in foreigner-talk (FT), actually facilitate comprehension for nonnative speakers hearing such utterances. It is concluded that linguistically more complex input will not necessarily impede comprehension. (49 references) (Author/LB)

Analyzes the use of language in two British and Australian secondary school textbooks and a corpus of written British English of one million words. Significant differences were found in the distribution of syntactic patterns in the two books, and these differences are discussed as evidence of the ideological stances expressed in the books.…

Lectures of two first-semester teaching assistants, one native American English speaker (NS) and one Korean (NNS) whose discourse was perceived as difficult to follow, were examined. It is argued that the NS's hypotatic constructions provide explicit signals of logical and prominence relations that are missing in the NNS's discourse. (51…

Comments are offered on an earlier paper on theory construction in second-language acquisition. A critical perspective is offered that is characterized by the ethical foundations of theory construction (and scientific activity in general) and the grounding of theory in practical activity. (60 references) (Author/LB)

The authors of a new book on the relationship of discourse and French language instruction, bringing different language backgrounds and professional perspectives to the issue of language teaching theory and practice, are interviewed. Discussion focuses on the role of discourse analysis in language teaching. (MSE)

An examination of approaches to analyzing speech reporting, found that the various approaches fall into two broad categories: traditional, emphasizing the syntactic dimension; and discourse pragmatic, emphasizing the interaction of syntactic, pragmatic, and stylistic factors. A model is proposed and applied to learner varieties of English and…

In a study of adult speakers of Spanish learning English, English and Spanish stress assignment is examined. Results are discussed in terms of the proper domain for extrametricality and the transfer of first-language extrametricality markings. (17 references) (Author/LB)

This study represents a first step in helping students of English learn the use and pronunciation of the letter "s." Beginning with a large corpus of contemporary "s" words and the distribution of /s/ allophones in Old English, the research uncovers the complete rule set in Modern English. (17 references) (Author/LB)

Argues that a special approach is needed to teach Standard American English to West Indians and that they not be placed in classes with native or limited-English speakers. Identifies the linguistic features of West Indian Creole. Reviews research conducted in Great Britain on West Indian immigrants' special problems and needs. (PAA)

A study investigated children's understanding of the formal and functional aspects of written Chinese in an orthographic acceptability judgment task and a creative spelling task. Subjects were 60 Hong Kong children ages 4 to 9. Results suggest that learning to read and write in Chinese is not accomplished by rote learning of characters but through…

Summarizes an initiation to feminism through courses and an English for specific purposes curriculum evaluation completed as part of a thesis. Discusses how feminism can have an impact on fields such as TESL and applied linguistics, how feminist education and research relate to other epistemologies, and how feminist features can be applied to…

Examines the discussion of results in medical research articles to determine the strategies used by the writers to persuade the readers that their research is either new or a development of previous work and that their study is a contribution to a specialist field. Twenty-four research articles were analyzed using Swales moves analysis as well as…

Based on the analysis of the video recording of a French Grade 7 mathematics, this analysis bears on two specific episodes when two pupils--a boy and a girl-- successively go to the board and correct an exercise. The methodology used is a psychoanalytically-oriented clinical approach enriched with a micro-analytical description of the behavior of…

A qualitative study analyzed the distribution of participation by young children (ages 3-5) in family dinnertime conversation, focusing on "backstage talk," sequences adjacent to those in which the child is involved and within his auditory range, so that the child-projected participation-role alternates between that of addressee and overhearer.…

When creative uses of spoken language have been investigated, the main examples have been restricted to particular contexts such as narrative and related story-telling genres. This paper reports on an initial investigation using the 5 million word CANCODE corpus of everyday spoken English and discusses a range of social contexts in which creative…