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…

Considers previous research and data regarding the relative frequencies of a wide variety of lexical items expressing doubt and certainty in written and spoken corpuses and uses the data to evaluate the adequacy of some well-known English as a second language textbooks. (Author/CB)

Analyzes the impact and shortcomings of a nationwide training program for elementary school teachers initiated by the French Government in the early 70s. Questions the general policy and some aspects of these programs on the basis of the history of the Montpellier Teachers' Institute. (MES)

Describes cooperative, long-term work with speech and language pathologists aimed at achieving linguistically-illuminated understanding of discourse-level considerations in speech and language assessment. Highlights the importance of identifying the different assumptions of the applied linguist and her client about project goals and the nature of…

Linguists and language specialists, as well as the lay public, have generally viewed language from a perspective that is fundamentally positivist in orientation. We tend to assume that language as an abstract entity exists as just such a knowable entity. More problematically, we assume that particular languages also exist as knowable entities…

The City University of New York is an ideal home for the doctoral training center in urban and applied linguistics since it is located in an area with a large number of non-English speakers demonstrating varied dialect forms, immigrant groups from many countries, and individuals representing all economic and social levels. In addition, there are…

Describes major events and achievements during TESOL's first 20 years. Outlines three challenges which TESOL and its membership face: administrative, financial, and geopolitical. (Author/LMO)

Reports the results of an investigation on institutes for elementary school teachers inservice training, based on questionnaires directed to the trainees and the educators, and on an analysis of students' work. Focuses on various aspects of French language teaching and especially on grammar and vocabulary exercises. (MES)

This article presents an interview with Professor Alan Davies who was born in Wales, studied at Oxford University and Birmingham University, and taught in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, completing 40 years this year. Professor Davies has travelled widely to give invited talks and seminars, participate in applied linguistics conferences,…

This article discusses issues in measuring lexical diversity, before outlining an approach based on mathematical modelling that produces a measure, D, designed to address these problems. The procedure for obtaining values for D directly from transcripts using software (vocd) is introduced, and then applied to thirty-two children from the Bristol…

This paper investigates administrative training in the teaching of English-as-a-Second-Language (TESL) teacher training programs to see if current teacher training adequately meets future TESL teacher administrative training needs. A survey was mailed to all current directors of graduate TESL and applied linguistics programs in the United States.…

This report on machine translation contains a brief history of the field; a description of the processes involved; a discussion of systems currently in use, including three software packages on the market (Teaching Assistant, Translate, and Globalink); reflections on implications for teaching; observations of results obtained when elements of…

A workshop was developed at the Bank of Canada to give instruction in writing brief summaries of financial analyses to junior economists entering the bank after university. These employees were expected to write these analyses for the senior officers of the institution. It had been found that the specialists had not learned strategies for…

The communicative method of language instruction is compared with other, generalized methods currently used, in terms of content, the variety of forms taught to express the same thought, oral and written language, emphasis on form versus message content, the nonverbal element, and the teaching of language context. (MSE)

Task-based instruction (TBI) is frequently promoted as an effective teaching approach, superior to "traditional" methods, and soundly based in theory and research. The approach is often justified by the claim that linguistic regularities are acquired through "noticing" during communicative activity, and should therefore be addressed primarily by…