Describes an experiment which compares the effectiveness of two key word techniques of vocabulary acquisition and gives the original 228-line program which was used. The program is written in BASIC to be run on Commodore CBM or PET machines with one disk drive. Eight references are listed. (MER)

Describes a research project intended to develop a description, within a generative model, of British Sign Language grammar, with particular focus on time expressions. (AM)

The Basic Variety (BV) is understood as instantiation of essential properties of human language capacity and is claimed to be a natural language in the sense that it is constrained by principles of Universal Grammar. This article raises a few points casting doubt on claim that the BV is an I-language, highlighting problem of determining the role…

Comments on changes in the relation between experimental psychology and second language acquisition research. Notes that new themes borrowed from experimental psychology include practice effects, the power law, connectionism, implicit learning and miniature artificial languages. Argues that attempts to attribute language learning to implicit or…

An interactional approach for studies of English as a nonnative language is proposed. The approach entails the adoption of ethnomethodological perspectives on social knowledge, combined with conversation analytic interests in detailing the locally managed character of spoken interaction, and introducing the term "lingua franca" English to describe…

French Creoles are spoken in many different parts of the world, including the Indian Ocean, United States, Caribbean, and South America. These Kweyol speech communities are described, in the Kweyol Project, which examines Kweyol language issues and the establishment of a Kweyol Literacy Scheme. (Contains 15 references.) (LB)

This article describes research carried out with 389 Italian senior high school students to test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between one's written language and cognitive style. This study takes previous research in the area of field dependence and field independence in a new direction. (CFM)

Describes the natural language computer program, "Vinci." Explains that using an attribute grammar formalism, Vinci can simulate components of several current linguistic theories. Considers the design of the system and its applications in linguistic modelling and second language acquisition research. Notes Vinci's uses in linguistics…

This paper illustrates the use of corpus-based analytical techniques to address a range of issues in applied linguistics. This approach provides large databases of naturally occurring discourse, enabling empirical analyses of the actual patterns of use in a language and, when coupled with automatic computational tools, enables analyses of a scope…

GPARS is a generalized transition network system designed for language study by both students and researchers. It generalizes the Augmented Transition Network formalism by allowing top-down, bottom-up, depth-first, breadth-first, determininistic, and nondeterministic parsing strategies to be freely intermixed. (26 references) (Author/LB)

Discusses a method for extrapolation of diachronic processes from synchronic states, the dynamicization of synchronic typologies, to propose a hitherto unobserved historical source for markers of verbal negation, namely irregular negative existential predicate forms. Explanations are proposed for the occurrence of the attested processes in this…

Presents an approach to a typological outline for categorizing minority-language situations in such areas as speaker, language, and setting juxtaposed with dimensions including sociology, linguistics, and psychology. (36 references) (Author/CB)

Argues that, contrary to what is believed by many in the field of applied linguistics, phonology can and should be taught to adult learners. The argument is based on a critical analysis of research on the teachability of phonology in a second language and on an examination of the nature of adult phonological acquisition. (Author/SM)

We investigate a unique attempt at working out a unified theory of second language acquisition (SLA), Carroll's "Autonomous Induction Theory". This theory integrates SLA traditions that often ignore each other and adds a learning theory where novel information gets created to resolve learning problems. Cognitive universals, modularity theory,…

In 1986, while still at Harvard, I started teaching summer school at the Bread Loaf School of English, the graduate program in English of Middlebury College. Bread Loaf offers courses in literature, theater, and writing--here I fit in. I came to that job with a background in applied linguistics and cognitive development, but not in literature, and…