Reviews the developing commitment in U.K. educational policymaking to evidence-based practice and its implications for applied linguistics research. Examines the particular history of grammar pedagogy in U.K. foreign language education, documenting its decline and recent revival. International literature on form-focused instruction is examined to…

Evaluated the role of the poetry-reading task for second language learning. The study followed Shehan's (1998) methodological approach to task choice and theoretical position on the importance of focus-on-form for language learning. Discusses a coding system that describes the types of responses elicited during poetry reading. (Author/VWL)

Applies Blumer's theory of symbolic interactionism to explore how normal children make meaning of their decision making world, both of their own acts and the labyrinthine world adults structure for them. Schema/narratives on friendship, sports, adults, and school reveal knowledge making strategies defined by immediate experiences and a capacity to…

To support research indicating individuals with autism lack a theory of mind, an instructional videotape was created to make explicit principles and signs associated with belief-desire psychology that most children learn implicitly. Offered the videotape to children with autism to stimulate interest in other people, teach the analogy that thoughts…

This paper draws on systemic functional linguistic genre analysis to illuminate the way in which post graduate applied linguistics students structure their argumentation within a multi party asynchronous computer mediated conference. Two conference discussions within the same postgraduate course are compared in order to reveal the way in which…

Eight subjects who had used "study packs" in their learning of French and Italian were interviewed by colleagues of the teachers who wrote them. This article presents an analysis of attempts at an ethnographic interviewing strategy, entailing an open-ended approach and adoption of an 'outsider' role. A coding system designed to measure…

This research deals with a series of preliminary studies of the management of questions by second language learners of Swedish. Question management here refers to the ability to produce an utterance which successfully elicits a response from an interlocutor, and the ability to determine correctly when a response is required. The three exploratory…

This article discusses the problem of the relationship between scientific theory and teaching practice, between the linguist and the language teacher. Language instruction attempts more and more to approximate the mother tongue acquisition process, but the two processes remain distinct. However, good second language pedagogy will lead to…

A method for measuring attrition of communicative competence is introduced and illustrated using data from spontaneous multiperson conversations of Spanish L-3 subjects from Ghana. The method involves creation of a multifactor index using defined temporal variables, frequency counts of selected verbal behaviors, and grammatical information, and…

Describes two studies of technical vocabulary, one using an anatomy text and the other an applied linguistics text. Technical vocabulary was found by rating words in the texts on a four-step scale. Found that technical vocabulary made up a very substantial proportion of both the different words and the running words in texts. (Author/VWL)

Using conversation analysis as a central tool of analysis, examines the sequential development of talk-in-interaction observed in a small group activity in a Japanese language classroom. Explores the relationship among task instruction, students' reaction to the instruction during their pre-task planning, and the actual development of talk with…

Using a framework of systemic functional grammar, compares two modes of presenting the same scientific topic: in a physics textbook and in interactive teacher talk. Three aspects of scientific meaning making are analyzed: representations of physical and mental reality, lexical packaging, and the rhetorical structure of reasoning. (Author/VWL)

The relationship between prototype meanings and frequency of use is investigated with a view to establishing a foundation for the problem of "prototype acquisition." One polysemous basic verb, "put," is used in this study of native speaker discourse, and implications for both prototype theory and the acquisition of polysemy are…

The accuracy of transliterated messages produced by sign language interpreters was studied. Causes of interpreter errors fell into three main categories: misperception of the source message, lack of recognition of source forms, and failure to identify a target language equivalent. (12 references) (Author/LB)

In an examination of the complex interaction of the linguistic devices employed in the expression of temporality, eight adult English-as-a-Second-Language learners participated in a study of time adverbials and verbal morphology. (19 references) (LB)