This study proposes that avoidance of a structure by a second language learner can only be claimed for instances where it can be demonstrated that the learner "knows" the avoided language form and that native speakers are expected to use a particular form in that context. Research is reviewed, particularly a study by J. Schachter (1974) in which…

Bull (1965) has proposed that grammatical gender in Spanish is not an intrinsic characteristic of nouns but rather a matter of matching terminal sounds of nouns with those of adjectives and determiners. One implication of this theory is that the child has a cognitive understanding of the matching of terminal noun sounds with particular adjective…

It is possible to think of women's language in terms of the model implied by the following statement. Insofar as native speakers of English are concerned, the language of women in America has four sets of components: those shared with the language of men in America; those shared, in varying proportions, with other women living in patriarchies;…

This study investigated whether or not Hong Kong Chinese adults would benefit from hearing, or phonologically processing, unfamiliar English words upon first encountering them. Participants, who represented different levels of English proficiency, included Chinese undergraduate students, postgraduate students, and adult native speakers of English.…

A discussion examines the importance of communication between non-native speakers (NNS/NNS), reviews relevant theories and issues in intercultural interactions and NNS/NNS interactions, and explores methodological issues in interpreting linguistic and interactional data. The intent is to explore features of communication between NNSs from…

A study compared the language of interactions of teachers with students who are native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English in academic writing tutorial sessions. Data were gathered through discourse analysis of transcripts of 12 tutorials and interviews with the participants. Analysis of talk examined topic initiation,…

A study explored the functionalist-constructivist approach to acquisition of grammar where word classes emerge as a result of distributional differences related to function. Focus is on acquisition of two Swedish forms, "i" and "pa," which can belong to the categories of either particles or prepositions, in two Swedish…

An analysis of sociocultural aspects of a dinner conversation is presented, part of a larger study of the pragmatics of second language discourse. Salient features of the discourse are examined in terms of implicit frames of reference about social membership that are brought into play in interaction. Primary data come from the conversation between…

This paper compares the prescribed American and Chinese letter writing formats as outlined in texts and examines actual letters from American and Chinese writers to determine how they compared to these formats and, if they differed, to identify possible reasons for these differences. After teaching students of Mandarin Chinese a basic lesson on…

Despite long-standing provisions in three Philippine constitutions naming Filipino as the national language, there has been no serious effort to implement the use of Pilipino in the Philippine educational system. Pilipino is based mainly on Tagalog, but is also a blend of words taken from English, Spanish, Arabic, Tamil, and Chinese. A 1973…

A study investigated and compared the vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) of five non-native English-speaking and six native English-speaking (NES) graduate students of theology in a core course. The students of English as a Second Language (ESL) were all native speakers of Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese. Specifically, the research explored (1)…

A study assessed the performance of language-minority and language-majority children in a two-way Spanish-English bilingual education program in Port Chester, New York. The program treats language learning as a resource for all students, with each group of children teaching their native languages to the other. Second- and third-grade classes are…

This summary of a dissertation reports results of a study of teachers providing bilingual education at a Navajo border town school. History, demography and geography, socioeconomics, and politics all affect cultural knowledge to be taught and teachers must study these subjects. However, teaching Navajo language and culture in a bordertown school…

This study examined the effects of children's cognitively based role expectations on their judgments of the grammatical acceptability of sentences. Sixty children, 12 each in grades 4 through 8, individually heard 10 sentences violating the Minimum Distance Principle (MDP). The sentences were grammatical, but linguistically complex, and violated…

The Spanish tense system was chosen as a starting point to establish the systematic character of the Spanish used in situations of intense code switching between Spanish and English. The tense system was chosen for two reasons: (1) the distinction among past tenses (in particular, the imperfect indicative vs. the preterite and the past continuous)…