This study addresses the role of output in second language (L2) acquisition by comparing processing instruction (PI) to communicative output (CO) tasks. Participants included 80 English-speaking adults from six university course sections of beginning L2 Spanish, with two assigned to each treatment (PI = 27; CO = 28) and two others comprising a…

This article addresses a pervasive problem of concern to teachers of many foreign languages: the use of Web-Based Machine Translation (WBMT) by students who do not understand the complexities of this relatively new tool. Although networked technologies have greatly increased access to many language and communication tools, WBMT is still…

Native and nonnative speakers of English listened to a nonnative speaker's reading of well-formed sentences and those containing grammatical errors of three types. Identified errors were judged for gravity on a 5-point scale. In a second experiment, subjects identified error types and rated them for gravity and annoyance in an aural task; they…

Examines to what extent, if at all, grammar instruction fosters or accelerates language acquisition. Presents a study investigating the acquisition of syntactic or morphological structures in 340 students learning German as a foreign language. The results are discussed. (AS)

Notes that, although linguistics has had little influence on composition pedagogy, the study of functional grammar or linguistic performance (how language is actually used) is of direct value to composition theory. Offers an extended discussion of a functional approach to punctuation instruction, and proposes a functional approach in other areas…

Examined children's language acquisition by compiling a record of one English boy's utterances from age four to six. The record revealed the boy's interest in the meaning of words, knowledge of grammar, interest in non-English words, explorations of the connections between what people say and what they mean, and understanding of the role of…

Investigated the development of syntactic awareness in Cantonese-speaking children. Fifty-six subjects from four age groups were asked to judge the grammaticality of 40 sentences and to correct the grammatically-deviant sentences. There was a significant age effect on subject's performance in both judgment and revision tasks. (Author/VWL)

Describes some of the misconceptions and confusions in metalinguistic understanding that are established by the teacher during whole-class teaching of the active and passive voice. Draws on findings from a larger study investigating how teachers use talk in whole-class settings to scaffold children's learning. (Author/VWL)

This study hypothesizes that negation and finiteness are linked in the development of foreign language acquisition in comparable ways to their development in first language acquisition. By contrasting synchronic intrapersonal variability data with change occurring in the diachronic data about negation, this article shows how adult learners of…

Suggests that grammar teaching should go beyond syntax and morphology and concern itself with a more careful observation of meta-grammatical phenomena. Advocates that an instrumental view of grammar should be supplemented with an integral view of language. The ultimate aim is to make learners aware of the way a language works. (Author/VWL)

The study reported here investigated the effects of using props to illustrate the meaning of sentences in a syntactic awareness task in which subjects were required to correct ungrammatical sentences. Children scored significantly higher in the props condition though the proportion of meaning-changing errors to total errors was not significantly…

This study examines the effectiveness of written error corrections versus reformulations of second language learners' writing as two means of improving learners' grammatical accuracy on a three-stage composition-comparison-revision task. Concurrent verbal protocols were employed during the comparison stage in order to study the learners' reported…

Argues that meaning is encoded not only in words but also in grammatical categories. These claims are illustrated and documented by analyzing one area of grammar in a number of different languages of the world: that area that is usually associated with the term of "evidentiality." (Contains 25 references.) (JL)

Describes the outcomes of an investigation into the misconceptions and difficulties encountered when learning grammar. The study is based on evidence collected from a class of 12-year-olds who were engaged in a work scheme focusing on grammar, and two cohorts of PGCE English students undertaking an intensive grammar course. (Author/VWL)

In Claire Kramsch's (2004) response to work by Mary Louise Pratt (2002) on multilingualism, identity and language in the U.S., she proposed that the four points made by Pratt be extended to the following: (1) Monolingualism is a handicap, but so is the assumption that one language = one culture = adherence to one cultural community; (2) Heritage…