Linguistics is the study of human language, and has several major divisions: formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguistics is the study of grammar, or the development of theories about how language works and is organized. Within formal linguistics there are three major schools of thought:…

Gives a brief overview of FL teaching, from the prelinguistic to the linguistic era, and discusses the advent of an era characterized by an eclectic approach which makes full use of all linguistic data, without being subservient to any linguistic theory, and gives full importance to sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic considerations. Available…

A review of literature on foreign language testing indicates that the earliest approaches to language assessment were generally uninformed by contemporaneous linguistic and psychological theories and were characterized by a lack of psychometric sophistication. This trend was followed by the development of test instruments that were heavily…

THIS HANDBOOK OF MODERN LINGUISTICS HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR THE ADULT LAYMAN OR TEACHER WHO NEEDS A GENERAL BACKGROUND IN LINGUISTICS AS WELL AS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE "LINGUISTIC APPROACH" AS IT IS BEING INTRODUCED IN ENGLISH TEACHING TODAY. THE AUTHORS HAVE TAKEN THE STAND THAT LINGUISTICS IS HERE TO STAY--ALONG WITH THE "NEW…

This paper suggests that language teachers reconsider their approach to listening comprehension, as recent studies seem to indicate that listening is not a passive but a highly active skill. The importance of listening comprehension as an independent skill is stressed in the first section, and principles of speech processing from which the…

The discoveries of theoretical linguistics could aid teachers in explaining such usages as "well,""sort of," sex link uses, and forms marking levels of politeness. Conversely, there is much about second language learning that theoretical linguistics could learn from applied linguistics. (Author/KM)

A description of an analysis of 10,000 errors made by Finns and Swedes who were learning Finnish or Swedish as a foreign language. A new classification of errors is established and a precise definition of language mixing is given. Five types of errors are described. (AMH)

This article is concerned with the pragmatic aspects of linguistics research, i.e., the characteristics of language use such as the psychological motivations of speakers, the reactions of the hearers, and discourse analysis, insofar as they relate to second language learning. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

A study tested models concerning syntactic categories in early multiword speech by investigating overlap in contexts in which children (n=11) used determiner types. Results indicate children have little knowledge of relationships between different determiner types, suggesting development of an adultlike syntactic determiner category may be…

Preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLIs) and two groups of linguistically normally developing children described motion and change-of-state scenes while viewing a video, and patterns of verb use were analyzed. Although SLIs relied heavily on general all-purpose verbs, normally developing children used them more. SLIs made more verb…

The question explored is whether native speakers'"simplified" or modified utterances, as in foreigner-talk (FT), actually facilitate comprehension for nonnative speakers hearing such utterances. It is concluded that linguistically more complex input will not necessarily impede comprehension. (49 references) (Author/LB)

A study investigated children's understanding of the formal and functional aspects of written Chinese in an orthographic acceptability judgment task and a creative spelling task. Subjects were 60 Hong Kong children ages 4 to 9. Results suggest that learning to read and write in Chinese is not accomplished by rote learning of characters but through…

Discourse analysis, a field that reflects an interest in language as text and social interaction, is discussed. Discourse analysis deals with the way language varies from one communicative situation to another; textological analysis deals with the internal organization of such discourse in terms of grammar and vocabulary. Assumptions in…

The goal of communicative competence as an application of linguistic principles involves three processes: (1) reduction, or the relationshiip between the term "communication" in its everyday sense and pedagogically useful models of communication; (2) transposition, or the relationship between language theory and language learning; and (3)…