The development, testing, and classroom use of an instructional module for teaching French intonation patterns to beginning students are described. The module begins with the "accent tonique," the simplest of French intonation patterns, which the student must learn to detect and imitate in progressively more difficult combinations before going on…

Problems in teaching English suprasegmental features, particularly stress differences, to Malay speakers are described. A small research project at Universiti Brunei Darussalam suggests that the SIL Speech Analysis System is useful in teaching phonetics and improving students' pronunciation. (Contains six references.) (LB)

Four aspects of English pragmatics that are often puzzling to students of English as a Second Language (ESL) are discussed and exemplified: certain mechanics (ellipsis; blended words; a-grammaticality); vague superordinates (generic verbs such as "get,""let,""do,""be,""have"; preposition with metaphoric extension such as "up,""in,""off,""through";…

This account of the intonation of English is part of ongoing research at the University of Birmingham, England. It attempts to take account of how intonation contributes to the communicative value of an act of speech. An introductory chapter provides a short discussion of some crucial terms: pitch, loudness, stress, rhythm, and tone unit. The…

Drama can act as a bridge between the classroom and the real world in teaching students to communicate in a second language. Teaching techniques using drama to help improve students' pronunciation of English as a second language are described, as they relate to articulation, pitch, volume, rate, and variety. (CB)

Discusses language awareness activities for sensitizing trainee English-language teachers to suprasegmental phonological features in English, with particular reference to features associated with the concept of "stress timing." Discusses stress timing and how it relates to English, and examines the quasi-authentic material drawn from a television…

The research reported in this paper explores which variables predict native and non-native speaking teachers' perception of fluency and distinguish fluent from non-fluent L2 learners. In addition to traditional measures of the quality of students' output such as accuracy and lexical diversity, we investigated speech samples collected from 16…

The role of phonology in communication is explored, and it is argued that explicit instruction in English phonology for learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) is a valuable aid in promoting communicative competence. Further, it is proposed that limericks can be used as a means for classroom instruction in English phonology. Focus is on ESL…

Reports on the perceptual discrimination of segmental and suprasegmental phones by Japanese learners of English. Results reveal that early learners showed better discrimination performance than normal learners and confirmed the usefulness of learning English at an early age. (16 references) (Author/CK)

This issue of the journal includes these papers on contrastive linguistics: "Tag Questions, Transformational Grammar and Pragmatics" (Wolfram Bublitz); "Toward Contrasting Styles" (Karol Janicki); "Some More Remarks on the Pedagogical Uses of Contrastive Studies" (Waldemar Marton); "Stress in Polish--With Some Comparisons to English Stress" (James…

Demonstrates how nonnative varieties of English are distinct from interlanguages or approximate systems of "established" varieties of English. Two strategies are examined: (1) the generalization of rules found in the established varieties of English and (2) the transfer into English of linguistic features from learners' other languages.…

This study investigated the acquisition of speaking skills in an online distance education course of 19 first semester Spanish learners. The possibility of oral development in a strictly online course was examined based on students' pronunciation production in two types of recorded speaking activities and in two real-time conversations. Students…

Describes the results of using field-specific written materials in a language laboratory setting to teach oral skills in a support course for international teaching assistants for the purpose of promoting automaticity in oral production and raising the intelligibility of students through the improvement of fluency and pronunciation. (25…

Teaching a second language and culture means teaching culturally different patterns of perception, communication, and effect. When teachers of English as a second language develop sensitivity to what students bring to the classroom and understand the students' reasons for their actions, their teaching can aid and not hinder students' full…

The paper describes activities incorporating literature, music, and cultural material that are used with foreign language majors at National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) and makes suggestions for their use in the pronunciation class. Even at advanced levels, Asian students of English as a second language (ESL) have difficulty with English…