Suggests that language awareness, or consciousness raising, has great potential in second-language learning. Language awareness presents students with linguistic data so they can work out grammatical rules for themselves. Offers a variety of examples of possible language-awareness lessons, first for the teaching of English, then for the teaching…

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…

Tandem language learning--a configuration involving pairs of learners with complementary target/native languages--is an underexploited but potentially very powerful use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in second-language pedagogy. Tandem offers the benefits of authentic, culturally grounded interaction, while also promoting a pedagogical…

This paper reviews studies of teacher cognition in relation to the teaching of grammar in first, second, and foreign language classrooms. Teacher cognition encompasses a range of psychological constructs and these are reflected in the research reviewed here. Thus, in turn, I discuss studies of teachers' declarative knowledge about grammar, of…

The beginning of the 21st century in England has seen a rapid growth in interest in foreign languages for primary age learners. This article presents an alternative approach to primary school languages based on a Nuffield-funded pilot in Coventry LEA. A brief overview of recent developments in primary MFL is provided, followed by an account of the…

A study investigated how learners of a second language cope with the linguistic difficulties in oral interaction with a native speaker. The four subjects were training to become bilingual secretaries and were faced with job interviews. The study's objectives were: (1) to analyze the subjects' oral performance and show that learners differ widely…

Argues for the use of poetry reading in second language classrooms. Reviews literary and linguistic theories of poetry and synthesizes these theories within a psycholinguistic model of poetry reading, according to which the central aspect of poetry reading is the conscious negotiation of the formal structures of language for comprehension…

Examines the effect of individual and contextual variables on the acquisition of Basque by adult learners in the Basque Country. Participants were learners who were attending Basque classes in nine different specialized schools for teaching Basque to adults. Participants completed questionnaires about metalinguistic awareness, anxiety, learning…

Discusses one teacher educator's difficulties in familiarizing Hungarian trainee teachers of English as a Second Language with tasks aimed at raising their awareness of English as a system and as a language in use. Inquiry-based language activities can pose a formidable challenge to non-native teachers' expectations and beliefs about language. (23…

Discusses the advantages of the use of large natural language corpora in promoting grammatical awareness among language teachers and students, focusing on word classes and prescriptive approaches to language as they relate to Britain's National Curriculum at the elementary level. (13 references) (MDM)

Presents results of an exploratory study on advanced-level French second language (L2) learners' metalinguistic awareness. Specifically, learner performance was examined carrying out three steps of a written and oral grammaticality judgment test. Subjects' ability to identify and correct an error, and to provide the rule, were examined, and…

In the following article the author presents a methodological framework for the teaching of intercomprehension. Competence in intercomprehension is seen as a realisation of the general human faculty for using and understanding language, which includes the ability to comprehend texts and utterances in "unfamiliar" languages. This competence can be…

The article starts from the premise that approaches to the teaching of English can only be assessed in the particular settings where they may be used. Cultures of learning, teachers' and students' beliefs and prevailing material conditions will all have a bearing on how a particular approach is received. In the case study reported on here, four…

Examines the effectiveness of computer-assisted metalinguistic instruction for teaching complex grammatical structures such as Japanese particles. Fourteen students enrolled in second-year university-level Japanese participated in the study. Results indicate that the students use two strategies to assign a particle in a sentence: they either…

Discusses a study that examined how mechanical reading difficulties or problems with decoding can adversely effect reading comprehension. Provides pedagogical implications to consider when implementing a remedial program. Gives examples of phonological awareness tasks and implicit and explicit phonetics, and makes suggestions for reading rate…