Presents case studies of three high-achieving learners who demonstrated a variety of motivations and strategy uses according to their individual differences. The primary focus of the study is on the strategies employed by learners during their school days in their native Germany. The three studies demonstrate a wide range of strategy uses and…

Describes a study that investigated issues related to timing of feedback in writing instruction and explores answers to the following: (1) What would English-as-a-Second-Language learners like to have emphasized in feedback and when? (2) While revising, do learners respond to feedback on both content and language use? and (3) What are the…

This article discusses case studies of subjects labeled as learning disabled (LD) who have gained a degree of proficiency in a second language. The subjects' performance on written dictations, oral readings, and comprehension after oral and silent reading are compared qualitatively between their first and second language. (60 references) (JL)

Reviews how the second-language learner's mental lexicon in lexical models is treated, summarizes major characteristics of the mental lexicon, discusses the structure of the mental lexicon, and examines a model of lexical acquisition. (Author/VWL)

Using cognitive linguistics to study the subjective lexicon of second-language (L2) learners of English, this article examines two questions: whether cognitive processes such as metonymy, metaphor, generalization, and specialization are used for expansion in the L2 lexicon; and what other factors work in understanding prototypical…

Explores the reading traditions and practices that influence the interpretation of two text types, academic and general text, by postgraduate students from Thailand and India studying in the areas of business, humanities, engineering/science, and health sciences. Data were collected from case studies conducted at an Australian university.…

Focuses on the role that cases can play in preparing English-as-a-foreign-language teachers for the linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical realities of teaching English in an unfamiliar sociocultural setting. Describes some of the benefits of a case-based approach in TEFL teacher development programs. Offers a definition of decision-forcing cases…

Explores the loss and maintenance of Spanish in Hispanic children in Vancouver from the perspective of parents. Focuses on the experiences of Hispanic parents of children either developing bilingually (Spanish-English) or monolingually (English).(Author/VWL)

Longitudinal data on the effects of first language loss on verb inflection and use by two Spanish-speaking siblings who were in an English-speaking environment were gathered. Both children were videotaped interacting with a familiar Spanish-speaking adult. A lexical morphology model was used to predict the course of first language loss. Examined…

Presents a checklist to see whether it can help shed light on English-as-a-foreign-language students' use of language learning strategies by looking at their diaries. Reveals interesting differences between successful and less successful students, and discusses questions about strategy use in general. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that action research is appropriate for foreign language teachers because of its emphasis on research perspectives that are particularly illuminating in foreign language classrooms, tracing the conceptual contours of action research to set the stage for two case studies by graduate teaching assistants in German who engaged in action…

Presents a case study that tests a mathematical model for its ability to predict second language vocabulary gains achieved through reading. To overcome the problem of small word gains noted in earlier studies of incidental acquisition, an adult learner of Dutch read a lengthy text and was tested on hundreds of words. The participant's gains were…

Reports on exploratory ethnographic research on language acquisition and use in a village located in the Mandara Mountains, Cameroon. Indicates that members of the community share several beliefs and practices related to multilingual communicative competence and its development. (Author/VWL)

Assesses an attempt to bring the analysis of multimodal texts of cultural interest to students into a critical literacy foundation course in the humanities at a South African University. Shows how the course privileged cultural capital and reproduced patterns of privilege. Argues that acknowledging multimodal texts raises new and interesting…

This 2-year qualitative study explores the ironies of educational reform in the United States as experienced by three second language learners attending a school attempting to transform itself into a high-performance elementary school in California's Silicon Valley. Drawing on the concept of fast capitalism in a globalized economic work order…