This article focuses on the use of metadiscursive expressions and discourse particles that are produced in great numbers by two groups of Montreal French speakers in different time periods and that have generally been regarded as language ticks. Elements of the first group make explicit the conscious state of speakers with respect to their…

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…

This report attempts to construct a postmodern framework to provide for an analysis of Intercollegiate Forensics. It isolates the major theoretical constructs of postmodernism, applies them to Intercollegiate Forensics, and draws conclusions. The paper maintains that linguistic-based postmodernism consists of four theoretical areas: (1)…

Discusses the concept of language awareness and its use in language teaching, which refers to the development in learners of an enhanced consciousness of and sensitivity to the forms and functions of language. The approach has been developed in the contexts of both second and foreign language learning, as well as in mother tongue education.…

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)

Twenty-five preschool children with specific language impairment and 25 controls were evaluated on generalization of trained bound morphemes to untrained vocabulary stems, in 2 training conditions: explicit, trainer verbalization of the affixation "rule" and an "implicit rule" condition. Findings indicated that explicit presentation of…

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…

Presents brief annotations of 30 children's books (published in 1994) selected as outstanding trade books for enhancing language awareness among students in grades K-8. (SR)

A study charting the development of 120 participants to define is presented. Participants were asked to define eight concrete and eight abstract nouns. Results indicate that there are significant differences in the way concrete and abstract nouns are defined. (32 references) (GLR)

Describes the acquisition and use of a Chinese metalanguage with which ambiguous spoken words are graphically contextualized. The metalanguage is composed of strategies that range from the actual writing of the Chinese graph (character) to those where the graph is accommodated in a verbal presentation. (12 references) (JL)

Examines cognates (lexical items from different languages that are identified by bilinguals as being the same thing), arguing that the Cohort Model effectively explains cognate properties and that cognates should be defined in terms of their structural representations and the processes that activate and select them. (79 references) (Author/CB)

Presents an annotated bibliography of 29 outstanding children's trade books published in 1991 that can enhance language awareness among elementary school children. (RS)

Proposes a translation framework to be used in the Spanish foreign-language classroom as a supplementary teaching technique. The use of translation techniques in the classroom can bridge the gap between language and culture by helping students develop metalinguistic skills that bring them to a higher level of awareness about the target language…

Presents an annotated bibliography of 30 titles selected as notable for their potential to enhance language awareness among children in grades K-8. Notes that each book demonstrates one or more of the following criteria: (1) dealing with play on words, word origins, etc.; (2) demonstrating uniqueness in the use of language; and (3) inviting child…

Demonstrates the need for a more democratic and pluralist model of reader that may take into account cultural and linguistic differences. Shows why interpretations produced by student readers may be considered as valid as those of critics or teachers if the students ground their response on an explicit account of the language patterning.…