Illustrates the comprehension-monitoring process used by first (L1) and second (L2) language readers of English as they read expository prose and compares the comprehension-monitoring strategies of L1 and L2 readers with respect to two problems: locating a referent and defining a vocabulary item. (59 references) (GLR)

The influence on interlocutors' relative content knowledge on conversational participation in interactions between native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) with limited oral skills is investigated. Results indicate that both NSs and NNSs appeared conversationally active, but there were different patterns of participation that could to…

Bill Leap responds to questions regarding reasons for the disappearance of traditional languages, steps in and barriers to language renewal, the need for written language, the importance of understanding a community's culture when studying or teaching the language, and the roles tribal colleges and linguists can play in language preservation. (DMM)

Examined the discourse patterns used by a native speaker of English while explaining the rules and playing the board game Monopoly with three college students of varying levels of English proficiency (low nonnative, good nonnative, and native). It found that the "teacher" must modify her speech to enable the nonnative speakers to…

Reviews research on the social interaction and negotiation of second language (L2) learners and their interlocutors. This research illustrates ways in which negotiation contributes to conditions, processes, and outcomes of L2 learning by facilitating learners' comprehension and structural segmentation of L2 input, access to lexical form and…

Current needs in English-as-a-mother-tongue teaching, especially in England and Wales, are surveyed. It is argued that the feeling of stagnation among students in many university English departments results at least partly from the failure to respond to new ideas about the teaching of English language and literature. (JL)

Discusses the declining role of Spanish at every level of the teaching profession. Although Spanish is the most-studied foreign language in the United States, the increasing trend is to use English instead of Spanish, even in upper-level and literature classes and in scholarly writing about Spanish. (CNP)

Explores the potential of the use of voice-recognition technology with second-language speakers of English. Involves the analysis of the output produced by a small group of very competent second-language subjects reading a text into the voice recognition software Dragon Systems "Dragon NaturallySpeaking." (Author/VWL)

Suggests that the notion of near-native language ability, as currently used in the language teaching profession, should be re-examined. The concept of native speech is complex and often idealized, involving not only a teacher's language skills but also sociocultural norms, peer perceptions, and attitudes about ethnic or regional usage. The concept…

This paper shows how the opportunity to encounter the other culture "in my backyard" (IMBY) can be used in landeskunde. This approach moves away from landeskunde as piecemeal factual background information toward developing own-culture and foreign/target culture awareness in mixed groups of native language students. (Contains 15…

Examines the role self- and other-initiations play in providing opportunities for modified output (MO), considered important for successful second language acquisition. Native- and nonnative-speakers of English performed three tasks: picture description, opinion exchange, and decision making. Results showed both self- and other-initiations…

This article is drawn from a large-scale ongoing study on linguistic progress in advanced French as a second language (FL2). The performance of 48 English-speaking students who spent their third year of university in France the "experimental" group) has been compared to that of 39 classmates who chose to stay and study at home in…

The relationship between group and individual has been explored within the variationist paradigm. In L1, group patterns of variation are replicated by the individual. Second language acquisition research is concerned with the individual learner, but second language acquisition variationist researchers tend to group learners. Little empirical…

Most studies in the field of synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) deal with interactions between language learners, while interactions between native speakers (NS) and learners have not been explored to the same extent, particularly to ascertain whether chatting with NS can provide a pedagogically sound bridge to conversation. Through…

How are nonnatives evaluated when committing cultural faux pas, and how does their fluency in the language of the foreign culture affect the evaluation of their culturally inappropriate behavior? I address these questions in the context of Russian professionals learning to interview for jobs in the United States, an arena of strong cultural…