A study carried out with Sudanese secondary school students on different approaches to grammar instruction indicates that an approach that attempts to approximate learners' strategies can be more effective than the traditional technique based on metalanguage and elaborate analysis. (Author/VWL)

Proposes questions teachers can use to structure language activities that encourage students to analyze their own use of language. The questions arose from a workshop that focuses on assisting teachers and learners to explore language function together. Teachers can use these questions to exploit language in English as a Second or Other Language…

Argues that in the initial stages of learning a new form in a foreign language and its associated functions, communicative needs and learning needs are fundamentally opposed. Suggests that what is needed is an orientation to language that is based on prior familiarity with specific forms and meaning that can be used in discourse as anchors to…

Examines picture naming latencies for predicted effects of two word retrieval factors: onset complexity and number of syllables. Results comport with evidence from speech errors and metalinguistic tasks and with predictions of the Node Structure theory of language production, but do not support production theories that do not predict special…

Describes some of the inequities and obstacles faced by speakers of creoles termed "nonstandard" or minority dialects in formal education. Outlines proposals for dealing with these problems and describes initiatives that have already been taken--such as developing resources for teachers, running public awareness campaigns and using the students'…

Draws on experience with a transdisciplinary literacy project in writing development at the secondary level to address the sub-field of "writing-literacy," writing as a linguist working across an applied versus theoretical frontier. (Author/VWL)

Arizona State University promotes linguistic and cultural awareness throughout the campus and the community. By involving nearby Hispanic culture, it integrates its programs into the community's social and cultural concerns. Faculty members of all languages may gain a wider audience by teaching courses in film, women's studies, or the culture of…

Examines the effect of knowledge about language on the learning of foreign language skills and grammar. Students (n=252) completed a questionnaire, metalinguistic awareness test, Raven's Progressive Matrices Test, a linguistic creativity test, and English tests. Hypothesized that students' knowledge about language would have a significant effect…

Examines the ways in which teachers' language awareness affects their pedagogical practice. Considers the relationship between teacher language awareness and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Proposes a model in which the second language teacher's language awareness is seen as a sub-component of PCK, forming a bridge between content knowledge…

Investigates to what extent Turkish teacher trainees had learned about pragmalinguistics even though it was found to be under represented in their course of study. A questionnaire was administered to gain information about the awareness of trainees of expressing themselves appropriately in different contexts. (Author/VWL)

This article chronicles the contributions of Enrique (Henry) Trueba to the field of educational anthropology, highlighting his emergence as one of the foremost critical ethnographers of his time, his collaborative manner of working, mentorship of colleagues, and "pedagogy of hope." Trueba skillfully combined ideas from Vygotsky, the Spindlers, and…

The effect of second language experience and vocabulary ability was investigated in a semantic priming experiment with weakly related English word pairs (e.g., "city"-"grass"). Participants made lexical decisions to targets preceded by unrelated or weakly related primes or to nonword targets preceded by words. Reliable priming was found for…

Acquiring proficiency in different discourse genres involves an awareness of which syntactic structures are the most appropriate to the communicative context and purpose. This article examines two scientific research genres--conference proceedings articles and conference presentations--and compares the syntactic behaviour of a group of native…

The role of metalinguistic knowledge in learning a foreign/second language is the subject of continuing debate. In this paper we report on a study which explores this issue further with reference to undergraduate students of Chinese as a second/foreign language. The first part of the paper describes the process of developing and validating an…

EFL students of English literature face the substantial challenge of making sense of literary texts written in a foreign language. EFL teachers working with these students need to understand the problems that they face and develop ways of helping them to overcome them. This article focuses on metaphor in literature and on whether awareness raising…