Several different conceptualizations of applied linguistics are evaluated, ranging from "applications of linguistic theory" to alternative models for studying language that extend and complement generative grammar as a theory of language. It is shown that they imply substantive differences in goals, methods, and priorities of language study. (30…

Investigated metaphors used by college students to describe their conversation during seminars, examining the effect of gender and person. Data from videotaped seminar discussions and surveys of seminar participants indicated that there was a particular shaping of the seminar experience that could be related to socialized, gendered identities. The…

Examines why children have difficulty with homonymy. Two experiments were conducted. Children, ages 3 and 4 years, had to select or judge another person's selection of a different object with the same name, avoiding identical objects and misnomers. Older children were successful, but younger children failed these tasks. (Author/VWL)

Offers examples and proposals for fostering pragmatic awareness in a second language (L2) through the recognition of the interpersonal function of asset of common expressions in contemporary spoken English. Illustrates the use of these forms in marking assumptions of being similar, polite, accurate, being informative, and emphatic. (Author/VWL)

Examines the relationship between consciousness, language learning, and social interaction from an ecological perspective. Argues that consciousness and language are integral parts of the human ecology, that is, they can be defined in terms of social activity and relationships among people, as well as in terms of mental operations or cerebral…

The spread of English has increased opportunities for native English speakers in the United States to interact with speakers of other Englishes (WE). These native speakers are rarely encouraged to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for intercultural communication, often resulting in a one-way communicative burden on the world English…

Students aged 10-12, with and without learning disabilities, acquired knowledge implicitly about pseudoword pronunciation governed by one of two phonics rules. They were then asked to verbalize explicitly about the acquired knowledge. Students did not differ significantly in implicit knowledge capabilities, but student with and without learning…

Examined children's language acquisition by compiling a record of one English boy's utterances from age four to six. The record revealed the boy's interest in the meaning of words, knowledge of grammar, interest in non-English words, explorations of the connections between what people say and what they mean, and understanding of the role of…

Discusses the question of what is critical in critical language awareness by drawing on Hans Georg Gadamer's development of the dialectic of experience, historically effected consciousness, and the dialectic of question and answer. The openness found to characterize these three events initiates the space of distance by which the critical instance…

Focuses on interpretations of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development for foreign language teaching in the United States. Comments on progressive and conservative trends in the U.S. foreign language profession and on the reception of the construct, focusing on three cases in which the ZPD has been invoked in recent publications on research and…

Investigated the development of syntactic awareness in Cantonese-speaking children. Fifty-six subjects from four age groups were asked to judge the grammaticality of 40 sentences and to correct the grammatically-deviant sentences. There was a significant age effect on subject's performance in both judgment and revision tasks. (Author/VWL)

Describes some of the misconceptions and confusions in metalinguistic understanding that are established by the teacher during whole-class teaching of the active and passive voice. Draws on findings from a larger study investigating how teachers use talk in whole-class settings to scaffold children's learning. (Author/VWL)

The increase of multilingualism in both natural and formal contexts has provoked a number of studies which have concentrated on providing evidence of multilingual processing and finding out about the differences and similarities between second and third language learning. This paper deals with the use of metalanguage in multilingual students in an…

In this paper we argue that although the problematic nature of language construction has been acknowledged by a number of skeptical authors, including the recent claim in this journal (Reagan, 2004) that there is no such thing as English or any other language, this critical approach to language still needs to develop a broader understanding of the…

The present article suggests that teachers bring students' attention to the link between language and bias against nonhuman animals. First, the social phenomena that have brought our attention to the issue of what is known as speciesism ("a failure, in attitude or practice, to accord any nonhuman being equal consideration and respect",…