One can group and teach idioms according to their accessibility to a particular type of student. Four types of idioms exist: (1) those which have equivalents in the student's native language; (2) those having only semantic counterparts; (3) those understandable from the constituent structure; and (4) the true idioms, those not comprehensible from…

Suggests ways to help students enjoy the illogic or inconsistencies of English by comparing conventional usage of several major world languages. (MKM)

A study analyzed patterns in one speech act, that of refusal, in 60 native English speakers (responding in English only) and 120 native Spanish speakers (60 responding in English and 60 in Spanish). Native English speakers were college students in the United States and Spanish speakers were students in Spain. A questionnaire was used to elicit…

Argues that where Spanish is in contact with Quechua, the Spanish present perfect, preterite, and pluperfect are in contrast on the basis of a spatio-temporal parameter derived from the notion of present relevance. These innovative uses come from interaction between semantic systems of Quechua and Spanish and are consistent with universals of the…

A discussion of cognates in second language teaching, particularly in English as a Second Language (ESL), looks at reasons and methods for teaching both true and false cognates ("friends"). A definition of cognates is offered, and a distinction is made between a cognate and a borrowed word, with examples from several languages.…

The graphemic and functional distribution of Chinese punctuation markers are outlined, and the implications of Chinese punctuation practices for second language instruction are discussed. Three kinds of Chinese punctuation markers are described: those graphically unique to Chinese, those written and used in the same manner in both Chinese and…

This study analyzed verbal responses of status unequals in situations where a linguistic mistake occurred. Subjects were 80 native Turkish-speaking university students (28 males, 52 females) who participated in role-playing exercises using such situations. Two aspects of the responses were investigated: the semantic and syntactic formulas that…