Moral value is one of the crucial elements in human development, where moral or civic education formed a substantial part of the focus on personal development. This study examined the inculcation of universal moral values (UMVs) using language in teaching and learning as a vehicle to instil the UMVs. It has been ascertained through previous…

This study examines types and characteristics of data collection tasks used in studies on scope ambiguity in English involving a universally quantified noun phrase and negation, and investigates any differences in comprehension patterns across studies using different tasks. Since Musolino's seminal 1998 study using a truth value judgment task,…

The article seeks to answer four questions: (1) How different are the value worlds in the Estonian- and German-language songbooks used in Estonia 1860-1914? (2) To what extent do the value worlds of songbooks express the ideals of the Wandervogel movement? (3) What is the position of wandering among other values? (4) Is the representation of…

The German integration programme teaches language and knowledge about Germany to newcomers and those with migration backgrounds. This article analyses the programme and course content from a human rights education (HRE) perspective to tease out some of the inherent contradiction between teaching 'German values', purported to be one of the…

In transcultural and transnational communication settings, English learners have to be able to communicate with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. For this reason, English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks, for instance, not only promote Anglo-American and British cultures but also include both EFL learners' home and…

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk…

This article reviews a selective corpus of empirical and theoretical texts on foreign language pedagogy and teacher education, produced in Portugal between 2006 and 2011. A descriptive and interpretative approach is adopted to inquire into the transformative potential of research, with a focus on its scope, purposes, conceptual and methodological…

A discussion of the what, why, how, and when of bilingualism links it to biculturalism and demonstrates that effective psycholinguistic studies of bilingualism must consider the interaction of language and social structure and the functionalistic-communicative trends of linguistics. 28 references. (Author/CB)

A review of literature on language testing focuses on new testing issues beyond the traditional concerns of validity theory, including incorporation of social values into tests, ethics of testing, test impact, including washback, and the political character of language tests. Critical language testing, the activity of contextualizing tests in…

A philosophical and historical reflection on the values of learning a second language explores the stages of language acquisition. Language fluency, second language instruction, and the Western cultural traditions associated with learning a second language are discussed. (CB)

All speakers bring to even simple verbal encounters complex presuppositions and expectations that may create discourse interference. A second-language encounter carries a complex and often inexplicable expectation load. Language expresses meaning and intentions, but also carries social import. The value or appropriateness of speaking itself varies…

The study of curriculum materials is of interest to social researchers seeking to understand the social constructions of reality. All texts embody a number of purposeful choices about how reality is to be represented, and these choices have consequences for what is "foregrounded, backgrounded, placed in the margins, distorted, short-cut,…