Owing to analyses of large spoken corpora the linguistic knowledge of conversation has grown in recent years exponentially. Up until now little of this knowledge has trickled down to the EFL classroom. One of the reasons, this paper argues, is the failure in the relevant literature to spell out clearly how teaching conversational grammar affects…

Argues that pragmatics should expand its research interest to include not only the study of how speakers perform speech acts but also the investigation of instances where they decide not to perform them, referred to as the "opting out" choice. (CB)

This paper is a response to Paul Meara's (2005) critique of the Lexical Frequency Profile (LFP). Using simulated data, he challenges the claim that LFP is a sensitive and reliable tool for assessing vocabulary use in L2 speakers. In my response to his paper, I discuss the nature of lexical competence, in light of which LFP results should be…

Argues that the use of thanks in closing conversations reflects not only situational parameters but also local concerns of conversational management. Analysis of naturally occurring data from English and Italian service encounters suggests that cross-cultural differences in closings may be in part the result of differences in the preferred…

The objective of this response article is to think through some of what I see as the far-reaching implications of a recent paper by Eric Hauser (2005) entitled "Coding 'corrective recasts': the maintenance of meaning and more fundamental problems". Hauser makes a compelling, empirically-backed case for his contention that, contrary to widespread…

Analyzes bilingual dictionaries from eastern bloc countries. Reviews the problems inherent in different treatments of English pronunciation in various bilingual dictionaries. (LMO)