This paper suggests a series of steps for teaching complaint behaviour in English. The production of complaints requires a meta-pragmatic awareness of their interactive value and functions, their different types and realisations, pragmalinguistic formulae frequently employed or the socio-pragmatic factors affecting them, among others, which many…

The vexed question of the relationship between "language" and "culture" will be the starting point. I do not propose to "resolve" the question but to consider some ways in which relationships between cultural awareness and language awareness might be conceptualised and then have some impact on language education. By…

It has been suggested recently that it may be useful for language teaching practitioners to have some knowledge of cognitive linguistics. Cognitive linguistics (CL) provides tools that may help the language-teaching practitioner to gain insight into the semantic potential of words and communicate the meaning of lexical chunks in greater detail…

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) aims to encourage language learners to think about what they do when communicating, and to think about what they can do to help themselves and others to learn a language better. This paper considers to what extent the CEFR supports language learning by looking at how a group of learners, in the…

Pragmatic ability has been recognised as an essential component of communicative competence (Canale & Swain, 1980; Hymes, 1972). However, it has been largely neglected in today's second/foreign language (L2) instruction and teacher education; few curricular attempts for teaching pragmatics have been made. This paper describes a web-based…

Few issues in second language teaching have generated as much controversy as that of error correction. In fact, one of the most discouraging experiences of L2 teachers is correcting errors especially those that recur in their students' production. A possible explanation may be the mismatch between what teachers and students consider to be…

Teaching pragmatic competence in Korean-as-a-foreign language (KFL) settings is still an underdeveloped area, when compared to teaching other language areas, such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The first step to enhance pragmatic language teaching in foreign language (FL) education is to raise the FL instructors' and students'…

A model of language and speciality-area content teaching and learning in Japan is built on a concern to develop dialogically engaged language communal communication (DELCC) in class to be extended outside in the wider society. This model is applicable to other university contexts insofar as the FAO language is conceptualised and practised for life…

Examines second-language instruction at the primary school level in Ireland, where there is significant demand for instruction in languages other than the mandatory Irish and English. An argument is made for a language awareness approach to introduce students to a third language. (39 references) (MDM)

This paper provides an introduction to teacher language awareness (TLA) and a personal reconceptualisation of the relationship between TLA and other dimensions of teacher knowledge, revisiting issues discussed in Andrews (2001). In the first part of the paper, knowledge of subject matter is identified as the core of TLA. Given the increased…

Shows how a language matrix can be used to raise awareness of the role context plays in determining language choice for a given communicative function. The article suggests how the matrix can be used in language awareness and consciousness-raising activities to provide opportunities for contrastive analysis and discussion of politeness strategies…

Argues for the use of poetry reading in second language classrooms. Reviews literary and linguistic theories of poetry and synthesizes these theories within a psycholinguistic model of poetry reading, according to which the central aspect of poetry reading is the conscious negotiation of the formal structures of language for comprehension…

This article examines the nature of language education and the national curriculum for language education in Italian elementary and secondary schools. Analysis of the curriculum shows the place given to the development of language awareness and of conscious knowledge of language in Italian schools. (seven references) (MDM)

This paper derives from the innovative language teacher education programme described in a previous article published in "Language Learning Journal" (Burley & Pomphrey, 2002). It outlines the development in student teachers' understanding of their role as language educators through an analysis of the beginning and end of this…

Based on the statistical regularity of certain error types, an interlanguage grammar could be devised and applied to develop an intelligent computer tool, capable not only of identifying the typical errors in L2 student writing, but also of making adequate corrections. The purpose of the corrections is to make the student aware of the language…