Replies to an article titled "Programmatic Ahistoricity in Second Language Acquisition Theory." Reviews pertinent literature, concluding that historical awareness is evident in second language acquisition, although not as far reaching as the earlier article suggests. Argues that the attitude of most scholars in SLA toward the past is reasonable…

Explores the possibility that the first language and second language mental lexicon may be structurally similar, with depth of individual word knowledge determining a given word's degree of integration into the mental lexicon. Proposes a model for the process by which words are integrated into the mental lexicon and challenges the belief that a…

Discusses how linguistic comparisons can be incorporate into foreign language classroom activities. draws on Slobin's (1996) experimental study, which demonstrated the existence of "the thinking for speaking" form of thought and argues that teaching foreign language entails teaching novel "thinking for speaking operations. (Author/VWL)

Describes language and early literacy skills in Spanish and English for a sample of bilingual children in Massachusetts and Maryland and a comparative group of monolingual Spanish-speaking children in Puerto Rico. Children were 4-year-olds entering pre-kindergarten programs. Results are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the results of a study designed to observe, compare, and assess the teaching practices used in two language programs (French and Spanish). The study was conducted to find out just how different proficiency-oriented and acquisition-oriented classes are. (five references) (GLR)

Discusses the different types of word order in Latin and the rules governing the choice of which form to use by focusing on how mechanisms in English can be used to capture the significance of differential Latin word order. (DJD)

Argues that the Guided Induction presentation is superior to a deductive one for the teaching of certain grammatical structures to beginning foreign language students. A study is presented that compared both approaches when applied to the learning of French grammatical structures by beginning level U.S. college students. (25 references) (GLR)

Compares the quantity of characteristics of negotiation by second-language learners in interlanguage talk in two approaches that encourage information exchange. One approach is guided by explicit cues and is introduced by dialogs that demonstrate language functions as they occur in discourse settings, and the other is based on information exchange…

Traditional form-focused instruction is compared with processing instruction, which involves explanation and practice/experience processing input data and takes learner strategies into account. Analysis of sentence-level interpretation (comprehension) and production tasks suggest significant gains for subjects receiving processing instruction. (39…

Testing of a model intended to help students focus on positive aspects of second-language learning to reduce language anxiety found that the use of a focused essay, forcing students to concentrate on their reactions to events, helped to alter students' self-perceptions of their language learning ability. (63 references) (CB)

Offers a personal portrait of graduate training and compares it to that of today. Discussing the appearance of polarization between research and teaching, emphasizes the importance of both in whatever the institutional setting and argues that the discovery of new knowledge should underlie the work of all postsecondary teachers. (Author/VWL)

Compares the four international systems of linguistic communication used in the field (systems used in the United Nations, multinationals, the European Union, and Esperanto organizations) on select criteria (e.g., previous government investment). Discusses research that shows unilingual systems (English used alone, Esperanto) are those that…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how learners of Japanese as a second language (n=16) and Japanese native speakers (n=17) interpret a Japanese refusal gesture, the so-called Hand Fan, to observe how these interpretations are accompanied by similar manual gestures, and to see how participants perceive its comprehensibility. Results…

This study investigates whether "socialness" increases the memorability of newly acquired knowledge of a second language (L2). Three groups of beginning learners of Japanese learned 10 novel Japanese words through a Q & A session. Group 1 did the session with a human interactant and learned the novel words from him. Group 2 did the session alone…

While there is general agreement that conversational interaction can facilitate interlanguage development, much of the research on interaction has been conducted in experimental laboratory settings. Questions have been raised about the generalizability of the benefits observed in the laboratory to the classroom setting. The current research…