ESL learners can find it challenging to use English in a way that is pragmatically appropriate to the situation and interlocutor. In this article, we explore the impact of increased proficiency on learners' pragmatic performance. ESL learners in Australia at four proficiency levels completed three role plays, and we analysed how the learners…

The traditional division of conditionals into four main types (zero, first, second, and third) has long been called into question. Unfortunately, the awareness that this description does not reflect conditional patterns in actual usage has not generally been reflected in EFL coursebooks. This article re-examines the arguments for a description of…

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) sees discourse as a form of "social practice", in which language use is seen at the same time as socially influenced and influential. Another characteristic of CDA is that it is engaged and committed; it intervenes in social practice and attempts to reveal connections between language use, power, and ideology. The…

The use of "interpretative tasks" is advocated in the teaching of short stories. Such tasks encourage learners to explore stories beyond the level of pure narrative and also encourage development of a "feel" for creative uses of English in literature. (Author/CB)

This article is derived from a lecture broadcast on the BBC World Service, in which the author takes the reader on a journey to visit selected features of contemporary English in use, with the intent of pointing out to the traveler some implications for the presentation of language in textbooks and other curriculum documents. (nine references)…

Transcripts of classroom interaction illustrate how emphasis on lesson planning and communicative activities in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher training, and dominance of a coursebook, had unintended consequences in three specific areas, leading to inhibition of teacher-student interaction, avoidance of genuine communicative…

This paper describes a project involving EFL learners in synchronous electronic discussions. The output of the students' interactions was analyzed qualitatively to uncover the main linguistic and interactional features. It was observed that the students' discussions contained a large number of spelling, usage, and grammatical errors, an almost…

Summarizes some preliminary findings from research into the nature and effect of various discourse modifications by a native speaker to a language learner. These modifications include (1) idiom avoidance; (2) comprehension checks and pauses; and (3) selection of information. An informal experiment gauging foreign students' impression of…