Examines the interaction of teachers and learners in their various activities along a continuum that extends from instructional to natural discourses and is determined by the way participants present themselves to one another and negotiate turns-at-talk, topics, and repairs. Suggests ways to broaden and diversify discourse options in the…

Investigated the occurrence of null objects in a stable nonnative variety of English spoken in Nepal, finding that Nepali speakers of English may omit both direct and indirect objects in contexts where native speakers may not. The resultant discourse organization for Nepali English requires greater addressee participation than native English…

A total of 65 letters of reference written by American referees and 65 letters written by referees from 5 Asian cultures were analyzed to discover the conventions and expectations guiding readers and writers from these backgrounds. Results found that Asian referees tended to use direct recommendations more frequently than their American…

Examines the sources of miscommunication in a videotaped tutoring session involving a native speaker of Korean and a native speaker of English. Analysis revealed an initial nonmutual interpretation of participant role and status, resulting from the Korean tutor's transfer of a Korean conversational routine involving polite speaker modesty to the…

Explores whether pragmatic fluency is best acquired by provision of input and opportunity for communicative practice alone, or whether learners profit more with additional explicit instruction in the use of conversational routines. The article hypothesized that such instruction raises learners' awareness of the functions and contextual…