Chinese characters are used in both Chinese and Japanese writing systems. When literate speakers of either language experience problems in finding or understanding words, they often resort to using Chinese characters or "kanji" (i.e., Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) in their talk, a practice known as "brush talk" ("bitan" in Chinese,…

Reports on an experiment conducted with native and non-native speakers of English involving a picture-drawing task, where one member of each pair instructed the other in the drawing of simple objects. Results suggest that success or failure of meaning negotiations in providing comprehensible input depends on the point of discourse at which they…

Drawing on native/non-native speaker discourse data from goal-oriented interaction in Australian workplaces, it is argued that modality is inherently a centrally important function in such discussions, and that appropriately nuanced expression of modality is often crucial to "getting the job done," and that emphasis should be given to…