Students' engagement and determination require the use of self-regulated learning strategies to facilitate adequate preparation. This article reports a research study that looks into how eight instructors, who were trained to promote self-regulation, interact with 18 students of a Bachelor of Arts program in English language teaching in Bogotá.…

This two and a half year study examines how non-native English-speaking Burmese refugee students from first to third grades made meaning of scientific informational texts. The study is framed by sociocultural theory and transactional theory. Primary data were drawn from 160 student retellings of scientific informational texts. Secondary data…

Studies on the human language system have brought to the fore two key aspects. First, the prime function of language is communication. Second, language exists in the social world. The language learning process takes place within the sociocultural context and the relevant macrostructures that influence language use and development. According to the…

Television is composed of multiple cultural and linguistic codes. The understandings that non-native speakers (NNSs) of English in the United States derive from these codes carries important implications for their attitudes toward the host culture and its language, and also for evolution of their second-language identities. A study investigated…

Describes a million-word corpus for English-Italian translation students. Outlines the design, which makes multiple types of comparisons possible among originals and translations and illustrates how to use the corpus to teach sociocultural insights, discourse-structuring expressions, and lexical patterns. (Author/VWL)

A study examined the production of three speech acts by a small group of Korean learners of English at a high beginning level. In comparing disagreements, requests, and suggestions, it was found that although the students demonstrate the ability to increase the level of politeness used, their disagreements tended to be direct and unmitigated. It…

Reports the results of an examination of elementary, secondary, and adult materials for French and English language instruction, which sought to determine the nature of the Canadian cultural and linguistic reality expressed in these materials. (AM)

Four aspects of English pragmatics that are often puzzling to students of English as a Second Language (ESL) are discussed and exemplified: certain mechanics (ellipsis; blended words; a-grammaticality); vague superordinates (generic verbs such as "get,""let,""do,""be,""have"; preposition with metaphoric extension such as "up,""in,""off,""through";…

Discusses the description of English discourse for teaching purposes, drawing on new information from analysis of CANCODE (Cambridge/Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English). Concludes that language teaching should be based on regularities and patterns, not rules, and that exposure to real, informal language of native speakers, with its…

A study investigated a model that takes into account the influence of conceptual, cultural, and linguistic variables in formation of verbal and nonverbal concepts in bilingual children. This triple-interaction model states that concepts are represented in three ways: (1) nonverbally as abstract categories; (2) symbolically by means of…

This research is an attempt to determine the relative influence of Black English and Puerto Rican Spanish in the speech of Puerto Ricans raised contiguous to the black community in Harlem. The first chapter provides a general introduction to the study of this variety of Puerto Rican English and a description of the sample on which this study is…

This paper discusses the profession of teaching English as a second language. The problems encountered in classes taught by untrained amateurs are discussed, and the strategies of the professional teacher are outlined. She or he begins by finding out who the students are, what they need to know, and how they will have to use English. In this way,…

This course is designed to enable students to function in other classes in the curriculum, especially history, science, and math. Emphasis is on mastery of the use of the simple past tense in questions, answers, and negative and affirmative statements--in contrast to the present indefinite used in generalizations. Stress is placed on the…

This study examined Japanese/English code-switching in three different contexts: a bilingual radio program broadcast in Japan; language of two bilingual siblings; and an adult bilingual dinner party. Particular attention was paid to the situational meanings of code-switching and to politeness issues. Code-switching was examined first at four…

In studying the role of context in speech act performance, the tradition has been to use controlled elicitation instruments that allow for manipulation of social dimensions. The assumption is that by controlling social context, all respondents will assess social relations very similarly, although little research has dealt with the validity of this…