Writing a topic sentence is difficult, as a variety of linguistic knowledge is required to represent the main idea of the whole paragraph. This study applies the mechanism of A-movement in generative syntax to observe syntactic structures, semantic denotations and pragmatic aspects of topic sentences in applied linguistics research articles. The…

Partly as a result of China's reform and opening-up and the broader trend of globalisation, Guangzhou in Southern China has risen to global prominence as a commercial and business hub. Strategically positioned as a centre of 'low-end globalisation', Guangzhou has attracted investors, traders and businessmen from Africa, the Middle East and South…

Background/purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the efficacy of the dynamic assessment (DA) Portfolio model for language learning in higher education. This study was conducted in the Indonesian Syntax classroom at Universitas Negeri Surabaya (Unesa). Materials/methods: The learning topics selected in this study were syntactic…

The present study examined whether syntactic comprehension constitutes a source of individual differences separate from vocabulary and of relevance to reading comprehension. One hundred and sixty-one Danish Grade 6 students completed multiple tests of syntactic comprehension, vocabulary, decoding, and reading comprehension. Syntax measures were…

This study examined the interrelationships among and combined effects of word reading skills and syntactic knowledge on reading prosody in fifth-grade monolingual Spanish-speaking students. We used Spanish standardized tests to assess the participants (n = 169, 79 girls) on word and pseudoword reading skills, syntactic knowledge, and reading…

Purpose: Children with hearing loss (CHL) who use hearing devices (cochlear implants or hearing aids) and communicate orally have trouble comprehending sentences with noncanonical order. This study explores sentence comprehension strategies in Spanish-speaking CHL, focusing on their ability to integrate morphosyntactic cues (word order,…

The current study combined sentence plausibility judgment and self-paced reading tasks to examine the comprehension strategies and processing patterns of Chinese deaf individuals when comprehending written Chinese sentences with syntactic-semantic cue conflicts. Similar to findings from previous crosslinguistic studies on deaf readers, the Chinese…

Natural language is known to play a crucial and specific role for children's learning in school mathematics. Not only does it carry special vocabulary, but subtle differences between natural languages may lead to surprising challenges, for instance, for learners who are not taught mathematics in their mother tongue. In this paper, the…

This study investigates feature acquisition and feature reassembly associated with Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD). The article compares the acquisition of CLLD in second language (L2) Italian to L2 Romanian to examine effects of first language (L1) transfer, construction frequency and the type of interface involved (external vs. internal…

Little evidence has been reported for narrative-related difficulties for Chinese Mandarin-speaking school-age children with developmental language disorder (DLD). This study aimed to capture the indices from narratives that can differentiate Chinese children with and without DLD. Oral narrative and written narrative samples were collected from…

The level of arithmetic knowledge of a high school student was explored when solving additive word problems considering the semantic structure and syntactic component. The methodology was qualitative and developed in four stages: the first is the selection of the participant, the second is the design of a questionnaire with twenty additive…

We investigate sensitivity to island constraints in English native speakers and Najdi Arabic learners of English, examining (1) whether second language (L2) learners whose native language (L1) does not instantiate overt "wh"-movement are sensitive to island constraints and (2) the source of island effects. Under a grammatical account of…

This article offers a descriptive account of seven interjections, "eish", "yho", "tjo", "sho", "hayi", "hau", and "mxm", which are adopted from different local South African languages into South African English. It investigates the frequencies, orthography, syntactic position,…

For proper assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of language disorders in Mandarin children, it is important to have measures that closely track the course of normal development. The current study uses a large collection of spontaneous conversational language samples to track the developmental course of five language measures: mean length of…

Background: Morphosyntactic problems are a core symptom of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). In the Netherlands, children with (presumed) DLD can receive special care in language-focused treatment groups. The focus of these groups mainly lies in improving communicative intentions, vocabulary and phonology. Morphosyntactic skills receive less…