Teachers and parents intuitively judge the 'level' of the child and the 'level' of the text and try to match them; they know that overestimation or underestimation of either will be met with restlessness or boredom. In this way, they have an empirical understanding of Vygotsky's ZPD--the zone of proximal development he envisioned as measuring the…

Few studies in language teacher education programs provide insight on how knowledge of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is developed by teacher candidates to support their metalinguistic awareness and preparation to teach language. Building upon the contributions of Johnson and Byrnes, we combined Halliday's language-based theory of learning…

Effective usage of nonverbal and verbal communication in Japanese such as gestures, mimics, silence and employing grammatical or lexical honorifics plays a significant role in determining the success of foreign language learners in obtaining their intended employment. This study examines the second language (L2) learning of politeness and social…

This study analyzed how six Heritage language learners at the university level gained conscious awareness and control of the concept of modality as revealed in student verbalizations (Vygotsky, 1998) throughout five different written communicative events. This work took place in the only course designed for Heritage language learners at a large…

In recent years, L2 researchers from the sociocultural and cognitive linguistic perspectives have emphasized the importance of properly organized explicit and in-depth grammar instruction for second or foreign language learning. Such instruction is believed to lead learners to systematic understanding of the target features faster and more…

This volume contains twenty-five of the papers presented at the Seventh Algonquian conference. Topics covered in the papers include recently discovered linguistic fragments of Ocanahowan, the Wittiko people, ethno-history and archeology of the Mushuan, color terms in Narragansett, the Christian holidays of the Wabanaki, dialects of the Eastern…

A collection of 23 brief texts in Guinaang Kalinga (called Guininaang by native speakers), gathered in the Guinaang region of the Philippines, are presented with ethnographic and linguistic notes and translations. The texts address topics of common cultural patterns, history, and storytelling. An introductory section describes the sources and…

Eleven texts in Diababawon are presented. Diababawon is a Manobo language of the Indonesian branch of the Malayo-Polynesian family and spoken primarily in the province of Davao del Norte, Mindanao, Philippines. An introductory section describes some aspects of the language's phonology. The texts, which include stories and descriptions of common…

There is a set of difficult Spanish grammar questions (ser-estar, preterite-imperfect, subjunctive-indicative, word order, and prepositions) in which the description of the semantic component is essential. Even though generative formulations treat them in differing ways, these questions possess the common characteristic of associating a form…

This volume contains working papers on a variety of topics in linguistics. They include: "A View of Phonology from a Cognitive and Functional Perspective" (Joan Bybee); "The Geography of Language Shift: Distance from the Mexican Border and Spanish Language Claiming in the Southwestern United States" (Garland D. Bills, Eduardo…

The most basic and simplest act of communicative competence in Spanish involves the appropriate decoding and selection of the pronominal address forms "tu" and "Usted." Their selection and semantic value are not, however, determined by linguistic criteria alone. Since "tu/Ud." mark the relative status of each speaker in a given context, their…

This workbook in Spanish accompanies the reader that is part of an ungraded language arts and reading program that can be used in classes from upper elementary through high school. The program is designed around reading selections which present aspects of history, culture, and present-day experiences of special relevance to the Mexican-American…

This volume on pragmatics and language learning includes the following: "'Cultural Scripts': A Semantic Approach to Cultural Analysis and Cross-Cultural Communication" (Anna Wierzbicka); "Issues in Second Language Learning in a Multilingual Context" (Ayo Bamgbose); "Cross-Cultural Speech Act Research and the…

English translations of articles in French in this issue include these: "Discourse Reported in the Print Media"; "Comparison of Register in Quebec and French Speakers"; "Method of Description of Specialized Verbs in View of Machine Translation Applications"; "Dialectal Areas in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande…