A large study which investigated the nature of dyadic interactions in a university second language (ESL) classroom setting found that students form very distinct and stable relationships or patterns of dyadic interaction. This paper uses a case study approach to illustrate two of the patterns found in the study: a collaborative pattern and a…

This study investigated changes in the speech patterns of Japanese college students in an intensive English language course when using a microphone, focusing in part on possible links to "karaoke" activities common in Japan, in which participants sing along with music using a microphone. The researcher first observed several karaoke…

A study considered whether nonnative English-speaking students are educationally handicapped in American classrooms by their communication competence (CC) and/or communication apprehension (CA). Affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcomes of 298 international college students' CA, immediacy (degree of perceived physical or psychological…

A study of the listening strategies of college students for whom English is a second language analyzed their oral and written responses to listening selections. The analysis resulted in 17 individual strategies classified in six broad categories. More and less proficient listeners were distinguishable by the frequency of the strategies they used…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 5 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the influence of background knowledge on non-native students' memory for reading passages, (2) the development of a reading textbook with a teacher's manual for English as a second…

A study investigated politeness indicators in the speech of three groups of university students: 37 native Spanish speakers, in Spain; 34 American students; and 33 native Spanish-speakers learning English as a Second Language (ESL) in Spain. Subjects responded to a questionnaire that outlined 24 situations combining 2 contextual variables: 2…

This study compared techniques for teaching collaborative writing to English majors in Taiwan, focusing on the effectiveness of computer-mediated (CM) vs. face-to-face (FF) peer response sessions, measured by amount of speech produced by students and the level of participation in discussion. Subjects were 17 university sophomores in a composition…